by 
Emir of Kano, Muhammadu
Sanusi, has told Governor Nasiru Ahmad El-Rufa’,i of Kaduna state that the
positions they held were transient and therefore, they should impact positively
on people’s life. Speaking at the 60th birthday celebration of Governor
El-Rufa’i in Kaduna on Monday, the emir said no leader from the North was happy
due to the myriads of problems that had plagued the region.
According to him, “when we talk about birthday, we talk about
happiness. Just last week, someone asked me, are you happy? And I said I am
not.” “The person was surprised. Nobody who is a leader in Northern Nigeria
today can afford to be happy. 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
children out of school. You can’t be happy with nine states in the North contributing
almost 50 per cent of the entire malnutrition burden in the country. ” “You
can’t be happy with the drug problem, you can’t be happy with the Boko Haram
problem. You can’t be happy with political thuggery. You can’t be happy with
all the issues; the Almajiri problem that we have.” “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.” “Now, because of the condition of Northern Nigeria,
it 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. 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 we have populated
the government with middle-aged men, maybe we need to try younger people, maybe
we need to try women. If we have spent our money and time on physical
structures, maybe we need to invest more in education of our children. Maybe we
need to invest more in nutrition. Maybe we need to invest more in primary
healthcare.” “And the truth is, if you look at what Nasir is doing in Kaduna,
with 40 per cent of his budget in education, that is the only thing that is
going to save the North. I know that, when we say these things, they don’t go
down well. “We have been saying this for 20 to 30 years. If the North does not
change, the North will destroy itself. The country is moving on. Quota system
that everybody talks about must have a sunset clause. “The reason that people
like Nasir stand up and they are nationalists is that they don’t have any sense
of inadequacy. You don’t need to rise on being from Kaduna State or being from
the North or being a Muslim to get a job, you come with your credentials, you
go with your competence, you can compete with any Nigerian from anywhere. “We
need to get our Northern youths to a point where they don’t need to come from a
part of the country to get a job. And believe me, 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. “So, as we celebrate Nasir at
60, we need to celebrate him as a public officer who is addressing the core
problems of his constituency. It is education, it’s girl child education, it’s
women’s right, it’s child begging, it parental irresponsibility, demographic
growth, it’s managing a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious
society and bringing them into one community where they are all citizens and he
has done a lot that we can learn from.
“We have just heard how he has developed himself over the
years, he is a Surveyor, he is a lawyer, he has got Masters degrees, he has had
over 80 certificates from Havard because education is what makes a man. “So, I
am proud to count Nasir as one of my friends. I usually say I have to keep him
as a friend because he is the only person in Nigeria beside whom I am
considered a moderate. People usually go to him and say talk to your friend the
Emir or your friend Sanusi, same way people tell me, talk to your friend Nasir.
Even two days ago, someone sent me to him with two messages. I delivered the
first one which I thought was nice and friendly, but when I saw his reaction, I
did not deliver the second one, I am waiting for the right time to deliver it.
“It is important to realise that the positions we hold are transient and they
do not define us. Anybody can be called a Governor, anybody can be called an
Emir, a Commissioner or a minister, but at the end of the day, you should know
that God had given you a chance to do something, do leave a mark and impact
people’s lives. “When he had issues with teachers in Kaduna State, some of his
friends came to me to advise him because he was in his first time. That, he
should not take such risks, he can lose election. I said, okay I will advise
him, but I knew he was not going to listen to that advice. So, I told him what
people were thinking, he said, your highness, if the people if Kaduna want to
vote me out because I want good education for their children, let them do it.
And I agreed with him. After winning an election, you should be governing, you
should not be in a campaign mode for four years. You were elected to serve, if
people appreciate it and vote for you, fine, if they don’t, you have done your
bit.” Source: VANGUARD
