Nigeria’s population, a liability — Emir Sanusi

The Emir of Kano, Mohammadu Sanusi (II) on Monday said that Nigeria’s huge population is currently a liability to the country.

He said this during a panel session of the 25th Nigerian Economic Summit currently holding in Abuja.

The session was attended by the Founder of the Kukah Centre, Bishop Mathew Kukah and Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi.

The session focussed on how demographic realities can be transformed into social and business opportunities and what the implications are on internal migration, sustainable peace and security.


The Emir said that the potentials of the country’s huge population had yet to be tapped as the right policies to harness the future of the young people are still lacking.

Sanusi attributed the spate of kidnapping, armed robbery, insurgency, farmers-herders crisis to the level of population growth.

He said, “People talk that our population is an asset but we are yet to get there. Nigeria’s population is currently a liability because most of the root cause of problems such as kidnapping, armed robbery, Boko Haram, drug addiction are all tied to the population that we have and the question is how do you turn that into a productive one.”