Ganduje’s Kangarooic Action And The Rest Of Us
It was Ray Ekpu, a Nigerian and one of Africa’s living legends of the journalism profession who first coined the term “kangarooic” in his article “A HOLLOW RITUAL” written more than thirty years ago.
Mr Ekpu’s write -up was a review of the trial of the former President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari and his Vice, Dr Alex Ekwueme, both late, by the Justice Sampson Uwaifo tribunal.
In dressing that Judge in the robes of a kangaroo, that erudite and well respected Field Marshall of Journalism may have had the dumb and slow thinking characteristics of that animal in mind.
What played out in the ancient city of Kano on Monday, 9th March where the Governor of the State, Alhaji Ganduje, dethroned the former Emir, Muhammadu Sanusi, bore the same peculiarities of Mr Uwaifo’s Court.
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According to the Kano State government, Emir Sanusi II was removed on charges of “disrespecting the Governor, shunning public events and other acts amounting to insurbodination.”
In booting out the Emir, Governor Ganduje did not follow any due process, he did not set up an inquiry, he did not consult the State Council of Chiefs as provided for in the relevant law. He just assembled his State Executive Council and within hours, the urbane Emir Sanusi, an outstanding banker, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) a radical thinker and the 14th Emir of the ancient city of Kano got his rich, elaborate turban removed from his head , his long staff of office seized and himself banished to Nasarawa State.All in one day.
Governor Ganduje did not follow due process, he didn’t query the Emir this time, he did not reprimand him , neither did he give the former Emir the chance to defend himself of the allegations levelled against him by the governor. It was a case in which Governor Ganduje served as both the accuser and the judge.
Governor Ganduje prosecuted, delivered instant guilty verdict and executed the judgment by sending the former Emir to Loko in Nasarawa and then to Awe in the same North Central State where there is no electricity and pipe borne water. If Kano State was a business entity and quoted on the stock exchange, its shares would have plummeted by that singular move.
Ganduje’s action has alarmed several commentators who believe that he closed his eyes to the larger picture of having someone with the high profile and network of the former Emir Sanusi as an ally rather than an outcast considering the strategic contacts which Sanusi has built over the years from his days as a student at Kings College,Lagos, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and in the banking sector where he rose to the pinnacle ; leading First Bank as the Managing Director and crowning it with the position of Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) in 2009.
Yes, Ganduje’s deed is a low point and condemnable even though the Emirship still resides within Sanusi’s family. Yes , the former Emir has rationalised it as the will of God and moved on in life.
However , it is pertinent to underscore the point that there is a Ganduje in most people in temporary authority ; political leaders, their aides, parents, party chieftains, church leaders, commissioners, permanent secretaries , chief executives in tertiary institutions of learning and corporate chieftains etc , who would not miss the chance to cut the nose to spite the face now and then.
Since 1999 , several state governors have pushed out their deputies in like manner on very flimsy trumped up charges using their Houses of Assembly just as Governor Ganduje used his State Executive Council in this matter.
Corporate chieftains have dispensed with once dependable allies and university administrators have exhibited a level of high handedness towards colleagues and students in circumstances which question their posession of emotional and social intelligence or lack of these vital attributes of modern leadership.
Someday, occupants in any office leave the office and so it is foolish and futile for human beings to construct a god-complex around themselves while in time-bound posts.
Leaders like Ganduje , with a god-complex ,who thrive on sycophancy and hero worship , are so rigid, narrow-minded; they brook no dissent, tolerate no opposing view and see insurbordination even when the phone of a subordinate rings loud in their presence, talkless of a phone call missed at the instant made to a subordinate.
There is a Ganduje, in kangarooic majesty, in all leaders whenever they ignore the existence, relevance and importance of others, don’t listen to contrary views, act unjustly and unfairly towards other fellows.
The use of power arbitrarily, to massage one’s bloated ego, for revenge and to prove the point about who the boss truly is, like Governor Ganduje has done in the matter concerning the deposed Emir Sanusi is an avoidable peril. Often, in line with lessons in quantum physics, such actions connect and return like “Eka Abasi”, an “Ogbanje /Abiku” to haunt future generations.
