The emir spoke on Monday at the Kaduna state government house during a programme to commemorate the 60th birthday celebration of Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna.
Sanusi said as a leader, repeating the same thing and expecting a different result shows that something is wrong.
He noted that the real change can only occur in the north through those who do things differently.
He commended el-Rufai’s reforms in the education sector, noting that what the governor is doing in the sector is what will save the north.
“It is almost correct now to say that, if you are seen as normal, if you are a governor in the north or a leader in the north, and you are seen as normal in the sense that you continue to do what your predecessors have been doing, doing the same thing, which has been normalised, then, there is something wrong with you. You are part of the problem, ” Sanusi said.
“The real change in the north will come from those who are considered mad people, because you look around and say if this is the way we have been doing things, and this is where we have ended up, maybe we need to do things differently.
“If the north does not change, the north will destroy itself. The country is moving on… If we don’t listen, there would be a day when there would be a constitutional amendment that addresses these issues of quota system and federal character.
“The rest of the country cannot be investing, educating its children, producing graduates and then they watch us, they can’t get jobs because they come from the wrong state, when we have not invested in the future of our own children.”
The emir said no northern leader can afford to be happy in the midst of problems facing the region.
