Northern Elite Trying to Silence Me – Sanusi

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, says members of the Northern elite are trying to silence him.

Sanusi said this while delivering his 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 terrorists in Borno State.

The event, which was held in Abuja on Friday had the theme, ‘Where goes our girl child, our nation goes.’

The monarch, who was represented by his daughter, Shahida Sanusi, said he deliberately stayed away from the event because of the sharp criticisms he had received from northern leaders following his statement of last week wherein he criticised them for being responsible for many of the North’s social maladies.

The emir noted that his daughter was the first female to ever represent him at an event.

Sanusi said rather than address the important issues, ‘anti-intellectual’ persons were trying to silence him.

He said, “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.”

The former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria said during his time at the CBN, he ensured that women were put in influential positions.

He said he had been championing the cause of the downtrodden all his life. Sanusi added that even if he was dethroned, he would continue to speak for the rights of the helpless.

1,500 girls carrying B’Haram babies, says Sanusi

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.

He, therefore, called on all Nigerians, especially members of the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ group to do everything possible to protect the girl child or face another existential crisis in the near future.

While reading a speech titled, ‘Chibok and the mirror in our faces: Some reflections on gender in our society’, Sanusi 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.”

The monarch maintained that northern leaders were not doing enough to protect women and children and this had deepened poverty.