ARISTIDES was an Athenian politician of classic times who was renowned for his integrity that he came to be known as Aristides the Just! But this kind adulation did not seat well with the shady elements of the Greek politics. Eventually, he got into a dispute with an influential rival politician. Very quickly, this politician connived with others like him to get rid of Aristides once and for all. The penalty was to exile Aristides from Greek. There was nogood reason for this move other than jealousy, but that did not matter to this gang. They launched a campaign of calumny. They sponsored a vote to be held, ostensibly to rid Greece of traitors. The question on the ballot was simple, should Aristides be banished from the country? No stone was left unturned. While the vote was being taken, Aristides circulated through the crowd and was approached by an illiterate citizen who had never met Aristides. He asked Aristides to help fill in his ballot for him, instructing him to vote for banishment. Aristides asked the man what harm had been done to him by Aristides that caused him to want him to be ostracised. His reply was: “He has done nothing to harm me, indeed, I do not even know him. But I am sick and tired of hearing him been called the Just!”. Aristides obliged and helped the man to vote for his own banishment! That was how confident he was of his own conviction. Votes were tallied and Aristides was sent away. Case closed, or so they thought.
But the matter did not end there. Later, war broke out between Greek and Persians, Aristide, a war general, was badly needed. Aristide was quickly brought back and he came back a hero. He fought heroically and delivered victory for Greek. From antiquity, people have always felt very uncomfortable in the company of people who are intellectually superior to them. Those that espouse a true faith and whose positions are precise and unwavering. Such people may ultimately be accountable only to their own conscience. In this category, the Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi is in good company. Last week, my cousin came to my office, he asked if I have heard the news from Nigeria, I replied what news? He said that Lamido Sanusi, the dethroned Emir of Kano has been restored. I was aghast. My cousin is well aware of my personal admiration for the man, who I have never met in my life. I have however “met” him through his writings and public engagements. My first glimpse of his intellectual acumen was a piece he wrote sometimes in the summer of 2001.. In that article, he was responding to the “commander in-chief” of his state at that time, who obviously picked a wrong person to tackle. I read the piece with great satisfaction. Immediately thereafter, I followed his career path through the Nigerian banking system up till the time he ascended to the Emirship of Kano. Always a straight talker. He makes it his duty to keep our public officials accountable. To let them know who the boss really is, the people. That those politicians are not the landlord,but tenants, with expiration date attached to their tenancy.
For sure, just like Aristides, he is not expecting an invitation for dinner from these people. Also, just like Aristide, they thought banishment would be the answer, until they discovered it wasn’t. I have no idea what particular reason or reasons motivated the Kano State assembly to make a sudden U-turn on the Emir’s case, but it’s without question an unmitigated indictment on the leadership of the governor that dethroned him in the first place. It is a lesson in leadership development in our country, that people shouldn’t be allowed to cruise to the top cadre of human affairs without the necessary leadership equipment. This public embarrassment could have been avoided if the then governor had not left his thinking cap at home the day he made the infamous pronouncement.In the public sphere, power is a thing held in trust on behalf of the people, to treat otherwise is fraud. The Emir has proven in many instances that he stands for nothing but merit, and that he cannot never be bullied to submission by anybody. Speaking truth to power, particularly when the consequences could be tremendous is not for the faint of heart. For this, I commend this man of honor. As Martin Luther King once said, the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in time of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in time of crisis and chaos. Respect for constituted authority is fine, but in certain instances, when someone’s integrity is at stake, as it was for him during the crisis, a vertical position is most desirable. Any attempt to go horizontal for fear of the repercussion would have been an invitation to be used as a footman.
As John Locke proposed, governance is a social contract between the people and the government. We cannot allow the destruction of our social fabric and expect our social contract to remain strong? That is precisely why people cannot afford to put the governing of our society on auto-pilot. Every four years, Nigerians troop out to elect unlicensed pilots to steer the plane of the country. No wonder, the wreckages are all over the place for people to see. The powers that the Nigerian governors wield, are so expansive that even a good person would not want and a bad person should not have. Elections may be won (or rigged) through the ballot box, but legitimacy is won through performance. Therefore, an illegitimate government should not be given any breathing space. Nigeria needs more of the Emir’s caliber, not less. That is why he’s a target. When duty calls, character counts. As Thomas Jefferson once said, enlighten the people generally, the tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like the evil spirits at the dawn of day..I hope he would continue to be upfront in our national affairs as need be. As a leading public intellectual, his voice can’t be silenced. It certainly would make some people uncomfortable but no apologies. For so long, the ruling elites have taken the population for granted. Rubbish has piled up and decadent has been institutionalized. Therefore, the more entrenched the bad habits, the more courage is needed to confront them. Ignorance cannot take out ignorance, only knowledge can. Emir Sanusi, unjustified suffering is redemptive. Enjoy your throne, Kabiyesi.
- Akintola, PhD, writes in from Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
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