The factional Emir of Kano, Mohammed Sanusi Lamido, said his ideal of poverty afflicting Nigerian masses was shallow until he assumed the throne.
Sanusi revealed this while speaking at the 60th birthday lecture of the former Governor of Rivers State and ex-Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
The lecture themed, ‘Weaponisation of Poverty as a Means of Underdevelopment’ had several high-profile politicians involved in the current mobilisation to get President Bola Tinubu out of office, come 2027.
In his remark on the subject matter, the former CBN governor stated that his perception of what constituted poverty altered when he became Emir.
“In all my days as a banker and an economist, I looked at the poverty index, and I always discovered that less than 18 percent of Nigerians live below 20 dollars a day. Many are in multidimensional poverty. The numbers are bad, but you don’t know how bad they are until you look into the eyes of poverty. That was an eye-opener for me.
“I did not know what poverty means until I became an Emir. When you go to a village, you see the water they drink, see the house they live in. And when you are told that there is a primary school in the village, it is always without a roof or a teacher. When you see malnutrition, and see how they look, then you understand what poverty is,” he said.
Speaking further: “So, the first question we need to ask ourselves as leaders is, do we actually love the people, or do we just love ruling over them? Do we love Nigeria as human beings? By the way, what is Nigeria? It is the people who live in it. What are our priorities? We build skyscrapers, and we think we are developing; we build bridges where they are not needed, but there are areas where people cannot come out of their houses to go to the market. Pregnant women cannot get antenatal care. Just yesterday, one hundred and fifty died in Mokwa, Niger State. I think we should come down to that basic question: do we love the people? Because if we do, they will not be uneducated, and because if we do, they will not be malnourished or die hungry. And for those who are saying that we should be careful in case the country slips into crisis, please wake up. We have been living with Boko Haram insecurity, and you are still saying that; please, what are we in? We are already in crisis.”
