Emir of Kano, Muhammadu
Sanusi ll, speaking on the theme ‘Promoting Investments In The Midst of Eonomic
Challenges’ at the Kaduna State Economic Summit in Kaduna said North, as a
region, has the highest population in Nigeria and lacked the necessary indices
to show progress.
‘We are living in
denial. The North-West and the North-East, demographically, constitute the bulk
of Nigeria’s population, but look at human development indices, look at the
number of children out of school, look at adult literacy, look at maternal
mortality, look at infant mortality, look at girl-child completion rate, look
at income per capita, the North-East and the North-West Nigeria, are among the
poorest parts of the world.
“As far back as 2000, I
looked at the numbers, Borno and Yobe states, UNDP figures: Borno and Yobe
states, if they were a country on their own, were poorer than Niger, Cameroon
and Chad.
“Nobody saw this because
we were looking at Nigeria as a country that averages the oil-rich Niger Delta,
the industrial and commercial-rich Lagos, the commercially viable South-East,
and you have an average.
“Break Nigeria into its
component parts, and these parts of the country are among the poorest, if it
were a country. And we do not realise we are in trouble.”
“Other Muslim nations
have pushed forward girl-child education, they’ve pushed forward science and
technology. They have pushed forward the arts. We have this myth in northern
Nigeria, where we try to create an Islamic society that never existed.”
“We need to understand
the roots of the problem of northern Nigeria. Burning books, it happened in
Kano. What is the crime of those books? They were writing about (love), and
love apparently is supposed to be a bad word.
“In a society where you
don’t love your women and you don’t love your children, you allow them to beg,
you beat up your women, why should anyone talk about love?
“We have adopted an
interpretation of our culture and our religion that is rooted in the 13th
century mindset that refuses to recognise that the rest of the Muslim world has
moved on.
“If you are an Imam or a
pastor and shed blood you are a criminal,” Sanusi said.
He also said “Nasir, I
support you on this one, any pastor or Imam that commits crime should be
arrested, tried and jailed were necessary,”
“Today in Malaysia, you
wake up and divorce your wife; that is fine. But you give her 50 per cent of
all the wealth you acquired since you married her. It is a Muslim country. In
Nigeria, you wake up after 20 years of marriage, you say to your wife, ‘I
divorce you’, and that’s it.
“Other Muslim nations
have pushed forward girl-child education; they’ve pushed forward science and
technology. They have pushed forward the arts. We have this myth in northern
Nigeria, where we try to create an Islamic society that never existed.
“We are fighting
culture, we are fighting civilisation. We must wage an intellectual war,
because Islam is not univocal. There are many voices, there are many
interpretations, there are many viewpoints, and we have for too long allow the
ascendancy of the most conservative viewpoints. The consequences of that are
that there are certain social problems.”
Further speaking on
comments on by Abdulaziz Yari, governor of Zamfara state, on meningitis Sanusi
said “how have we reduced ourselves, what have we done as a people, that we
have placed ourselves in a situation where simple things, a medical issue…you
don’t have vaccines, say you don’t have vaccines.
‘200 people died of
meningitis in a state, the governor was asked and he said it is God’s curse on
us for the sin of fornication, which apparently does not happen in America,
which is why they don’t have meningitis.”
“Treat those who have
contracted it, don’t give these kinds of explanations.
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