Sanusi Says CAN and others should be banned

CENTRAL Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday, turned his attention to ethno-religious groups in the country and urged the Federal Government to ban them as a way of curbing insecurity in the country.

Sanusi made the suggestion at an inter-faith dinner organized by the Northern Reawakening Forum (NRF) in Abuja, yesterday.

He also asserted that all ethnic and religious groups in the country were actually political associations donning false cloak.

He said: “I almost didn’t want to attend this occasion because I am opposed to regional, ethnic and religious groupings in this country. In fact, I would like the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Jamatul Nasril Islam (JNI) , Afenifere and all such other groups to be banned.”

The call elicited immediate condemnation from leaders of the affected groups, who described Sanusi’s comments as irresponsible. This came as former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Audu Ogbeh and one-time Permanent Secretary, Ahmed Joda offered suggestions on how to tackle poverty and insecurity in the North.

Sanusi, who attributed the state of insecurity in the country to a fall-out of the exclusiveness and marginalization which many Nigerians belonging to the younger generation had been subjected to, traced the current insecurity in northern parts of the country to power struggle among the elite who use religion to pursue their goals.

He lamented that despite the fact that the Northern region’s land mass constitutes about 60 per cent of the Nigerian landmass and agriculture contributes 42 per cent to the Nigerian economy, the region remained impoverished.

He blamed the northern insurgency on the selfishness of the nation’s elite which had failed to see the future.

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