The Emir of Kano, Mohammadu Sanusi II, speaking on Monday in Kaduna during an event to commemorate the 60th birthday celebration of Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, said that, “real development will continue to elude the North except the leaders rise up and do the right thing.”
He said, “The real change in the North will come from those 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.”
Commending Governor El-Rufai, he highlighted that real change can only occur in the North through those who do things differently and the reforms carried out in the educational sectors by Governor El-Rufai will save the North.
“If the North does not change, it 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,” he noted.
“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,” he said.
The Emir said no Northern Leader can afford to be happy in the midst of problems facing the region, stating, “You cannot be happy about 87 per cent 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 per cent of the entire malnutrition burden in the country.” he continued, saying “You can’t be happy with the Boko Haram problem, you can’t be happy with all the issues.”
In conclusion he said, “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.”
