Harmful Hubris at an Hour of National Need, by Kene Obiezu

Muhammadu Sanusi II, the emir of the ancient Kano emirate, certainly fancies himself. Gracious but gritty, he survived multiple plots at Nigeria’s Central Bank before going ascending the royal stool of the ancient emirate. Six years into his reign, he was dethroned, deposed and exiled by a state governor who found his allegiance to his major opponent simply intolerable.

Four years after he was dethroned he was reinstated even as a messily protracted litigation is threatening to cast the emirate as a house divided against itself.

While Muhammadu Sanusi II was in exile from Kano, he remained his vocal self even if his vocal cords were still somehow clogged by the pangs of exile.

It means he did have much to say when the 2023 general elections produced Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president in 2023 albeit in controversial fashion. Sanusi who was only reinstated in May 2024, did not have much to say even as the new government rolled out a series of controversial but highly audacious policies which had put many Nigerians into uncharted territory.

Now, with no end in sight to the hardship biting Nigerians hard, Sanusi had a bit to say about the situation. At an event in Lagos, he advised the government to explain its policies to Nigerians. He tellingly suggested that he would have proffered some solutions if only the government was more open.

In a swift response, the presidency has stated that it does not need Sanusi’s advise moving forward. The question is: between Muhammadu Sanusi II who was deposed and exiled by a governor elected on the platform of the All Progressive Congress and the presidency which was formed on the back of APC victory at the polls, who should advise the other?

Sanusi was at the Central Bank of Nigeria. He certainly understands a thing or two about economics and the Nigerian economy. The presidency leads government at all levels in Nigeria. This presupposes that it knows how government is run and what good governance is all about.
Just that in Nigeria, it often doesn’t go beyond presuppositions. In a country where anything weighty ever hardly leaves the perch of puerile politics, notoriously controversial presidential advisor, Bayo Onanuga, has taken it upon himself to fire back at the emir. In clear language that belies the glaring lack of clarity or charity that has become a defining feature of this government, he has told the emir that the government can very much do without his advice. Can it?

It Is now clear that there are many in the current government who would either whitewash reality or deflect hard truths. Deploying every communication tool available out there including outright falsehood, they are bent on exaggerating the achievements, if any, of the current administration, circumventing uncomfortable truths and putting critics on the spot. This largely explains the government’s dangerous preoccupation with its critics and its aching need to mention them anytime it has cause to communicate. But, in this wily game of communication wildcards, there is clearly only one loser, and no other comes disastrously close.

Nigerians are no fools. They may appear a little docile or even naïve, but they surely know when a government is getting things right. This ability to rate a government, which is almost like a sixth sense, has been refined through years of disastrous leadership. It is neither easy to contest nor counteract.

The overriding sentiment is that the government has struggled in all aspects so far. In the face of its seismic struggles, a word or two from someone who may know a solution or two, and who may just have enough not to be dismissed by government image makers as a noisome troublemaker won’t hurt. Or will it?

The hurt Nigerians are feeling already should not be compounded by harmful hubris.

Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com