Muhammadu Sanusi, emir of Kano, says the north will “destroy
itself if it doesn’t change”.
The emir spoke on Monday at the Kaduna state government
house during a programme to commemorate the 60th birthday celebration of Nasir
el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna.
Sanusi said as a leader, repeating the same thing and
expecting a different result shows that something is wrong.
He noted that the real change can only occur in the north
through those who do things differently.
He commended el-Rufai’s reforms in the education sector,
noting that what the governor is doing in the sector is what will save the north.
“It is almost correct now to say that, if you are seen as
normal, if you are a governor in the north or a leader in the north, and you
are seen as normal in the sense that you continue to do what your predecessors
have been doing, doing the same thing, which has been normalised, then, there
is something wrong with you. You are part of the problem, ” Sanusi said.
“The real change in the north will come from those who are
considered mad people, because you look around and say if this is the way we
have been doing things, and this is where we have ended up, maybe we need to do
things differently.
“If the north does not change, the north will destroy
itself. The country is moving on… If we don’t listen, there would be a day when
there would be a constitutional amendment that addresses these issues of quota
system and federal character.
“The rest of the
country cannot be investing, educating its children, producing graduates and
then they watch us, they can’t get jobs because they come from the wrong state,
when we have not invested in the future of our own children.”
The emir said no northern leader can afford to be happy in
the midst of problems facing the region.
“Nobody who is a leader in northern Nigeria today can afford
to be happy,” Sanusi said.
“You cannot be happy about 87 percent of poverty in Nigeria
being in the north. You can’t be happy with millions of northern out-of-school
children. You can’t be happy with nine states in the north contributing almost
50 percent of the entire malnutrition burden in the country.
“You can’t be happy with the Boko Haram problem. You can’t
be happy with all the issues.
“So, we wish Nasir a happy birthday, but we do not want him
to be happy as a leader. Because you are happy when you think you have reached
a state of delivering and taking your people to where you want them to be.”
He also said el-Rufai should be celebrated as a public
officer who is addressing the core problems of his constituency.
“If you look at what Nasir is doing in Kaduna, with 40
percent of his budget in education, that is the only thing that is going to
safe the north. I know that, when we say these things, they don’t go down
well,” he said.
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