ADO BAYERO'S REPRIMAND OF NIGERIA'S VICE PRESIDENT IS WRONG!

Icheoku categorically denounces the reprimand of Nigeria's Vice President Namadi Sambo by the Emir of Kano and states that such conduct is a total and complete disrespect for the office of the vice president and by extension, the entire country. Nigeria's vice president is not under the authority or servitude of a traditional ruler or chief of Kano emirate to deserve being so disrespected by publicly calling him out for being a little late on a scheduled courtesy visit to the emir's palace? 

Agreed that lateness is tardiness and many people including Icheoku finds such habit distasteful; but in this situation involving Nigeria's number two citizen, the emir should have swallowed it or better still, conducted his displeasure in private with the vice president. What if the vice president never showed up at all or even cancelled such a visit or sent an emissary to represent him because matters of state will not let him out on a leisure visit to the emir's palace? What if his boss the president gave him some assignment that needed immediate attention? Icheoku says the emir forgot that there is a thing called protocol that manages the vice president activities and movements; and that the vice president does not have the privilege to just get up and go to anywhere that he pleases such as the emir palace in Kano with all the attendant security implications of visiting such a volatile place like Kano? A more circumspect emir would have in private confided in the vice president his unhappiness for keeping him waiting a little longer, but not in the public exhibition manner in which he pilloried the vice president for his lateness. 

Icheoku rejects the emir's claim to any privilege above the office and person of Nigeria's vice president and states that it should be the other way round if any, as the vice president is number two citizen and is not ordinarily obligated to visit the emir; nor does he draw his paycheck from the emirate of Kano; but only wanted to stop over at the emir's palace as a courtesy call. The same emir who could not and did not swath a fly when Imam Muhammadu Buhari reprimanded him and nearly locked him up for visiting Israel alongside the Ooni of Ife Oba Sijuawade is now puffing and huffing because Nigeria's vice president was few minutes late to visit with him? If Icheoku remembers correctly too that the late midget of Kano Sani Abacha was in the process of dethroning and banishing the emir from the Kano emirate before he was given the poisoned tea. Previously, the same Abacha earlier did away with Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki of Sokoto Caliphate, so the heavens would not have fallen if he had also laid his hand on Ado Bayero and sent him to prison or to some other God forsaken desolate hole somewhere in Cross River State rain forest to live out his life in exile. 

But now the same emir is thinking himself above and superior to the the person and office of the Nigeria's vice president to warrant publicly scolding the vice president simply for being late to his palace? Icheoku says in a civilized society, the emir would be forced to resign his office or dethroned for disrespecting the entire people of Nigeria whose vice president he publicly ridiculed. Icheoku says Nigeria and her vice president deserve an apology from the emir and we hereby demand same on their behalf for his impolite behavior towards Nigeria's second most important citizen. It is a serious matter and a timely offer of an unequivocal apology is needed from the emir as the dressing-down was not only personal to Namadi Samabo but to the entire Nigerian people whose business he was conducting in Kano before he decided to pay the emir a courtesy visit and does not deserve to be so disrespected and treated by the Emir of Kano, Dr. Ado Bayero. Icheoku says Vice President Namadi Sambo is only answerable to one person and one person only - the president of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan, his only boss and not to the Emir of Kano.

But so what if the vice president was a few minutes late to visit the emir; afterall he is not an employee of the emir nor is he beholden to the emir; but to the entire Nigeria populace which writes his paycheck. Also Namadi Sambo is not a subject of the emir which makes the emir's motive rather intriguing; except that the emir might not be happy that their Islamic Northern presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari lost the election and here was part of the beneficiary coming to his palace just a little too late. Also the emir reserves the right not to see whoever he does not wish to see just like Benin monarchy Oba Erediuwa who once refused or asked out the minister of works from his palace and should have refused to see the visiting vice president. The emir's options were just darn plenty but he choose the least edifying one - scolding Nigeria's vice president? So, who gives a damn if the vice president could not break off from his duties at Aso Rock, concerning more important state matters, to be on time to see Emir Ado Bayero of Kano; and Icheoku expects the emir should not.