Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has accused some members of the Northern elite of trying to cage him.
Sanusi made this claim while delivering a keynote speech at the
Inaugural Annual Chibok Girls Lecture held in commemoration of the third
anniversary of the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok
Government Girls Secondary School by Boko Haram terrorists in Borno
State.
Sanusi, who was represented by his daughter, Shahida Sanusi,
explained that he deliberately boycotted the event because of the heaps
of criticisms he had received from northern leaders, who he had earlier
accused of being behind the backwardness of the northern region.
He said rather than address the germane issued he raised, some people were trying to shut him up for speaking the truth.
His words, “Our colleagues and compatriots among the elite do not
like statistics. Numbers are disturbing. I recently gave a speech in
which I said the North-East and North-West of Nigeria are the poorest
parts of the country. This simple statement of fact has generated so
much heat, the noise has yet to die down.
“The response to this speech has been a barrage of personal attacks
and insults aimed at silencing any voices that dare shine the light on
the society to which we are saying Bring Back our Girls.
“There are those who believe these attacks are aimed at discrediting
me personally but even if that is the objective, it will not work. I can
only be discredited by what I have done and not by insults and lies on
the social media. And in any event, personal criticism has no impact on
the issues.”
According to the ex-CBN boss, during his time at the apex bank, he ensured that women were put in influential positions.
Sanusi also said there are at least 1,500 girls either carrying or
nursing babies fathered by Boko Haram fighters at the Dalori 2
Internally Displaced Persons camp near Maiduguri alone.
While reading a speech entitled, ‘Chibok and the mirror in our faces:
Some reflections on gender in our society’, Shahida said, “As we
remember the girls captured in Chibok three years ago, we must remember
that they constitute only a fraction of the victims of this insurgency.
“I would urge BBOG, while you keep this issue of Chibok on the table,
to broaden your message to cover all girls and boys abducted by Boko
Haram, and also draw attention to the condition of girls and women in
our society in general.
“To give you an idea of the extent of this problem, as of today, in
Dalori 2 IDP camp near Maiduguri alone, there are over 1,500 BH-abducted
girls who are either pregnant or carrying babies, who have been freed
by the military.
“Hundreds of orphaned children are being carried away to unknown
destinations and they are all gone into oblivion due to society’s
neglect.
“It is therefore critical, for the BBOG to gain much broader support
in the populace and be more effective, to use the dramatic case of the
Chibok girls as a reference and a plank, but not the exclusive focus of
its struggle.”