In what appears the end of the fierce face-
off between President Goodluck Jonathan
and the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II,
the State Security Services has returned to
the Emir his travelling documents seized from
him on May 3 at the height of his disagreement
with the President.
The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Rabiu
Kwankwaso on Chieftaincy and Emirate Council
Affairs, Tijjani Mailafiya, told journalists the SSS
returned the Emir’s passport through the director
in charge of its Kano state command, Bassey
Itang.
Mr. Mailafiya commended the Federal
Government for releasing the passport six
months after it was seized at the Aminu Kano
International Airport in Kano as the Emir made to
board a Turkish airline flight for a planned trip to
Saudi Arabia for lesser hajj.
He said with his passport now in his possession,
the Emir was now better placed to serve his
people locally and abroad, when necessary.
The SSS had confiscated the Emir’s travelling
documents as he made to board the May 3 11:
10p.m. Turkish Airlines flight to Turkey where he
would have connected another flight to Saudi
Arabia.
The agency’s action was a contravention of the
April 3 judgment of a Federal High Court in
Lagos, which restrained it and the Nigeria Police
from arresting or harassing the then CBN
Governor or seizing his passport.
Mr. Sanusi had sued after the SSS seized his
passport on February 20 shortly after he arrived
Lagos from Niger, where he had gone to attend
a meeting of governors of central banks in the
West African sub-region. He had then been
suspended from office in absentia.
Shortly after his plane landed at the ExecuJet
Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International
Airport in Lagos, he was accosted by SSS
operatives who detained him briefly and insisted
he must surrender his passport.
Speaking on the release of the passport
Saturday, Mr. Mailafiya thanked the Kano state
government for being in the vanguard of those
who pressed for the release of the document.
Some Nigerians may however see the handing
over of the document as President Goodluck
Jonathan’s direct gesture of saying everything is
now alright between him and the Kano Emirate
Council.
After nearly a year of bitter relations, President
Jonathan and the Emir met on October 30 in
Abuja and reconciled differences that once drove
both men to the extremes of their offices.
Sanusi, a former governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria, was fired by the president on February
20 after accusing the government of diverting
$20 billion oil revenues.
The government denied the claim, and in turn,
accused Mr. Sanusi of “financial recklessness”.
After leaving office, Mr. Sanusi was appointed
the Emir of Kano in June, assuming one of the
most powerful traditional stools in Nigeria.
His appointment by Kano State’s Governor Rabiu
Kwankwaso, a member opposition All
Progressives Congress, was opposed by the
presidency which ordered the emir’s office
blockaded for days.
The emir reportedly initiated peace moves, and
the two men met for the first time in July during
the breaking of the Muslim fast, a yearly routine
in which the president meets top government
officials who are Muslims and other prominent
Islamic leaders in the country.
Our sources say the October 30 meeting sealed
the reconciliation moves between the two sides.
The emir was accompanied to the meeting by all
senior members of the Kano Emirate council,
while Vice President Namadi Sambo, the National
Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, Attorney
General, Mohammed Adoke, and the Foreign
Affairs Minister, Aminu Wali also attended the
meeting.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that days after the
meeting, the President asked the SSS to release
the Emir’s passport as a further proof that he
had buried the hatchet and was now ready for a
warm relationship with the traditional ruler and
his emirate.
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