Hello Your Royal Highness,
We salute your resilience and peace building accomplishments ever since you ascended the throne of your fathers. We empathise with you at this rather trying time and hope you can draw strength from the litany of hurdles you have scaled until this time.
You were born into Royalty, you were just two years old when you lost your father who was the reigning emir. Your father’s brother Ado Bayero subsequently became Emir. You had to wait for 51 years before you could reclaim the throne, a very long wait because your predecessor Emir lived to the ripe age of 84.

Instead of you to sit down and bid your time like most Princes are wont to do, you invested instead in your self education. You decided early on to develop yourself to the best of your abilities so that you could prove yourself in the market place of ideas.

You trained as an economist at the Ahmadu Bello University where you also got your Masters Degree. True to your heritage as First Class Prince of the Kano Emirate, you went off to Sudan to study Islamic Law and Jurisprudence at the International University of Africa in Khartoum.

Upon completing your studies, you joined the Banking Sector where you made your name. You first joined the United Bank For Africa UBA where you worked in the Bank’s Credit and Risk -Management division. Over time, you rose to the position of General Manager, no mean feat.

Up, up was your pedestal such that in 2005, you became a board member of First Bank Nigeria, where you served as an Executive Director in charge of Risk and Management Control. Four years latter, you were appointed Group Managing Director of the same Bank in January 2009 and less than six months latter, you were nominated Governor of the Central Bank.

Your reign as Central Bank Governor came at a rather difficult moment. The global economy was in a financial crisis and the Nigerian Banks were far too exposed. As a trained Risk-Management professional, you could only see things one way, the only way, the way you were trained to see it – the way you knew best.

As it were, the Nigerian Economy needed an emergency surgery you concluded and it was quiet unfortunate that the local anaesthesia was out of stock. Staring at an unmitigated collapse of the economy and the futility of placing it on life support, you choosed the difficult but effective option, surgery without anesthesia in as much as the economy could be salvaged. A very brave decision.

It did not matter that the heads of big name Bank bosses were served up, it did not matter that there were temporary job losses, you could only see the validity of your deductive convictions.

Posterity will be kind to you. While it is true that Keystone Bank is yet to find a buyer, it is also true that Access Bank is stronger. Didnt they swallow up Diamond Bank the other day?

We now have other alternative Banking Solutions. Interswitch, O-Pay and Pagga make it possible for people to conduct banking transactions from the comfort of their street shops. This is possible because you created an enabling environment for the Banks to thrive, flourish and succeed.

On the political front, you have had a chequered history. It has not always been rosy, a story familiar with all activists. You were suspended as Central Bank Governor for dearing to speak your mind about a whopping $20 billion which disapperd from the coffers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC.

You were nearly prevented from becoming Emir when the throne became vacant. Quiet a great many obstacles were placed before you. God was on your side and you ascended the throne of your Fathers.

Whereas as a Central Bank Governor, you were bombastic, you never cared whose horse was gored in so far as the right thing was done. However as an Emir, you are fatherly and accommodating. Your statements are dignified and gracious. You towed the line of justice and always stood for what was right. You became a bridge builder.

When His Excellency Ganduje the Governor of Kano State balkanised your Emirate because of some perceived Political slight, He (Ganduje) went shopping for potential Emirati Candidates.

He approached your cousins the Children of your Predecessor Emir Ado Bayero on the possibility of becoming Co-Emirs. It is noteworthy that your cousins who in themselves had legitimate claims to the throne turned down Ganduje’s eye popping offer.

This singular gesture from an otherwise politically active Emirati Family attests to the popularity and goodwill that you enjoy among your brothers and the good people of Kano State.

It is no doubt a trying time for you Your Highness, a very challenging episode, we join the growing number of the peace and progress loving people of Kano, your Out-of-state supporters and well wishers to wish you strength and courage from Almighty Allah to weather this storm.

May the Peace and Blessings of Allah be with you and may the merits of the Holy Month of Ramadan abide with you.

Kudos Muhammadu Sanusi || Nigeria’s No1 Activist Emir.

Yours Faithfully
Anih Ambrose
Managing Editor
Sustainability Watch Nigeria

Sanusi is no saint himself, he is as much an ethnic and religious bigot as the worst ones we have out there