By Abba Hikima
I am not an enthusiast of the royal institution. I have never been. This is why I declined dozens of media requests yesterday (Friday) to comment either on the propriety of Sanusi’s reappointment or Bayero’s deposition.
In my opinion, the royal institution is overly exaggerated in relation to its actual societal role. Therefore, truth be told, I am indifferent to who among the ‘blue-bloods’ gets what.
But as a lawyer, I am concerned about legal and legislative processes, especially ones that regardless of societal utility affect the people.
This morning, I watched the video stream in which Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, while assenting the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Law, 2024, relied on the 1984 Emirs Appointment and Deposition Law to legitimize Sanusi’s reappointment. In my usual curiosity, I began to wonder whether the 1984 law still subsists in view of the prior existence of the 2019 version which was a substantive and principal law. Every legal mind knows that principal laws normally repeal the ones preceding them. But I wasn’t sure.
True to my expectation, upon reaching my office, I dusted and perused the 2019 law, and lo and behold, the 1984 Emirs Appointment and Deposition Law was validly repealed by Section 51 of the Kano State Emirates Council Law, 2019, which until yesterday was the principal legislation governing emirs’ appointments and depositions in Kano State.
The 2019 law was, in turn, also validly repealed by Section 2 of the law signed into law yesterday titled Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Law, 2024, and which did not re-enact the 1984 law under which Sanusi was reappointed. The latest law also, aside from “abrogation”, “repeal”, “reversion”, “setting aside” and other negative and nullifying provisions did not make or establish anything.
The law merely empowered the governor to revert to the pre-2019 arrangement which as a matter of law was inexistent by virtue of Section 51 of the 2019 law which today stands repealed.
The logical implication of this legislative acrobatics is therefore that Sanusi’s appointment is null and void, as one cannot, as Denning aptly said, ‘put something on nothing and expect it to stand.’
This is the price of rush, speed and politicization of ordinarily non-political affairs which both Ganduje and Abba’s government could now very well be accused of on this issue.
- Abba Hikima is a legal practitioner and resident in Kano.
Eighteen-Eleven Media