It is assumed that all conflict parties in the emergency probing of Muhammad Sanusi II, the Emir of Kano, would let the tiff pass and peace reign with the abrupt suspension of the probe by the Kano State House of Assembly. Fragmentation within the ruling elite is never a positive development because, as late Julius Nyerere said, whether they are happy or unhappy, commoners suffer. Nyerere would have amended himself by now if he were still alive: the masses suffer more when the elite fight than when they are at peace with each other.
Observers would, therefore, applaud all interventions that led to the peace deal. The message must have gone far and wide that the system is still tightly resistant to the idea of an activist approach to being an emir. From what has happened, such an approach is still largely interpreted as dancing out of step. Lessons must have been learnt on all sides, not about who is right or wrong but the factor of timing. However, the ruling elite needs those among them who must be serving as system reminders oh! Or they may forget that the system is so rough for some people downstairs and whose alienation and responses to it could be so devastating and destabilising of privilege.
There is thus the risk in asking the Muhammad Sanusis to keep quiet. For now, it is long live the king!
