By Aliyu Dalhatu Adamu
Kano people are known as peace-loving, as inculcated by the longest-serving Emir of the kingdom, Alhaji Ado Bayero,who led for over 50 years. His charisma and love for his people made him unique among all African traditional rulers.
Kano people were traumatised by His Highness Alhaji Ado Bayero’s demise in June 2014, and the loss remained irreplaceable until 2020 when His Highness Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero became the Emir of Kano. His emergence renewed the hope of the Kano people because he exhibited the same characteristics as his father. This makes him earn the love that people have for his father, which no one has in Kano.
The recent development of the Emir and reinstatement of the deposed Emir Sunusi Lamido Sunusi have seriously disrupted peace and stability in the state. This has opened doors for hooligans and thugs to widen their operations in the state.
It is a known fact that hooliganism and thuggery threaten the security of lives and property in every society. Hence, leaders are saddled with the responsibility of maintaining law and order to prevent potential offenders from engaging in such acts.
It is unfortunate to say that the current administration of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has begun to do the other way around, as hoodlums and thugs are allowed to take over the Kano palace in the name of protecting the selfish and politically motivated interest of his political godfather. This has become a serious threat to the peace and safety of people in Kano as the hoodlums are harassing and intimidating people at will within the vicinity of the Kano Emir’s palace, all in the name of imposing Sunusi on the throne, which is facing outright absolute rejection by the good people of Kano.
This unbecoming attitude is becoming an eye-opener for young children who are now growing to witness this evil as a condoned behaviour. This may contribute to making hooliganism a wider phenomenon, a useful symbol, and a social obsession in the future tradition of the Kano Emirate traditional system.
Since the reinstatement of Sunusi Lamido Sunusi to Gidan Dabo, the palace and areas such as Kofar Kudu, Kano Municipal, Gwale, Dala, and the surrounding areas become the headquarters of thugs. Even medical workers at Hasiya Bayero Paediatric Hospital were attacked on the 27th of May, 2024. The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) issued a statement condemning the barbaric development. Many other people living in the neighbourhood are not spared either.
This situation arose when the city’s public spaces were “swarming” with thousands of newly armed groups mandated to “protect” and pay allegiance to Emir Sunusi. These groups were recruited by the Kano state government only to praise their political master at the detriment of public safety.
Indeed, Gov Yusuf’s incompetence, ineptness, and clueless leadership style are undoubtedly taking Kano back to square zero. The pickle of the Kano emirship brawl is a cessation of Kano peace and stability as a courtesy to Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of the state Kwankwaso, by Governor Yusuf and the former Emir Sunusi Lamido Sunusi, in a bid to drag Kano to the state of anarchy.
Hooligans also came to represent the dangers inherent in loosening constraints on society. Even when hooligans victimised people far from their concerns, the increase in their numbers, the apparent pettiness of their motives, and the savagery of their actions within Gidan Dabo suggested that certain members of the lower classes were either very beastly or very angry and that the mechanisms of state’s control were no longer in place to checkmate this.
Now, what we ask is, does the state government prioritise praising its political godfather over protecting the blood of theKano people?
Ironically, hooliganism and thuggery that previous administrations fought have now been revived by the present administration as the number 2IC in the government triggered the infiltration and indoctrination of youth into hooliganism and thuggery.
On this note, we are calling on the federal government, security agencies, intelligence communities, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), northern traditional rulers, religious leaders and all other relevant authorities to intervene. They should also advise the Kano state government to obey the court order restraining them from reinstating the deposed Emir Sunusi Lamido Sunusi and dissolving the remaining four Emirates in the interest of the good people of Kano. This will bring an end to hooliganism, public disrespect, defiance, chaos, and violence that are capable of destabilising the peace and security of Kano State.
Aliyu Dalhatu Adamu wrote from the Federal University, Dutsinma, Katsina State, via