Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has said late Yusuf Bala Usman made him a radical emir.
Speaking on Friday in Kaduna at the 10th anniversary memorial seminar in honour of late Yusuf Bala Usman organised by the Centre for Democratic Development and Research Training the emir said the message Bala left is a message that all should take home.
He stressed: “We spend so many decades fighting a system and every time we think we have defeated one system, the next one seems to be even worse and it is like an uphill task, if you look at what we were fighting in the 1970’s and 1980’s against the MPN, and compare the MPN with what came after that, the MPN will look like an angel.
“So, we are at a point in this country where we actually have to reverse this trend, for us that were in ABU in the 70’s, we were inspired or taught by late Bala. Most of us graduated from being radical teachers to radical professors, to radical bankers and radical emirs but we never left the essential message of Bala and it is a message that all of us should take home.
“In life, if you are at all committed to struggle, struggle only has meaning if it is against injustice and oppression. Any other struggle is meaningless, fighting for ethnicity, starting needless and mindless religious wars, struggle for spores of power, none of those are worth it.”
The Governor of Katsina state, Aminu Masari who was the chairman of the occasion said late Yusuf Bala Usman remains a symbol of struggle.
“Bala dedicated his life to the improvement of the lives of the less fortunate and because of the views he held when he was alive, he is still not forgotten 10 years after his death,” he said.
On his part, Governor of Kaduna state, Malam Nasir El-Rufai said the late Bala Usman inspired everyone who studied at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna state.
Bala Usman was the Head of Department (HOD), history, at ABU in the early 70s, and was later appointed Secretary to the State Government (SSG) by then governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa in the late 70s.