Sanusi Lamido, the Emir of Kano, has singled out polygamy as the major cause of poverty in the Northern part of Nigeria.
He said that the culture of marrying multiple wives and having lots of children needed to change in order for the North ti develop.
The emir, according to a report by PUNCH, made the comment in Gusau, Zamfara State, on Friday while presenting a paper. Sanusi was represented at the event by Dr Usman Bugaji.
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He said that the South was much more developed because they were not plagued by such cultural restraints.
He said,
“There are people who cannot afford to feed one wife but are ready to marry three wives and have more children than they cannot feed, talk less of paying for their school fees.
The poverty level of the North is 80 per cent; while in the South, the percentage is 20 per cent simply because of the culture of marrying many wives and producing many children who at the end are left on the streets to beg for what to eat.
The issues we have today such as drug abuse, Boko Haram, banditry and unemployment would be nothing compared to what we will be dealing with in the next 20 or 30.”
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