Ousted Emir of Kano and former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Muhammad Sanusi has said that he is not interested in taking any political appointments or electoral office because they are not the only ways of rendering public service.
Speaking yesterday in an interview on Arise Television, he said he would, while considering the next important step to take, begin to serialise some of his articles on sharia, identity and some other issues.
“Maybe it is time to publish some collections of my articles that have no relationship with economics at all. They are about Sharia, identity etc. I had written some of them between 1999 and 2005. It may come out in a few months. Then the book on central banking will come out.
He said he had been inundated with calls to contest as president but he had reasoned and concluded that there are many ways other than politics one could be of service to one’s country.
“People have been talking to me about politics even when I was at the CBN in 2011; that they wanted me to be presidential candidate. I have never had an interest in partisan politics. The nature of my family is that we consider ourselves as leaders of all people and politics can be very divisive. You can join one political party and then alienate yourself from others.
“All I can say is that this is not something that is for me as an objective. I think there are many ways of being of service to the nation. If you look at my CV, I started off as an academic. I was teaching economics at Ahmadu Bello University and after just two years before I could complete my Master’s thesis I decided to go into banking for just no reason. And I have made a success of my career as a banker, as a regulator and as an Emir.
However, he hinted that he might in the long run return to academics having ended it abruptly when he left teaching at the ABU for banking.
“And in the process I am thinking that maybe I could get a PhD and maybe go back to my first career that I never concluded and just be a professor in different universities abroad,” he added.
In the event of that, Sanusi said he would be selling like hotcake because no university in the world after reading his curriculum vitae which includes information like former bank chief executive officer, central bank governor and traditional ruler would deny him appointment.
“And the great thing with the life I have led is that if I complete that PhD, how many universities would have someone with a PhD who has been a bank chief executive officer, governor of central bank and Emir? So, it is a kind of CV that would give you any university in the world, whether it is Harvard, Oxford or Cambridge and anywhere you want because it is now about my entire life experience.
“I am going to take life as it goes. I am in no hurry. I have enough on my plate and I see my life as life of service and I don’t think that public service is limited to elected office. Any opportunity I have to serve, I would take it if it is something I think I am capable of delivering. I have no immediate plans to go into politics,” he added.
