Meningitis : Governor Yari Replies Emir Sanusi

Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, has replied the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, for saying that the governor failed his people by not curbing the outbreak of meningitis.

The meningitis outbreak has affected at least 19 states in the country, of which Zamfara is the worst hit, with over 269 deaths and about 2,600 cases.

The governor, responding on Saturday with fury, advised the Emir of Kano to “practise what he preaches” or “keep his peace”.

Yari, in a statement by the governor’s special adviser on public enlightenment and communication, Ibrahim Dosara, said, “For those who consider the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, to be anything but a first-class intellectual, a consummate banker and a bona fide member of Nigeria’s royalty, the last couple of weeks were a dizzying spectacle of mixed messages on integrity, royalty and wisdom.

“Within a perimeter of weeks, Muhammadu Sanusi II, whose royal tentacles and social networks traverse the length and breadth of this country, lambasted the nation’s economic framework, the northern elite, sub-national leadership, especially the governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar and the traditional institution of marriage.

“With due respect to our highly revered traditional institutions and royal fathers, as a blue-blooded family member himself, Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar holds the emir in very high esteem.

“He (Yari) believes that the emir, as a brother and co-occupant of elite positions in Nigeria, could advise governors and those in positions of authority via several chains of communication that are richly available to him. But he preferred the public platform for reasons best known to him.”

Yari insisted that the nation’s leaders who consult pastors and imams for solutions to every social misfortune, should be wary of the wrath of God in the event of an epidemic of unquantifiable proportions such as Type C meningitis.

He said, “As a country that succumbs to the supremacy of Allah, we must continue to link Him with all things, fair or foul.

“Those who want to equate science with God, like Muhammad Sanusi II, can denounce Yari’s statement from the rooftops, but that will not change Yari’s beliefs in the omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence of Allah.”