Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, says Nigeria has not been fortunate with quality leaders for a long time.

He said the country has been having leaders he described as lousy for many years.

The first-class monarch also said the country would have been bankrupt had the federal government not removed fuel subsidy.

The emir spoke at the second Kano International Poetry Festival (KAPFEST) held in Kano on Saturday.

The programme was organised by Poetic Wednesdays Initiative (PWI).

According to the emir, good governance is key to the salvaging the country from its current condition which the country has not been lucky.

He said, “You rise and fall with the quality of your leadership and Nigeria has had lousy leadership for a long time. You cannot give what you do not have until we begin to look at the people who 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? You see it every day on the newspapers.

“You see it in the news. You see what happens in the legislature. You see the kind of debates that we are having, the kind of arguments that we have, the kind of time we waste on issues that are totally unimportant, the pettiness. You look at other countries, you look at other parts of the world, people are discussing climate change, discussing artificial intelligence.

“We are still talking about Yoruba or Igbo or Hausa, Northern or Christian, you know, that is, we are still mired in that debate. We are still in conversations that we had in the 1960s,” he added.

The emir, however, challenged the youths to rise up and takeover the country from the old people that have been managing it, saying with will, the youths could easily retire all them and takeover.


He also said subsidising fuel was never sustainable and the country would have been bankrupt by now if President Bola Tinubu didn’t remove it.

He said, “If you look at the billions and billions that were spent on subsidy, if that money had been spent on refineries, I have nothing against subsidies. If you are subsidizing production, I said it very clearly, my objection is the subsidy on consumption because we’re keeping refineries in Europe open. We’re giving jobs to refiners.

“And if we had taken 2012, we would not be where we are today. Now, people say to me, why aren’t you talking? I say, what am I to say? This is exactly what I said would happen because beyond a point, government revenue will not be enough to pay the subsidy. You have to borrow to pay the subsidy,”

He also warned that the rate at which governments in the country borrow money and squander it will have negative effect on the country’s economy in years to come.

Earlier, PWI Creative Director, Nasiba Babale, said KAPFEST with the theme, “Poetry in a time of crisis”, is aimed at reminding poets on how they can use poetry and art to advocate for peace in a time of the crisis bedeviling Northern Nigeria.