The Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido has said that the culture of marrying many wives and producing many children is responsible for poverty and backwardness in the north.

The Emir said the region will continue to be backward if its people do not change their culture. 

Sanusi was said to have made the comment in Gusau where he moderated a paper titled ‘The role of universities in nation building’ presented by Dr Usman Bugaji at the maiden convocation of the Federal University, Gusau on Friday, January 24, 2020, Punch reports.

He said, “There are people who cannot afford to feed one wife but are ready to marry three wives and have more children than they cannot feed, talk less of paying for their school fees?

“The poverty level of the north is 80 per cent; while in the south, the percentage is 20 per cent, simply because of the culture of marrying many wives and producing many children who, at the end, are left on the streets to beg for what to eat.”

Sanusi also attributed the increase in crime rate and drug abuse in the north to divorce.

He said, “The issues we have today such as drug abuse, Boko Haram, banditry and unemployment would be nothing compared to what we will be dealing with in the next 20 or 30.”