Accra: The 16th Emir of Kano and Khalifa of the Tijaniyya Sufi Order in Nigeria, Dr Muhammad Sanusi II, has made an official visit to Ghana, the first since his reinstatement in May 2024.

He arrived in Ghana on Thursday for the 58th annual Ashanti Regional Maulid ceremony, which was scheduled to take place on Saturday, December 20, 2025.

The influential traditional ruler, leading an entourage that included Muslim scholars such as Professor Ibrahim Ahmed Maqari, an Imam of Abuja National Mosque, was welcomed by Sheikh Abdul Wadud Harun Ciessey, President of the Tijaniyya Muslim Movement of Ghana.

While in Ghana for the next three days, he is expected to meet President John Mahama, visit the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Usman Nuhu Sharubutu, and the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

He will also be leading Jummah prayers at the Kumasi Central Mosque in the Ashanti region.

It would be recalled that former Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, paid a courtesy call on the Emir in September this year to strengthen the existing relationship between the ruler and the Ghanaian Muslim community.

This was shortly after the Emir had graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

His doctoral thesis, titled “Codification of Islamic Family Law as an Instrument of Social Reform: A Case Study of the Emirate of Kano and Comparison with the Kingdom of Morocco”, reflects his “deep personal and scholarly commitment to legal reform within Islamic societies”.

The second reign of Sanusi Muhammad Sanusi II began on May 23, 2024, when the governor of Kano State, Abba Kabir Yusuf, reinstated Sanusi as emir of Kano.

Dr Sanusi had been deposed as emir four years earlier by former Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who led the Balkanisation of the Kano Emirate and eventual dethronement of Sanusi.

His first reign began on June 8, 2014, as the 14th Emir of Kano, succeeding his granduncle, Ado Bayero, as the Emir of Kano.

Prior to ascending the throne, he was the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and also formerly worked as a Chief Risk Officer and Group CEO of First Bank of Nigeria Plc, which was then Nigeria’s largest bank.