The Presidency has said a sitting Governor can dethrone anybody.
The position of the Presidency was made known on Tuesday in a series of tweet in reaction to the dethronement of Muhammed Sanusi II as the Emir of Kano by the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, on Monday.
The Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media, Tolu Ogunlesi, made the position of the Presidency known on his Twitter handle on Tuesday.
Ogunlesi tweeted in reaction to an earlier tweet by @Msmenalicious: “A sitting Governor can dethrone anybody – as in they have the power to. That’s the way the system is set up. Nobody is above being dethroned. Governors formally appoint them, present them staffs of office, fund their offices. Whether this should be so is another matter entirely.”
Ogunlesi went on to refer to a video in which the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, spoke in seemingly derogatory terms to traditional rulers from his state.
He added: “You people saw how Wike paraded Rivers Traditional Rulers recently and addressed them like a kindergarten class. That’s the power a Governor has over royal institutions. Every Governor. It actually didn’t start today, has been so for a long long time.
“Hard for Traditional Rulers to resist lure of political involvement, regardless of ‘long royal training’. 1998 Oba of Benin said to have openly supported Lucky Imasuen (APP) over Lucky Igbinedion (PDP) & earned the ire of the Milad. Here’s @abati1990 (Reuben Abati) writing about it at the time:
