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Sanusi Predicts End to Quota System, Federal Character in Nigeria
The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, has said the northerners are on the verge of destroying themselves if they fail to address the myriad challenges facing them.
Sanusi, who spoke at the 60th birthday of Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, in Kaduna on Monday, highlighted the main problems facing the region as poverty, millions of out-of-schoolchildren, malnutrition, drug abuse, Almajiri and the Boko Haram insurgency.
The emir, who insisted that no “true Northern Nigeria leader” was happy with the problems, said the North should stop relying on quota system and federal character.
He said the challenges facing the region must be addressed immediately.
The traditional ruler said this a week after the World Bank in a report said 87 per cent of the poor in the country resided in the North.
The World Bank also described the North-West as home to almost half of all the poor in the country.
At El-Rufai’s 60th birthday, Sanusi singled out the Kaduna State governor for praise. He said El-Rufai ‘s investment in education would go a long way in addressing poverty.
He called on other northern elites to follow in the ex-Minister of the Federal Capital Territory’s footsteps.
According to him, investing in education is the only way the region will save itself from the imminent destruction.
The ex-Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria lamented that 87 per cent of the country’s poverty rate was in the North, with nine states in the zone constituting almost 50 per cent of the malnutrition burden of Nigeria.
Sanusi said the region should not continue to rely on quota system and federal character to get jobs for its children at the expense of the other parts of the country busy educating their own children and turning out graduates.
The emir said, “When we talk about birthday, we talk about happiness. Just last week, someone asked me, ‘are you happy?’ And I said, ‘ I am not’. And the person was surprised. The truth is, nobody who is a leader in Northern Nigeria today can afford to be happy.
“You cannot be happy with about 87 per cent of poverty in Nigeria being in the North. You can’t be happy with millions of northern children out of school.
“You can’t be happy with nine states in the North contributing almost 50 per cent of the entire malnutrition burden in the country.
“You can’t be happy with the drug problem, you can’t be happy with the Boko Haram problem. You can’t be happy with political thuggery. You can’t be happy with all the issues; the Almajiri problem that we have.
“So, we wish Nasir a happy birthday, but we do not want him to be happy as a leader. Because you are happy when you think you have reached a state of delivering and taking your people to where you want them to be.
“Now, because of the condition of Northern Nigeria, it is almost correct now to say that, if you are seen as normal, if you are a governor in the North or a leader in the North, and you are seen as normal in the sense that you continue to do what your predecessors have been doing, doing the same thing, which has been normalised, then, there is something wrong with you, you are part of the problem.
“The real change in the North will come from those who are considered mad people, because you look around and say if this is the way we have been doing things and this is where we have ended up, maybe we need to do things differently.”
Sanusi added, “If we have populated the government with middle-aged men, maybe we need to try younger people, maybe we need to try women. If we have spent our money and time on physical structures, maybe we need to invest more in the education of our children. Maybe we need to invest more in nutrition. Maybe we need to invest more in primary health care.”
Abia State governor, Alex Otti, has revealed has revealed plans to recruit additional 4,000 teachers to raise the teaching workforce to 9,394.in the State’s primary and secondary schools.
The governor disclosed this during the June edition of his media chat, dubbed Governor Alex Otti speaks to Abians”, held on Thursday night at the Government House, Umuahia.
He said that the 5,394 first set of teachers already recruited would be deployed after their ongoing orientation in Aba and Umuahia.
According to him, the next set of recruitment will happen immediately after this orientation.
“We expect that the portal will be opened and applications will be received,” he said.
Otti said that the idea was to prepare the schools for the next academic session, given the massive enrollment witnessed since the introduction of free and compulsory education.
The government, in January, introduced free and compulsory education from primary one to junior secondary school.
The policy is to ensure that every child in Abia, regardless of their state of origin, had access to education up to the junior secondary school.
Otti emphasised the need to prepare and ensure quality teachers for primary and secondary schools across the State.
He reiterated his administration’s commitment to continue with the renovation of schools, including the tertiary institutions.
“In addition to the renovation, we are converting 20 schools into smart schools and work is already ongoing,” he said.
The governor also spoke on the government’s activities in the health sector.
He gave assurance that the ongoing renovation of 200 primary healthcare centres across the 17 local government areas of the State would soon be completed and that most of them were ready for use.
“The type of equipment you are expecting to see in the developed countries are already in Abia and we are not opening them without equipping them properly,” he said.
Otti, who highlighted some of his administration’s achievements in other sectors, including security, road infrastructure, sanitation and others, urged the residents to join hands with the administration in building a new Abia.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, on Friday, warned that Iran has a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible US air strikes, indicating he could take a decision before the fortnight deadline he set a day earlier.
Trump added that he is not inclined to stop Israel attacking Iran because it was “winning,” and was dismissive of European efforts to mediate an end to the conflict.
“I’m giving them a period of time, and I would say two weeks would be the maximum,” Trump told reporters when asked if he could decide to strike Iran before that.
He added that the aim was to “see whether or not people come to their senses.”
Trump had said in a statement on Thursday that he would “make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks” because there was a “substantial chance of negotiations” with Iran.
Those comments had been widely seen as opening a two-week window for negotiations to end the war between Israel and Iran, with the European powers rushing to talks with Tehran.
But his latest remarks indicated Trump could still make his decision before that if he feels that there has been no progress towards dismantling Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump meanwhile dismissed talks that European powers Britain, France, Germany and the EU had with Iran’s foreign minister in Geneva on Friday.
“They didn’t help,” he said as he arrived in Morristown, New Jersey, ahead of a fundraising dinner at his nearby golf club.
“Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said after the talks in Geneva that Tehran would not resume negotiations with the United States until Israel stopped its attacks.
But Trump was reluctant.
“It’s very hard to make that request right now,” Trump said.
“If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody’s losing, but we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens.”
Trump meanwhile doubled down on his claims that Iran is weeks away from being able to produce a nuclear bomb, despite divisions in his own administration about the intelligence behind his assessment.
Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said in a report in March that Iran was not close to having enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.
“She’s wrong,” Trump said of Gabbard, a longtime opponent of US foreign intervention whom Trump tapped to coordinate the sprawling US spy community.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
The National Opposition Coalition Group, led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and ex-Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has formally applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission for the registration of a new political party—the All Democratic Alliance.
The application, dated June 19, was acknowledged by INEC on Friday, signalling the coalition’s determination to float a new platform instead of aligning with any existing political party.
The formation of ADA, backed by some other key political heavyweights, including former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi and Umar Ardo, convener of the League of Northern Democrats and former aide to President Olusegun Obasanjo, seeks to capitalise on mounting public dissatisfaction and political realignments to stop President Bola Tinubu at the next poll.
The application comes just a few days after INEC warned political groups that no amount of pressure or public sentiment would override the need for strict compliance with constitutional and electoral guidelines.
With Thursday’s application, the national opposition coalition has now put an end to weeks of speculation about whether it would revive a dormant political platform or launch a fresh one altogether.
A copy of the application letter, obtained by our correspondent in Abuja, was jointly signed by the association’s Protem National Chairman, Chief Akin A. Rickets, and Protem National Secretary, Abdullahi Elayo.
The letter partly read, “We respectfully write to the Independent National Electoral Commission, requesting the registration of our association, the All Democratic Alliance, as a political party.
“This is a sequel to the decision taken by the Nigerian National Coalition Group to sponsor our association for full registration.
“The name of the party shall be All Democratic Alliance with ADA as our acronym and ‘Justice for All’ as our slogan.”
The coalition also submitted relevant documents, including the party’s constitution, manifesto, logo, and minutes of its foundational meetings.
The party’s symbol prominently features a maize (corn), which the applicants say represents abundance, resilience, and sustenance—core ideals they hope to promote.
“We have further attached our manifesto encompassing details of our party ideology and our constitution providing the legal framework that defines our identity, structures, and organisation,” the letter continued.
The Punch
