Sanusi: He left and the people didn’t cry!
By Abdullahi Haruna Haruspice
When Sanusi Lamido Sanusi wrote a very scathing article describing the Yorubas as the problem of Nigeria, all hell was let loose and the earth almost folded into extinction. That time he was an Ómó ale and deserved no fair hearing for he has touched a whole sacred tribe. He was a marked man and torrents of damaging articles against his person flooded the media sphere. He had one of the turbulent reigns as Central Bank Governor as nothing he did got the deserving accolades- even his revolution in rescuing our banks from the hands of fraudulent bank owners fetched him any pat. He became more ostracized when he blew the lid on the missing billions under Diaziani. Eventually, he was sacked and barely escaped arrest.
Like he bashed the West of Yorubas, it was the turn of the Hausa/Fulani of the north. He never for once spoke anything good about his region but the very ugly things in the north. He tabulated the embarrassing realities of early marriage, illiteracy, diseases, laziness, women subjugation, feudal hegemony and frightening poverty. Pronto! He became the darling of the press, the West hailed him to high heavens, he became the best thing that ever happened to the north. Local and international NGO milled around him, for a man who speaks to reality is here- while they used his outcry about the pitiable situation of his people as justification for their grants, they grow in pockets and little intervention is given to the people they want saved!
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Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is one of the greatest import to northern Nigeria when references of northern best are made, he stands sparkling in honour. A man gifted with every nice quality of existence, he is intelligent, savvy, thinker, cerebral, refined, exposed and rich and has gotten almost everything he asked for. Tragically though, he missed the fundamental magic of managing the dynamics of human realities. In the cause of his voyage to have a free society, he missed the lesson of emotional intelligence. Unlike his friend Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, he uses emotion instead of logic. He tabulates the problems which are known instead of going outrightly for the solutions. In this case, he does more of talking than the doing forgetting the principle of ‘talking, comes after the doing’! When you speak out your strategies, you lose out your goal. Sanusi talked and lost his fight against the ugly things he wanted to be addressed.
In the six years of his reign, a blueprint of development for the north would have been handy for every northerner to have, rather than speaking to the people using the media, a simplified document on how to make the region great would have been perfect. A handbook of northern revolution in the hands of everyone would have worked the magic.
Speaking with authority of religion and tradition, Sanusi would have indoctrinated the army of religion and traditional rulers with his template of northern development. He was more on camera than he was seen with the rural change of influence. He was more interested in changing the mindset of the political class forgetting that politicians are not out for reforms but for positions. He chose the wrong audience for his reforms.
Like late Aminu Kano, I expected a Sanusi Lamido Sanusi coming to the throne with the toga of a Marxist, instead, he brought to the palace aesthetic never seen in the history of northern royalty. He didn’t only ride on Rolls Royce, he walked on shoes made from the feathers of ostrich! He exuded affluence instead of influence and in seconds he got disconnected from his people. He was more in the gathering of elites than the assemblage of the talakawas. He left and the people didn’t cry!
Alternatively musing
Abdullahi Haruna Haruspice
