Why Northern Nigeria remains poor – Emir Sanusi II

Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has said the abhorrence of Western education in the name of practicing Islam has doomed northern part of Nigeria into becoming the poorest region in the country.

He stated this in his key note address during the opening ceremony of Kaduna State’s Investment and Economic Summit (KADINVEST), titled ‘Promoting Investment Amidst Economic Challenges’.

According to him, Muslims must imbibe and adopt western education and stop using religion and culture to set the region backward.
He also said that it would be wrong to mirror living standard in the north in line with the oil rich Niger Delta, commercially viable Lagos and business oriented South-East.
Sanusi said: “Other Muslim countries have pushed on.
“We are fighting culture, we are fighting civilisation. You tell me that you should not write love book in northern Nigerian. It is wrong to burn books of science based on religion.

“What is the crime of those books?” he asks.
Going further, he questioned the right of people in having more children in the region without having the resource to take care of them.
“Of what benefit is it to the north, having three million children roaming about?” he further asks.
The emir also chided Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara for saying that the meningitis outbreak in his state and others was God’s punishment for the sins of Nigerians. 

The Emir said of Yari’s comment: “Don’t give these kinds of explanations.
“That is not an Islamically correct statement to make.
“If you don’t have vaccines, you don’t have vaccines; Go and get vaccines,” the emir said.
Zamfara and other states have been battling with insufficient vaccines to prevent the spread of the disease.