If Nigeria is broken into components, Northern Nigeria will be poorest –Emir of Kano says

Emir of Kano, Sanusi Muhammad II says if Nigeria were to break up into

components today, Northern Nigeria would be the poorest countries in

the world.



The Monarch said 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' in Kaduna

state today April 5th.



Emir stressed that it would be a disservice to use the standard of

living of Nigerians residing in oil rich Niger Delta or commercially

viable Lagos and business oriented south-east, to compare that of the

North.



According to the Emir, the North East and North West regions are the

most poorest regions in the country and even in the world.



"As far back at 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 southeast, 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"he said Continuing the monarch

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. What is the crime of those books?" he

asked.



He decried the burning of science books in some parts of the Nort due

to religious beliefs. On the culture of marrying more than one wife

and given birth to children without proper Family planning, Sanusi

said

"Of what benefit is it to the north, having three million children

roaming about?" he asks.