SLS vs. GEJ: He who laughs last
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SLS vs. GEJ: He who laughs last

by Joseph Anthony
written by Joseph Anthony 137 views

It may have come as a huge shock to many, but not to the methodical few, who been key watchers of the drawn battle lines in Nigeria’s recent political history, must have just chuckled and laughed. I refer to the emergence of the erstwhile Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, as the new Emir of Kano. At the announcement, a certain eerie silence enveloped the country, and immediately, I tried to imagine the atmosphere that must have taken over the Presidency at the news; I tried to imagine the presidential confusion that must have almost immediately seized Aso Rock and the frenzy with which the so many lieutenants of the President must have been falling over each other to ascertain the veracity of the report and to reach Ogafor a reaction.

Just when the Presidency must have thought it had done a clean job of getting rid of the Sanusi nuisance, all of a sudden, the stubborn Sanusi resurfaced in a more powerful position, throwing the Presidency into another round of confusion. If anyone had thought that the Office of the CBN Governor that Sanusi once held was one powerful office, then such a person may now be forced to have a rethink. Certainly, this newest episode in the fight to finish towards 2015, has thrown up even newer questions and not just ordinary questions, but very difficult questions capable of sending unimaginable reverberations across the country.

Let us begin by interrogating the more easy questions. Should we not start by saying that with Sanusi’s newest seizure of power, what now happens to the catalogue of court cases cum legal attacks from the corridors of the Presidency, flung all over the place? What happens to the ongoing Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria’s kangaroo probe into Sanusi’s tenure as CBN boss, a probe which is now virtually in limbo? What happens to the continued seizure of Sanusi’s passport by our very eager and able State Security Service (SSS)? Are we going to see a new drama in which the passport of a high-ranking emir remains locked in the SSS Headquarters or should we just conclude that by now, the SSS would have set machinery in motion to save its face by quickly asking for a presidential directive to do the right thing?

It would have been better if the above were just the only questions, given that they all of course appear easily surmountable, since resolving them may not after all involve the President acting personally. Unfortunately, the more difficult questions apparently are those not yet asked. Let us start with this, how will President Goodluck Jonathan congratulate Sanusi on his new office, as it is a matter of strict protocol that the President must do so and not a matter of discretion?

Would the President be bold enough (maybe for the first time) to damn the foreseeable and unforeseeable consequences and congratulate Sanusi Lamido Sanusi personally, or will he just, as usual, send a Reuben Abati on another embarrassing and difficult errand? If that be the case, I try to imagine how the congratulatory message will be constructed. Will Reuben Abati be forced to say something like, “The Presidency would like to congratulate Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Former CBN Governor who tried to pull down our Transformation Government by working for the Opposition…”?

Pardon me, am just imagining. Or will it be a Doyin Okupe that will go on this shame-laden errand or the newly appointed Prof. Alkali? How will Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala be feeling right now, after tongue-lashing an Emir in waiting, all because he had the effrontery to ask for the simple where-about of  $20 billion of taxpayers money? Again I try to imagine, will the President be bold enough to attend Sanusi’s inauguration and if he does, will they shake hands? If and when they shake hands what will the President be saying? Again, my thoughts run wild and am wondering, maybe he will say something like, “Sanusi let’s just forget the past and move forward”, and perhaps, the Sanusi that we know in his ever unbendable posture would be seen replying, “Mr. Jonathan, find the $20 billion first, then we can talk about forgetting the past”. Again I tried to wonder, what will be the response of the international community who gave Sanusi hundreds of awards for a job well done in sanitising the Nigerian banking sector, only for them to be slammed in the face with his unceremonious removal?

Will they shake their heads for the Jonathan government, or will they just prefer to concentrate on Sanusi’s seeming victory?

The entire Sanusi affair, is a deep lesson in non-combatant political strategy and tactics, and surely is one to be recommended as a veritable case-study in any Political Science class. Much more, it is a deeper instruction in political intelligence and strategic thinking for any government that has it. At the moment, the Jonathan administration appears to be an abiding exception to this rule and here is the reason.

Even though President Jonathan knew that there was nothing illegal about Sanusi’s continued antagonism of his government and vituperations while he was CBN Governor; even though the Jonathan administration should know that Sanusi as a Crown Prince of Kano, remains a dynamite in the hands of northern political strategists towards the next General Elections; even though President Jonathan ought to have known that the loss of Kano which is the commercial nerve-centre of the North is the greatest mistake made by his party by which further and better wisdom should have suggested a more matured handling of the Sanusi imbroglio; yet, notwithstanding all these dangerous signals, which in itself is not rocket science, the Jonathan administration willingly went ahead, in unguarded desperation and in the most thoughtless move in the current political permutations, sacked Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Bewilderingly, and in a ghastly move that most leaders in political mastery must have been shocked at, the Jonathan group opted to behave like the proverbial dog, who already being pencilled down for roasting, simply decided to go have a good bath in a bowl of Palm Oil.

Now that Sanusi is Emir, the Jonathan Group is condemned to swallowing its own vomit.  The President has been seen several times, stooping in a rather unbecoming fashion, before several Emirs of the North, all in a bid to appeal to a recalcitrant North, and try garner whatever acceptance is left in the region; now the same President is condemned to stooping before a Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, a man he once publicly disgraced, a man he still obviously loathes. Apparently, all of the rather belated ministerial deal with Shekarau is now nothing but a bargain marooned in Abuja, not with the new power-brokers in charge in Kano.

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