The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has decried Nigeria’s persistent leadership failure, declaring that the country has been plagued by “lousy leadership” for many years, a situation he said was responsible for its current economic and social woes.
Speaking at the second edition of the Kano International Poetry Festival (KAPFEST), organised by the Poetic Wednesdays Initiative (PWI) on Saturday, the outspoken monarch stressed the need for good governance, adding that Nigeria’s progress was directly tied to the quality of its leadership.
“You rise and fall with the quality of your leadership, and Nigeria has had lousy leadership for a long time,” the former Central Bank of Nigeria governor said.
“You cannot give what you do not have until we begin to look at the people whom we choose to lead us. And that’s the truth. I mean, in most parts of this country, you look at people who are leading you and you say, ‘Oh God, is this really the person? How did we end up here?’”
Sanusi lamented the quality of national discourse, comparing Nigeria’s focus on ethnic and religious divisions with the more progressive conversations happening around the world.
“You see it in the news, you see what happens in the legislature, the kind of debates we are having, the kind of time we waste on issues that are totally unimportant, the pettiness,” he said.
“Look at other countries – they’re discussing climate change, discussing artificial intelligence. We are still talking about Yoruba or Igbo or Hausa, Northern or Christian. We are still in conversations that we had in the 1960s.”
