Sanusi said this while delivering his speech at the Inaugural Annual Chibok Girls Lecture held in commemoration of the third anniversary of the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok Government Girls Secondary School by terrorists in Borno State.
The event, which was held in Abuja on Friday had the theme, ‘Where goes our girl child, our nation goes.’
The monarch, who was represented by his daughter, Shahida Sanusi, said he deliberately stayed away from the event because of the sharp criticisms he had received from northern leaders following his statement of last week wherein he criticised them for being responsible for many of the North’s social maladies.
According to Punch, the emir noted that his daughter was the first female to ever represent him at an event.
Sanusi said rather than address the important issues, ‘anti-intellectual’ persons were trying to silence him.
He said, “Our colleagues and compatriots among the elite do not like statistics. Numbers are disturbing. I recently gave a speech in which I said the North-East and North-West of Nigeria are the poorest parts of the country. This simple statement of fact has generated so much heat, the noise has yet to die down.
“The response to this speech has been a barrage of personal attacks and insults aimed at silencing any voices that dare shine the light on the society to which we are saying Bring Back our Girls.
“There are those who believe these attacks are aimed at discrediting me personally but even if that is the objective, it will not work. I can only be discredited by what I have done and not by insults and lies on the social media. And in any event, personal criticism has no impact on the issues.”
The former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria said during his time at the CBN, he ensured that women were put in influential positions.
He said he had been championing the cause of the downtrodden all his life. Sanusi added that even if he was dethroned, he would continue to speak for the rights of the helpless.
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