The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has raised strong concerns about the moral and leadership crisis plaguing Nigeria, asserting that President Bola Tinubu alone cannot reform a country overrun by corrupt and value-less leaders.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday, the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor delivered a blunt critique of Nigeria’s leadership and value systems, saying the country is suffering under the weight of leaders driven by greed and personal gain rather than service.
“I think we need an entire regeneration of values,” Sanusi said. “It is not about one person. The president, the governors, or the ministers cannot on their own change this country.”
He argued that the decay is deeply systemic, where individuals without integrity are not only tolerated but celebrated.
“We have been ruled by people who have no values; they have no name behind them, and they have no desire to leave a name after them,” Sanusi declared. “The entire value system of the country has been eroded.”
According to him, materialism has become the new national value with the wealthy being admired regardless of how their riches were acquired.
“There are people who define themselves by what they own: how many houses, how many private jets, how many billions in their bank accounts. And they think that is something.”
Sanusi criticized the societal tendency to reward corrupt public officials rather than hold them accountable.
“We don’t have a sense of disgust for people who hold public office and amass wealth; we reward them with appointments, more public offices, and more opportunities to steal. This is what Nigeria has become.”
He stressed that many leaders enter government purely to enrich themselves, with no understanding or interest in the actual responsibilities of public service.
“Many people go into government to make money,” Sanusi said. “But you don’t go into government to make money. A society in which material wealth, no matter how you get it, is respected and glorified where people known to have stolen public funds get rewarded with ministerial appointments that society will continue to reproduce itself.”
His comments serve as a direct indictment of Nigeria’s political culture, warning that without a nationwide shift in values and accountability, no individual leader, including President Tinubu, can deliver the change the country desperately needs.
