Let’s Also Use Mosques For Schools, Emir Sanusi Tells Northerners
Worried by the decreasing rate of education in the northern part of Nigeria, Emir of Kano, His Royal Highness Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II, has tasked Northern Muslims to revive the idea of seeing mosque just as place of worshipping alone, but as a place of education, knowledge and training.
The Emir stated this at the 6th convocation of the Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja, where 21 students bagged First Class; 67 got Second Class Upper; 96 got Second Class Lower Division, and two persons got Third Class, making a total number of 365 students who graduated.
Sanusi, who was conferred with an Honorary Doctor of Science (Honaris causa), alongside the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, said the Federal Government must use part of the trillions of naira it spent on subsiding petroleum products to educate the youth of the country.
He however used the occasion to go down memory lane on the great achievements of the Sultan of Ottoman Empire, Suleyman the Magnificent, who contributed in great measure to the growth and development of education in Turkey when he set up schools funded by Islamic Foundation and tied it to mosques that gave the Turks the best education during his reign, adding that Turkey has continued to reap the fruit of that investment till today.
While delivering his speech, he noted that having said that in the last three years in many parts of northern Nigeria, he had gone to some local government areas where they have no schools, but could boast of 20 mosques or more, and that it was worrisome.
He said “I have said it that let us use those 20 mosques established in areas where there are no schools as schools for our children to be educated. We do not need to start building 20 schools. When I said this, people thought it was strange, this is something we see been done in Turkey in centuries past and before.
“You built beautiful mosque, you pray in the morning, you are not using it until 2pm, between the first morning praying hour and second in the afternoon is enough time to use it to offer full primary course and you can have an afternoon course too.
“Let us revive the idea of the mosque, not just as a place of worship, but as a place of education, knowledge and training. And that will reduce the cost of bringing education closer to the people.”
“We need to lay more emphasis on the quality of people we elect to executive and legislative offices and we need to make sure that those to whom we entrust policy are themselves educated and know the value of education.
“Let us invest more in education and let us give up some of the privileges that we have such as the trillions we are spending subsiding petroleum products. That money should go into educating our young people.
