Emir of Kano, Mohammed Sanusi Lamido II has again spoken on the need for Northern Nigeria to stop living in a system that keeps them permanently backward in all aspects of human endeavour.
The Emir challenged the leaders to stand up, initiate and force changes that will better the lives of the common man in the area.
The Emir was speaking as Guest Speaker during the Convocation Lecture for the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th combined Convocation ceremony of the Gombe State University (GSU) where he stressed that ignorance and poverty must be addressed before the north could make any headway.
Speaking on the topic, “The social reform project in Kano and the imperative of change in Northern Nigeria”, the very vocal Emir pointed out that one attitude the North needs to change is its perception of, or the poor attitude towards education.
After giving statistical data drawn from UN agencies and the National Bureau of Statistics on the North’s backwardness, especially the North-East and North-West, where the largest population of the country resides and where there is also the largest concentration of Muslims, the Emir stated that the region was backward in the areas of having the highest maternal, infant mortality rate, under-five deaths, lack of access to modern education, employment among many others.
He regretted, however, that it is the system that has kept the region from attaining its full potential despite having large land mass, highest number of people, being the most diverse and having abundant resources especially in Agriculture.
In his words, “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, 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 lack of 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 given into early marriage, you will discover that the North-East and the North-West have the highest negative indices, and we are far, far behind 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. He stated that the children did not manufacture themselves but that misapplication or lack of a Muslim Family code of laws, as found in many Muslim countries that do not allow for raising children that one could not cater for, was responsible for the problem.
