AN ANALYSIS BY AN IGBO MAN: NORTHERN NIGERIA; KANO THRONE ON THE GLOBE;
As an Igbo Nigerian, watching the events unfold in Kano with the police summoning Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II over a harmless and respectful Eid homage is both infuriating and heartbreaking. This is not just a Northern affair—it is a national disgrace, one that reveals how far we’ve sunk in allowing personal vendettas to hijack state institutions.
It is now evident to anyone paying attention that this harassment of Sanusi is being orchestrated by Northern politicians who cannot stand the fact that he returned to the throne with dignity, public support, and historic legitimacy. These individuals are not concerned about peace or tradition—they are using the weight of the federal government to settle personal scores. And they are doing so with the silent approval—or perhaps even the encouragement—of a Yoruba-led presidency that appears content to let Northern chaos continue, so long as it serves its narrow political survival.
Let me say it plainly: what is happening to Emir Sanusi is not just an attack on a man—it is an attack on intellect, courage, and the idea that a traditional ruler can also be a voice of conscience. Sanusi speaks hard truths. He challenges corruption. He is a Northern elite who refuses to play along with the politics of stagnation. And for this, a section of the Northern power structure has turned against him with venom.
But here is where it becomes a national problem: the federal government is now the muscle for their revenge.
The Nigeria Police Force—an institution that should be impartial and focused on real security threats—is being weaponized to intimidate a respected monarch. This is not just an abuse of power; it is an abuse that is being carried out under a Yoruba presidency, one that many of us across the country supported out of hope for national healing, restructuring, and competence.
Instead, what we are witnessing is a presidency that looks away as its office is used to deepen Northern divisions, humiliate progressive voices, and prop up those who have kept the region—and by extension, the country—in chains.
As an Igbo observer, I have no ethnic stake in who sits on the Kano throne. But I have a stake in justice. And I have a stake in national cohesion. And right now, it must be said: this presidency is not only complicit in the destruction of Northern tradition and reform—it is laying the foundation for long-term distrust between the North and the South-West.
How can any honest Northerner with vision or values support another Yoruba presidency after this? How can the North believe that a Yoruba-led federal government will stand for fairness, if it allows itself to be a tool in internal Hausa-Fulani factional disputes?
Let me remind our Yoruba brothers and sisters: when power is used to destroy your allies in other regions, it may win you short-term praise from those who benefit. But the price is long-term alienation. And if those now benefiting from Sanusi’s humiliation think they are strengthening themselves, they are mistaken. They are destroying what remains of the North’s moral credibility—and doing it in full view of the rest of the country.
We must not pretend this is neutral governance. It is partisan interference in traditional leadership. It is a betrayal of federal neutrality. And it is being carried out by a government that has made no real progress on the issues that matter to Nigerians—security, economy, justice—but finds the energy to go after a monarch whose only crime is his integrity.
This moment calls for all Nigerians—Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, and others—to stand on the side of reason. The issue here is not Sanusi’s title. It is the future of how we relate to power, culture, and conscience in this country.
If this is what a Yoruba presidency does with federal authority, then many across the North—and indeed the rest of Nigeria—will begin to ask: was it ever really worth supporting?
5th April, 2025
— Chuks Emeka writes from London.