A former boss of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega has said that the late Danmasanin Kano, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule did not embezzle or steal a kobo of public funds while serving the country in various capacities at a tender age.
The University Don made the statement during a Leadership Lecture Series organised in honour of the late Danmasanin Kano, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule by the Coalition of Northern Group Students Wing held at the students Centre of Umaru Musa Yar’adua University in Katsina on Monday.
According to Professor Jega, while extolling the virtues of the late Danmasanin Kano, whom he said was a father figure to him and someone he holds in high reverence said:
“The late Dan Masanin Kano, was a person I respected and he was a father to me throughout my stay in Kano as a student, a lecturer and as a vice chancellor and until his death. He really served as a father to me.
“He served this country selflessly with honour and integrity as a minister at a very young age, representing Northern Nigeria in the federal parliament and rose to hold three key ministerial positions, including the minister of power, steel and petroleum and who at the end of it really, did not steal a kobo.”
Prof Jega applauded the Coalition of Northern Group for their foresight and the honour bestowed upon the blessed memory of Danmasanin Kano.
Prof. Jega said: “I want to commend the Coalition of Northern Group for their foresight for giving honor to whom honor is due and in particular for their creativity in recognising the fact that there is need to begin an engagement for our youth in this part of the country if we have to salvage ourselves from the crises that have bastardised this country.”
At the event, different professionals spoke on the theme of the lecture: ‘The Political and Socio-economic Consequences of Border Porosity in Northern Nigeria’.
Speaking on the theme of the lecture, Prof Jega said border porosity has major consequences for Nigeria’s socio-economic development.
He said while Nigeria has 84 regular borders routes of entry or exit appropriately manned, the country has about 1,499 illegal as at 2003.
The former INEC boss said through this porous illegal routes, people cross in and out of the country with things that have implications for the nation’s socio-economic and political development.
He identified small arms as well as large arms to be among the major things that come into Nigeria through some of the illegal routes.
