Emir of Kano, Mohammed Sanusi Lamido II, has again challenged northern leaders to stand up, initiate and force changes that will better the lives of the masses, and liberate them the system that keeps them permanently backward in all aspects of human endeavour.
The Emir was the Guest Speaker at the Convocation Lecture for the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th combined convocation ceremonies of the Gombe State University (GSU).
He lamented that ignorance and poverty must be addressed before making any headway.
Speaking on the topic: “The social reform project in Kano and the imperative of change in northern Nigeria”, Emir Sanusi pointed out that one attitude the North needs to change is its perception or the poor attitude towards education.
After giving statistical data based on UN agencies and the National Bureau of Statistics on the North’s backwardness, especially the North-East and North-West sub-regions the Emir insisted that the regions are still backward.
He buttressed his argument with the high maternal and infant mortality rates, under-five deaths, lack of access to modern education and employment among others.
He however regretted that it is the system that has prevented the regions from attaining their full potentials despite having large land mass, demographic advantage, and, above all, abundant resources, especially in agriculture.
“What led to the start of the project in Kano, we cannot have economic growth until we move into the grassroots and deal with the issues. Take the northern Nigeria, 70 percent of Nigeria’s landmass, the highest number of people, grossly endowed with abundant natural resources, most diverse in many aspects but the poorest part of the world.”
The Emir also said: “In terms of having access to modern education, employment, access to road networks, the region is lagging behind. These are numbers that we have and we can go on and on. The number of adolescent girls being given into early marriages, you will discover that the North-East and the North-West have the highest negative indices, and we are far, far behind than the rest of the world.
One out of six out-of-school children in the world is in Nigeria and 70 percent could be from the North. Now, we cannot continue to be talking about marginalization when we need to address these issues.”
He also spoke extensively on the negative application of the Almajiri system, stating that they did not manufacture themselves but misapplication or lack of a Muslim family code of laws as found in many Muslim countries that do not allow for raising families or children that one could not cater for.