ELITES IN NIGERIA CAUSING ETHNO-RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN ORDER TO SHARE NATIONAL CAKE

FORMER Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido, has said most of those claiming to be fighting for their geopolitical zones are only interested in their pockets.
He noted that they used ethno-religious wars to get into public offices only to serve selfish interests.
Lamido spoke on Thursday at a Platform, an annual conference organised by Covenant Christian Centre in Lagos and hosted by the church’s Senior Pastor, Poju Oyemade.
During the virtual programme, the former Central Bank of Nigeria governor was asked to comment on the ethno-religious crisis in some parts of the country.
He said the issue was not “so much about Nigerians, but the Nigerian elites.”
Sanusi stated, “We do have identities. But the construction of opposing identities is a political process. It’s basically the Nigerian elite competing among itself for a share of the national cake.
“I don’t think that the people, who say they are fighting for the Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba, are really interested. When they get there at the end of the day, it’s about them and their families.
“There is nobody out there that is really representing the North or the South or the East. I mean, they claim to be, but look out there. In the history of Nigeria, there has never been a government that does not have people from all over the country; so, the first thing to recognise is that we must get away from this sense that holding political office is what makes you a representative of the people.”
Sanusi said part of the problems with the country was the pursuance of federal character at the expense of merit and competence.
—Sanusi