Former Central Bank Governor and Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi II, has said that he graduated from the late Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman’s school of progressive struggle to become a teacher, banker and now a radical emir.
The emir said struggle only has meaning if it is against injustice and oppression, adding that any other struggle is meaningless.
Speaking on at the 10th anniversary memorial seminar organised by the Centre for Democratic Development and Research Training in honour of the late Usman in Kaduna yesterday, the emir said the message Bala left was one that everyone should take home.
According to him, “we spend so many decades fighting a system, and every time we think we have defeated one system, the next one seems to be even worse and it is like an uphill task. If you look at what we were fighting in the 1970’s and 1980’s against the NPN, and compare the NPN with what came after that, the NPN will look like an angel.
“So, we are at a point in this country where we actually have to reverse this trend. For us that were in ABU in the 70’s, we were inspired or taught by the late Bala. He was an undisputed leader of Northern progressives.
“Most of us graduated to become radical teachers, radical professors, radical bankers and radical emirs, but we never left the essential message of Bala and it is a message that all of us should take home.
“In life, if you are at all committed to struggle, struggle only has meaning if it is against injustice and oppression. Any other struggle is meaningless.
“Fighting for ethnicity, starting needless and mindless religious wars, struggle for spores of power, none of those are worth it.
“People are dying every day from lack of education, from lack healthcare, lack of security, bad governance, corruption, bad economic policies and the real struggle that is meaningful in our lives is to try to improve that situation and fight against those injustices.
“It has been my misfortune to be always mis-categorised in government, but I am not a card bearing member of any political party. But I have friends who shared the same vision of Bala Usman and that is what brought us together.
“I pray that this seminar will continue the tradition of cultivating minds and setting mindsets, programmes and hopefully, those minds will be integral to the change that we want, the removal of oppression and injustice and the creation of a better society which was the dream of the late Bala Usman.”
The Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Masari, who was the chairman of the occasion, said the late Yusuf Bala Usman remains a symbol of struggle.
“Bala dedicated his life to the improvement of the lives of the less fortunate, and because of the views he held when he was alive, he is still not forgotten 10 years after his death,” he said.
On his part, the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, described the late Bala Usman as a visionary who inspired anyone who studied at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State.
Meanwhile, Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, reacting to Tinubu’s keynote address at the occasion said whether oil subsidy is removed or not, feeding school pupils a meal a day is a must for every government.
He opined that if every state government feeds its school children at least a meal a day, Boko Haram will be history in six months. The Nation
