by Farooq Kperogi,
Contradictions between Emir Sanusi’s Hedonism and Truth-telling
The Jaafar Jaafar I know isn’t a flippant person. He guards his reputation, integrity, and independence jealously. I just read his two articles on Emir Sanusi II. My American students would characterize those articles as epic takedowns of the Emir. Well, I am not surprised. I have pointed out in several past columns, including my latest column, that Sanusi is a feudal elitist who is painfully detached from the plight of the poor.
In a September 1, 2012 column titled, “Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s Unwanted 5000 Naira Notes,” I described him as “one of the most insensitive, out-of-touch bureaucrats to ever walk Nigeria’s corridors of power” (see link to the article in the comment section below).
Again, in my December 10, 2016 article titled, “Dangerous Fine Print in Emir Sanusi’s Prescription for Buhari,” I wrote: “If you are a poor or economically insecure middle-class person who is writhing in pain amid this economic downturn, don’t be deceived into thinking that Emir Sanusi is on your side. He is not. His disagreements with Buhari have nothing to do with you or your plight. If he has his way, you would be dead by now because the IMF/World Bank neoliberal theology he evangelizes has no care for poor, vulnerable people.”
However, the emir’s profligate and hedonistic indulgence, made even worse by his spectacular insensitivity to the plight of the poor, while condemnable, does not detract from the soundness of his rhetorical nudge for us in the north, especially in the Muslim north, to discard our old ways that have held us hostage, that have ensured that we are perpetually stuck in developmental babyhood. This is one instance where the message is more significant than the messenger.