Former Central Bank Governor and Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi II has said that, he graduated from the late Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman’s school of progressive struggle to become a radical teacher, banker and now a radical Emir.

Emir Sanusi said radical struggle has meaning only if it is against injustice and oppression, adding that any other struggle is meaningless. According to him

“For us that were in ABU in the 70’s, we were inspired or taught by late Bala, he was an undisputed leader of Northern progressives, most of us graduated to being radical teachers, to radical professors, to radical bankers and radical emirs but we never left the essential message of Bala and it is a message that all of us should take home”

Speaking today in Kaduna at the 10th anniversary memorial seminar in honour of late Yusuf Bala Usman organised by the Centre for Democratic Development and Research Training, the first class royal father said the message Bala left is a message that all should take home.

His words “We spend so many decades fighting a system and every time we think we have defeated one system, the next one seems to be even worse and it is like an uphill task, if you look at what we were fighting in the 1970’s and 1980’s against the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), and compare the NPN with what came after that, the NPN will look like an angel.

“So, we are at a point in this country where we actually have to reverse this trend. In life, if you are at all committed to struggle, struggle only has meaning if it is against injustice and oppression, any other struggle is meaningless, fighting for ethnicity, starting needless and mindless religious wars, struggle for spores of power, none of those are worth it.

“People are dying every day from a lack of education, from a lack healthcare, a lack of security, from bad governance, from corruption, from bad economic policies and the real struggle that is meaningful in our lives is to try to improve that situation and fight against those injustices.

“It has been my misfortune to be always mis-categorised in government but I am not a card bearing member of any political party, but I have friends who shared the same vision of Bala Usman and that is what brought us together.

“I pray that this seminar will continue the tradition of cultivating minds and setting mind sets, programmes and hopefully, those minds will be integral to the change that we want, the removal of oppression and injustice and the creation of a better society which was the dream of late Bala Usman.”

The governor of Katsina state, Aminu Masari who was the chairman of the occasion said late Yusuf Bala Usman remains a symbol of struggle.

“Bala dedicated his life to the improvement of the lives of the less fortunate and because of the views he held when he was alive, he is still not forgotten 10 years after his death,” he said.

Osun State governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in reaction to Tinubu’s keynote address said, whether oil subsidy is removed or not, feeding school pupils a meal a day is a must for every government. He stressed that, if every state government feeds its school children at least a meal a day, Boko Haram will be history in six months.