Sanusi Blasts Nigeria’s Elite: Public Office a ‘Family Business’ Stifling National Dreams

By Emmanuel Kwada 

In a fiery takedown of Nigeria’s political class, the 16th Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, lambasted leaders for transforming public office into a “family enterprise,” a self-serving racket that squanders the nation’s vast potential and perpetuates cycles of missed opportunities.

Delivering a impassioned keynote at the 15th anniversary of Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria in Lagos, Sanusi, the erudite former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, painted a grim portrait of governance warped by personal greed.

“We have done enough damage and maybe we need to stop,” he declared, invoking the event’s theme of accountability. “This is the point Omobola is making about missed opportunities. Not just missed opportunities, I think sometimes deliberately missed opportunities.”

At the heart of his critique: a leadership elite that views power not as stewardship for 220 million citizens, but as a private fiefdom for kin and cronies.

“The reason we miss these opportunities is because we have people who think public office is about themselves, it’s about their families, it’s about people close to them, it’s not about the country,” Sanusi thundered. “But public office is about the citizens.”

Sanusi, whose own tenure at the CBN from 2009 to 2014 was marked by bold reforms and clashes with the establishment, urged Nigeria’s youth the demographic bulge driving EiE’s activism to dismantle this entrenched dysfunction.

He spotlighted how ethnic fault lines, religious schisms, and raw ambition have hijacked the federation, derailing unity and progress.

“The important thing for me is that as citizens, each and every one of us will remember that the nation belongs to us,” he emphasized.

“It does not belong to the government, it does not belong to politicians, it belongs to us. We own this country and wherever we find ourselves, we must remember that we are holding one small part of Nigeria and we have a duty to do what we must, to contribute our own quota to this country.”

His clarion call? A youth-led renaissance: “What we need to do is try to come together and articulate a clear and achievable ideological position, a vision for what kind of Nigeria we want to have.”

Rejecting the “manufactured” narrative of division and “competition for aggrandizement,” Sanusi envisioned a Nigeria that “realises its potential in the committee of nations”—a beacon of innovation, equity, and global stature.

The address, attended by civil society leaders, activists, and policymakers, resonated deeply in a nation grappling with economic woes, insecurity, and electoral disillusionment.

As EiE Nigeria, founded in 2010 to amplify youth voices, marked its milestone, Sanusi’s words echoed a broader hunger for reform, reminding all that true sovereignty lies not in Abuja’s corridors, but in the collective will of the people.