Be Wary of Emir Sanusi, Group Urges Yoruba

By Segun James

A Pan-Yoruba group, the Yoruba United Front (YUF), has called on the people of the Southwest to be wary of the deposed Emir of Kano, Mohammed Sanusi, saying his (Sanusi) antecedents have shown that he hates the Yoruba people.

The group in a statement signed by its National President, Alhaji Raimi Ali, and National Secretary, Deacon Samuel Aderanti, said it was surprised that Sanusi, who had earlier declared the Yoruba people as the problem of Nigeria would seek asylum in Lagos (a Yoruba state).

According to the YUF, “What does Sanusi want? That is the question every right-thinking Yoruba person should be asking, and why is he taking refuge in Yoruba land now that he has a problem with his kinsmen?

“The Yoruba people will never forget the diatribes of Sanusi who excoriated the icons of Oduduwa land in a 1999 speech where he described the entire Yoruba leadership as an ‘Area Boy’ institution.”

The group warned Yoruba leaders and politicians to be wary of the antics of Sanusi, saying he has a mission to achieve, even as they wonder his choice of Lagos and not Kaduna or any other northern city.

It alleged: “He lambasted Chief Obafemi Awolowo and other revered Yoruba leaders in petty, bitter, tribalistic usages. He even claimed that Alhaji Shehu Shagari was overthrown in 1983 because Awolowo lost the presidency!

“It is rather ironic, sickening and unacceptable that the same Sanusi will choose the Yoruba heartland which he once condemned in the most violent language as a place of succour when his people have disowned him. We urge our people to be wary of this man whose agenda and purpose are puzzling and dubious.

“We hereby warn Yoruba leaders not to allow Sanusi, who is an ethnic bigot, to systematically build a Fulani camp in Lagos. We should be wary and ask him what exactly he wants in Yoruba land.

“Those Yoruba lackeys rushing to visit him either in form of old school students’ association or whatever form should remember Sansui’s past; his hatred of anything Yoruba, and should realise that Sanusi is a rabid, radical Islamist and should not be treated as a pan-Nigerian patriot.”