The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, has warned that Nigeria could witness an insurgency worse than Boko Haram in the near future if nothing was done to fix the country’s economy and check its growing population.
The emir, who represented the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad III, said this during the opening of a 3-day International Conference on insurgency and the Boko Haram Phenomenon, in Kano on Tuesday. He pointed out that poverty, which is a direct consequence of a bad economy, is the root cause of insurgency in the West African sub-region, especially Nigeria, and if the government fails to regulate the demographic increase, then more violence will be inevitable.
“In the next 20 years, Nigerian youth population would grow to almost 100 million of youth, men and women between the age of 20 and 40,” Sanusi said. “What are they going to do? Is the civil service or banking industry going to employ them?
“Now, if we don’t build on the economy and the demographic explosion not addressed, the Boko Haram insurgency would be a child’s play in the next 20 years.
“So, we need to have that conversation, the fertility rate, lack of investment in education, drug problem as well as a look at its causes. This would make a great impact in the effort to find a lasting solution in the northeast and the country as a whole,” he said.
Since assuming the position of the Emir of Kano, Sanusi, who was the immediate past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has consistently made a case for a better education for children, especially girl-children in Northern Nigeria. He has also been outspoken against issues such as poor nutrition, child marriage, child labour and female genital mutilation, among others.
Earlier in October this year, at an event in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Sanusi said Nigeria would continue to be the poverty capital of the world if the government continues to carry on the way it is going.
“If every country continues its present trajectory, by 2050, 80 per cent of all the poor people in the world will live on the African continent. But, that is not the frightening thing. One half of this 80 per cent will be in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Two countries will account for 40 per cent of all the poor people in the world and Nigeria will therefore remain the poverty capital of the world,” he said.
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