Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Emir of Kano has urged Nigerians across the length and breadth of the nation to only give birth to children they can cater for.
The appeal was made by the Kano Monarch at the opening of the 108th edition of Islamic Vocation Course (IVC) organised by the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) Zone B.
Sanusi stated that the Almajiri menace that has plagued the northern region of Nigeria is not a religious issue but a social issue that needs urgent attention.
Sanusi also implored male Muslim faithfuls to only marry the number of women they can take care of as there is need to educate every child especially the out-of-school children.
He said;
“If we continued this way, about 40 per cent extremely poor people will be in Nigeria. Poverty in the South West is 20 percent, in the North, it is 80 percent, Lagos is 8 per cent and Zamfara, it is 91 per cent.
“We have been talking about Almajiri for over 30 years. Why are people having families they cannot maintain? Why are people marrying wives that they cannot maintain? The condition is that you are able to provide for your family.
“Instead of having many children, why not have the ones you can cater for? These are the fundamental questions we should ask ourselves. Most of these children roaming about the streets will be adult in the next twenty years and they will be the ones recruited as political thugs by the politicians in the next twenty years, if we don’t take good care of them now. This is my own advice that we must look at. These are not religious issues, they are social issues that need to be addressed”.
