Soyinka Blasts Ganduje, Says Sanusi is a Great Reformer
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Soyinka Blasts Ganduje, Says Sanusi is a Great Reformer

…It’s a pity Ganduje lacked friends who could have saved him from himself!

Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, on Thursday berated Ganduje, saying he lacked friends who could have prevailed on him to save himself before dethroning and banishing Sanusi.

The playwright stated this in a statement titled, “For whom the gates open wide’ following Monday’s dethronement of Sanusi and his banishment to Nasarawa State by the state government.

The Nobel laureate described Sanusi as one of the greatest reformers of the feudal order.

Soyinka recalled a similar scenario which he said nearly played out in his home state, Ogun, some years ago, when a governor wanted to dethrone and banish a monarch before his (the governor’s) friends keenly appealed to him to reconsider the action.

He said, “His office was invaded by some of the panicked chiefs and stalwarts of Ogun State who rushed to ward off the impending order. One of them stopped at my home after the pacification session to narrate what had transpired, and how some of them had actually gone on their knees to plead with that governor to stay action.

“I was furious. I knew every detail of that affair, had listened to a recording of the speech that was supposed to have given this mighty offence. It was pure piffle.

“Why did you people plead with him? Don’t you realise you were making him feel a god? You should have let him carry on, then we would see what a cataclysm he had launched on the state!’

“The man, an independent businessman of absolute integrity, and one of that governor’s intimate circle, smiled and said, “No, we couldn’t do that. We are his friends. We were pleading with him to save him from himself.”

“What a pity Ganduje lacked friends who could have saved him from himself! Insofar as one can acknowledge certain valued elements in traditional institutions, the man he thinks he has humiliated has demonstrated that he is one of the greatest reformers even of the feudal order.’’

The social critic further said these were depressing times stemming from different factors of course for a large sector of the nation.

“Insecurity, economy in a coma, a leadership in name only, having vanished into ether, permanently AWOL in a time of serial crisis. No wonder mimic and debased forms of leadership assertiveness rush in to fill the vacuum! The latest in the stakes of such power appropriation makes one wonder which is the more reactionary order: the so-called feudal institution, or the self-vaunting modernised governance whose apex can bring the feudal to heel quite arbitrarily, without check and without seeming consequence. To rub pepper in the wound, the protagonist of that “progressive” order enjoys near-absolute immunity, thus, even when it has disgraced its status and violated its oath of office, caught literally with its pants down in open defecation, it can still pretend to act in the interest of progress, modernity and public well being.  Such are the ironies raised by the purported dethronement of the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, with one stroke of a pen!,’’ he said.

Describing Sanusi as a one-man EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) sanitizations squad in the banking system taking on the powerful corrupters of that institution, Soyinka stated that he trod on the interests of powerful beneficiaries of a worm-infested sector and, in the process, created permanent enemies.

He added that Sanusi sounded much aware of the impending fall of the axe of vengefulness and power primitivism when they spoke via phone in London during his visit.

He stated that though uncertain, he had a feeling that the palace gates of the Kano emirate were not yet definitively slammed against Sanusi.

Soyinka said, “It is just a feeling. Closed and bared, or merely shut however, the doors of enlightened society remains wide open to Muhammadu Sanusi. As for his current crowing nemesis, a different kind of gates remain yawning to receive him when, as must, the days of governorship immunity finally come to an end.”

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