Gov. Yusuf reinstates Sanusi II as Emir of Kano

BrandPower Magazine 23/05/2024Last Updated: 23/05/2024

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Gov. Yusuf reinstates Sanusi II as Emir of Kano — Muhammadu Sanusi II

Gov. Abba Yusuf of Kano State has reinstated Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (who earlier reigned as Sanusi II) as Kano Emir. This came after Gov. Yusuf, on Thursday, signed the amended Kano State Emirates Council bill into law.

The bill, which was passed by the Kano State House of Assembly few hours earlier, dissolved the Emirate Council and sacked the five Emirs sappointed by former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

Yusuf also approved the return of Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, former Kano Emir, who was deposed in 2020, to the seat.

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Four years after Muhammadu Sanusi II was deposed as the Emir of Kano, Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State has reinstated him to the throne.

“With the full support of the kingmakers, I have approved the reappointment of Malam Sanusi Lamido,” the governor said to cheers at the Art Chamber of the Kano State Government House around 5:16 pm on Thursday.

The abrogated Kano State Emirates Council Law 2019, signed by the then-Governor Ganduje, had created five Emirates – Kano, Bichi, Rano, Gaya and Karaye.

Ganduje, in March 2020, dethroned Sanusi, citing insubordination.

He was replaced by Aminu Ado Bayero, who was transferred from Bichi Emirate, to Kano.

The new law states that all offices created under the repealed law have been dissolved, and district heads appointed or elevated under the law are to revert to their former positions.

The Commissioner for Local Government shall oversee all transitional arrangements, including how to deal with the assets and liabilities of the abolished Emirates and the new structures created under the repealed Principal Law dated 5th December, 2019.

Similarly, all the affected Emirs of the five Emirates have been directed to handover properties in their possessions to the Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

Emir Sanusi II, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was known as Lamido Sanusi before becoming king.

Governor Yusuf reinstated him right after signing the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Bill 2024 into law.

The new law replaces the Kano State Emirates Council Law, 2019, and dissolves the emirate councils created by Governor Yusuf’s predecessor Abdullahi Ganduje.

It was that law that Ganduje used to split the Kano Emirate into five in December 2019 and deposed the 14th Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II on March 9, 2020. The emirates created by the Ganduje administration were Karaye, Bichi, Rano, and Gaya, in addition to Kano.

The decision generated controversy back then, and in reversing it, Governor Yusuf said it was the reversal of a law “that balkanised the over 1,000-year-old Kano Emirate”.

Based on the new law, the governor gave the emirs that held sway at the dissolved emirates 48 hours to vacate their palaces.

“From the very moment I signed the bill into law it means that all appointments made in accordance with that 2019 law are voided and the balkanised Kano Emirate has been restored to its original pre-2019 status,” he said.

“The repeal of the 2019 law means that there is no emir in Kano as of now except the reinstated emir.”