Former Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi, has said he is not interested in being the president of Nigeria.
Sanusi, who is also the Khalifa Tijjaniya in Nigeria, spoke at a dinner the Nigerian Platform put together in commemoration of his 60th birthday.
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He said his next focus is to become a university lecturer after his PhD at the University of London.
Sanusi said since he is not prepared for politics, he wouldn’t venture into an unfamiliar terrain.
“Two things destroying the country – fear and greed, if you can conquer those, we will make this country a great country,” he said.
I never hid the fact that my ambition was to be the Emir of Kano. In fact, I have never hidden my intentions about anything. So if I say I am not interested in politics it is because I’m not interested in politics. If I wanted to go into politics, I will come out and say I’m contesting for the president of Nigeria. I am a Nigerian. But I’m not interested. This is because I haven’t prepared myself for politics.
“I had prepared myself for a long time for academic life, I prepared myself for the Emir, I prepared myself for banking and finance but I have not a single day experience in politics. You can’t just jump into politics, you learn.”
He said he will return to academics because that was where he started his career.
“I started my life as an academic in ABU and I abandoned it and went into banking. I went into banking and I became an Emir. I want to complete that one loose end in my life. So I have applied, I have been admitted and by September I am writing a PhD in Law at the University of London.”
He said his thesis will focus on the ills of the northern Muslims.
“I’m writing my thesis on the codification of Muslim Family Law as an instrument of social reform. We have done a law, it has not been implemented in Nigeria but that is fine. It has not stopped me from doing research on it, writing books on it, publishing on it because if this generation does not listen, maybe the next will.”
“Maybe the time has not come for northern Nigerian Muslims to accept that it is wrong to beat your wife; maybe the time has not come for them to understand that they should not marry off their daughters at twelve or thirteen; maybe the time has not come for them to understand that even if you cannot maintain in wife, you should marry four and you can have fifteen children and leave them on the streets. Maybe the time has not come but it doesn’t mean it is the right thing. Maybe 10 or 20 years from now, we will be back here. The truth will always be the truth. You can ignore it but if it has consequences, you can never escape those consequences” the Emir said.
He also said he will be publishing a lot of books going forward. “Since I left Kano, I have already published one book; I spent the last year writing about my CBN experience. Another book that could be controversial, it is called ‘confronting vested interest: Central Banking in a rentier economy.’ That should come out next year. After my PhD I should go back to my academic life of research and publishing. If I think this generation is lost, then we must write for the next generation” he concluded.
