Ex-CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s stage play, ‘A Truth in Time’, depicting the life and times of the 14th Emir of Kano, was held on Saturday at the Muson Centre in Lagos with an excited audience glued to their seats.
The play was produced by the Duke of Shomolu Productions, with Ahmed Yerima as the playwright while Emmanuel Adeejumo (Boy Sala) was the co-director. It is a two-day stage play holding simultaneously on Saturday and Sunday in Lagos and Abuja.
The play depicts the lives, drama and intrigues surrounding the dethronement of Emir Sanusi I and his grandson, Emir Sanusi II, leaning on the witness account of the DogDogarai lace guards who served both emirs.
The three-cast stage play started with a couple whose marriage was in tatters. The first scene talked about insecurity, child marriage, and the culture of the Fulani and other people of Northern Nigeria.
It showed Dahiru, a retired palace guard, in a heated conversation with his wife, Zainab, with the scene depicting the hostile relationship between the couple as they both awaited the arrival of their son, Shaibu a palace guard.
The arrival of Shaibu, who had served the disposed Kano emir, was welcomed with joy and his father asked him if the rumours about the dethronement of the emir were true and what led to the dethronement.
Shaibu told him that security forces had taken over the palace, which made his blind father sad at the cruelty meted out on the emir. However, his wife said the cruelty meted on the emir was the same treatment she got since her father sold her to him as a young slave.
She suffered from Vesico-Vaginal Fistula (VVF), which made her husband treat her with disdain. Shaibu told his father to respect women, saying if he ever liked the emir, he would imbibe the good deeds of the emir by speaking the truth and treating women with respect.
The three-cast actors held the audience spellbound for more than an hour as they talked about women’s abuse and the oath of silence.
Emir Sanusi II was crowned on June 8, 2014, and was dethroned on March 9, 2020, by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje due to his perceived criticism of the government and some of its policies.
(NAN)
