Former Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi on Monday declared he would always choose to be Khalifa Tijaniyah as against being President of Nigeria.

Declaring that he is not interested in contesting the 2023 presidency, Sanusi stated that Nigeria is living on an “extra time,” warning that deeper and more complex challenges await the nation.

The former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, who spoke in Abeokuta when he visited the Babanla Adinni of Egbaland, Chief Tayo Showunmi, predicted that “in 2023, we will be in even more deeper hole than in 2015.”

He was in Abeokuta to felicitate with Showunmi, who celebrated his birthday last week, which he was unable to attend.

Fielding questions from reporters, he said he has no presidential ambition in 2023.

He said he had seen it all at 60, having been blessed by Almighty Allah, stressing he prefers the Khalifa Tijaniyah position he occupies to being President.

Sanusi said: “When they tell me to go into politics, you are telling me to set aside one type of authority and look for another type of authority, to leave what God has given me and pursue something else.

“I am the first and only northern Nigerian to be Chief Executive Officer of First Bank since it was set up in 1823. In this same life, God has made me Governor of Central Bank. He has made me Emir of Kano. He has made me Khalifa of Tijaniyah. What am I looking for?

“If we all go into politics, who is going to make politician to account? Who is going to stand up to tell them you are going wrong? Who is going to speak with the people and explain sometimes difficult policies that people don’t like, but which are in the long term interest of the people?

“People don’t understand the role we play as religious leaders, traditional rulers, that they think we should go and be a Governor or President, to be honest I think that the role I play can be more than that of the President.

“To be Khalifa Tijaniyah, is an office that personally that has proven the choice between that office and the Presidency, I will choose that office. I can only speak about what I want, what I see and what I think, but at the end, we all have to submit ourselves,” he concluded.

(The Nation)

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