Yesterday, the entire people of Nigeria woke up to hear the gory news of the deposed of the Emir of Kano Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. That laid to rest the long suspense that has ravaged the media for a very long time. While I’m not here to debate the legality of the events that led to the dethronement of the Emir, I am here to shed light on why the dethronement has caused a great setback for the Ummah and the need for the stakeholders to rise up in defending the sanctity of the religion because the consequences of that yesterday’s event have a great danger for the unity of the Ummah.
The position of the Emir Of Kano is not just like the position of a traditional ruler in other parts of the country. Emir of Kano by virtue of Office is the overall leader of all the Muslims in Kano state. The same way Sultan Of Sokoto is the AMIRUL’MUMEEN’ the overall leaders of all the Muslim leaders in Sokoto state and by extension, the overall leaders of all the traditional leaders in Northern Nigeria and by goodwill the President of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria. This is just a convention and the time is now for the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs to wake up to the challenges of the threat posed to the Unity of the Muslim UMMAH in Nigeria if the present situation continues.
The situation whereby one Gandunaira will just wake up and remove the sultan of Sokoto just like as it was done during the Abacha era and the incident that just repeated itself yesterday call for drastic step and intellectual approach within the Ummah in Nigeria. There is nothing bad in Sultan of SOKOTO be the president of the Supreme COUNCIL FOR ISLAMIC AFFAIRS don’t give my post a dissident view but a situation whereby the Sultan of SOKOTO is not independent from the hammer of the power drunkard governor who can just wake up and say the Sultan bad eye his wife in his dream and so instruct his media aide to go and announce the removal of the president of over 130,000, 000 Muslims in the country calls for a serious thinking to protect the likely occurrence of such event in future.
The present Sultan is doing a wonderful yeoman job and the Ummah cannot afford to lose him to one power monger governor. It is now very obvious that the North chose the path it finds itself and with the conservatives nature of the people, they can hardly change some of their myopic tradition which is causing a serious setback to the region. I’m particular about the position of Sultan of Sokoto being the automatic leader of the Muslims in the country.
At this juncture, the stakeholders at the supreme council should parley with the present Governor of Sokoto state to amend the chief laws of Sokoto state to grant a very stringent protection immunity to the office of the Sultan of Sokoto just like the way Britain granted a life protection to the office of the Queen of England but subjected our Traditional leaders fate to the hands of the then DISTRICT OFFICERS. If we are to guide against the ugly incident that took SULTAN DASUKI OUT OF OFFICE and now EMIR SANUSI LAMIDO SANUSI from repeating itself. The Sultan should have immunity immediately he becomes the Sultan or else the Ugly incident like the one we just witnessed will still repeat itself and the Muslim Ummah fate will just remain pocketed by the likes of Gandu dollars. And we will all just be here blowing grammar and yawning like a hungry donkey.
Secondly, if the North cannot grant autonomy to the office of the Sultan of Sokoto because of the fear of unknown, the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs should amend its Constitution and make the Sultan an honorary president like South-West Muslims Obas position in the organization so that ‘A DEFACTO’ president can be freely appointed by Shura in council. This will put an end to the future occurrence of the ugly incident whereby one day a Sultan will just be removed on the day of Sallah just as we’ve witnessed it in the past. Muslims are organized people.
Even though Islam encourages us to obey our rulers, I will be eager to obey the SULTAN OF SOKOTO AS PRESIDENT OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL FOR ISLAMIC AFFAIRS THAN INSTRUCTIONS from any quarter because I’m a Muslim before anything. The ugly incident that cost the then SULTAN OF Sokoto Dasuki his seat is highly embarrassing, while the BENIN traditional council who are mainly traditional pagans vehemently opposed Navy Captain Onyarugbulem rude attitude to embarrass the position of OBA of BENIN IN 1997. If the Sultan of SOKOTO cannot save himself from the disgrace of removal from office, how can he save others like Emir of kano? The BENIN TRADITIONAL COUNCIL will never allow any governor to embarrass OBA OF BENIN like the way Ganduje did yesterday. It is high time we rose up to save the position of the president of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs from unforeseen circumstances that nobody can say when it will happen.
Yoruba adage says: PAALEEKINI PAALEEKEJI BOJU OHUN OBAFO BAIBAI NIIDA. [ THAT A CONSTANT SLAP ON THE FACE, IF SUCH EYE DID NOT GO BLIND, IT WILL BECOME UNCLEAR SIGHT].” Enough is enough! Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs should rise up and defend the golden heritage of Islamic unity in Nigeria which is Unity and RESPECT to leaders, else, the imminent danger may put an end to the Unity being enjoyed by the Apex body. A STICH IN TIME THEY SAY IT SAVES NINE.”
The views expressed in this article are the Author’s and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Knowislam Project
English 
