Denies All The Social Media Allegations Against Him
A few days after the deposed Emir of Kano, Alhaji Lamido Sanusi regained his freedom, after deposition, his aides have been responding to a spate of negative stories in the social media, painting him as a reckless, and irresponsible person. In the last few days, they have been posting photos of his Rolls Royce limousines. They also posted 2 photos of the deposed Emir with 2 of his wives, taken several years back. There have also been accusations that the former Emir allegedly misappropriated emirate funds.
The deposed Emir through some of his trusted aides has been reacting to the allegations.
His aides have denied all the allegations. They insist that contrary to all the allegations flying around, there are no corruption allegations against him. They say “there was never anything like N3billion or even N2billion in the Emirate council’s account when he became Emir;
On the issue of his fleet of Rolls Royces which some social media people posted, they said it was bought by 2 of his friends, Kola Kareem, and Hajia Bola Shagaya. They explained that this is normal. For instance, the late Emir’s limousines were bought by Aminu Dantata, Fernandez, Isiaka Rabiu, Sani Abacha and Ahmed Muazu. Everyone has friends and well-wishers;
They said the deposed Emir is renovating the palace at his expense, drawing on his Overdraft with First Bank and liquidating assets. They say he doesn’t mind being paid over a long period. And that even if he is not paid back by the Government, it is still fine, because the decision to use his personal resources was his
On the issue of famous photos of his “romancing” a woman in public, they explained that this was at a public event and it could have been anyone and it wouldn’t matter in any way. This lady in question is called Maryam and her grandmother, Fulani Halin is the daughter of late Emir Bayero and still lives in the palace. She is Emir Sanusi’s cousin and has always loved photos.
The second picture that was posted was with another woman called Maryam Lamido Sanusi (nee Maitama). She’s Emir Sanusi cousin and his second wife. They said she and the Emir have been married for 25 years and she is the mother of 6 of his 12 children. The photo was taken many years ago when he took her to Mauritius and this was on Valentine’s day they explained. They said the Emir is sorry if Northern conservative society has a problem with a man romancing his wife on a beach and embarrassed that a private family picture is online but this is not a crime;
The Emir thinks, maybe, the biggest problem he has is that he believes people actually expect more from him. In that case, let us all siddon look and watch the North be destroyed. Emirs should not talk.
City People gathered that Kola Kareem, the MD of Costain and Shoreline is an old friend of the deposed Emir right from his banking days. Hajia Bola Shagaya was his classmate at the School of Basic Studies (1977) and in Economics class (1978-1981) in ABU, Zaria. These were their contributions to him. They asked him what can they do and he said ‘buy me new cars’. The limos here are all antique.
On his constant criticism, they wondered what all the noise is about. “He has never insulted Northern people”. They said the poverty levels in the north are among the highest in the world. How does that become insulting people? He also said it is fine to build light rails but, please, let the private sector do it. And don’t borrow N800b to build N10km of urban rail. He did not abuse anyone or call any name or insult anyone. He said the FG is spending 66% of its revenue on Interest Payment quoting the IMFArticle IV. And when you are in a debt hole this big, you don’t dig. States have just been bailed out of debt by CBN. They should not be pilling more debt for future generations. Their resources should be for Education and health. Where in this did he insult either politicians or the people?
“I have reflected over and over on my speech and I still don’t see what I said that is so wrong and offensive. I didn’t say the North cannot survive as a country. After all, Niger Republic is there with some help from Paris. I didn’t say that the North in the past had no glory. I know it has a rich history. I didn’t say the North cannot be rich and better. In fact, I think it can and it is a disgrace we are where we are,” the deposed Emir reportedly told his aides.
In one of his speeches, before he was deposed, Lamido Sanusi said, “it is fine to say to a villager, you should send your daughter to school, but it’s not fine to say to the Governor: why haven’t you built the school?”.
“You don’t have full security. You got children out of school. It’s not the fault of the children they are out of school. Somebody was supposed to build these schools”.
“The difficulties for traditional institutions is, on the one hand, the firefighter and I will continue to do that and on the other, to actually address the root causes of extremism. You have got to address questions of Governance, Education, Healthcare, Corruption and to do that is now political. If you take the UNDP OHDI Poverty Index 2015. The poverty level in Nigeria is 46% and 46% doesn’t look too bad compared to other countries”.
“However if you break these numbers down in the South West of Nigeria 80% are living above the poverty line. In the North West 80% are living below poverty and suddenly becomes 2 different countries. As the Governor of Central Bank,
I said people are living under 72 dollars a day and it sounds bad. But you don’t really know how bad it is until you look into the eyes of a woman whose baby has just died because she cannot afford drug worth 5 dollars”.
“We have state governors in the North who have 3 million, 5 million children on the street without school. They go to China looking for money not to build a school but to build a light rail. You spent 2 billion on a light rail. Imagine how many children you will educate with that”.
