Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State has reinstalled Muhammadu Sanusi II as the Emir of Kano, four years after his deposition.
The governor made the announcement at the Art Chamber of the Kano State Government House about 5:16 p.m. on Thursday, after signing the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Bill 2024 into law.
“With the full support of the kingmakers, I have approved the reappointment of Malam Sanusi Lamido,” the governor said to cheers at the Art Chamber of the Kano State Government House around 5:16 pm on Thursday.
The new law replaces the Kano State Emirates Council Law, 2019, and dissolves the emirate councils created by Governor Yusuf’s predecessor Abdullahi Ganduje.
It was based on the law that Ganduje split the Kano Emirate into five in December 2019 and deposed the 14th Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II on March 9, 2020. The emirates created by the Ganduje administration were Karaye, Bichi, Rano, and Gaya, in addition to Kano.
Sanusi’s controversial removal in 2019
In May 2019, the house of assembly approved the amendment of the Kano State Emirate Council Law, which paved the way for the balkanisation of the emirate.
The legislation was purportedly conceived to whittle the powers of Muhammadu Sanusi, then Emir of Kano.
Subsequently, Abdullahi Ganduje, the governor of Kano at the time, signed the bill into law.
With the law, Kano was divided into five emirates — Kano, Rano, Gaya, Karaye and Bichi — with Emirs appointed into each emirate.
In March 2020, Ganduje deposed Sanusi as Emir of Kano “for total disrespect to lawful instructions from the office of the governor”.