One of Nigeria's most powerful Muslim clerics, the Emir of Kano, has called for a law to compel politicians and religious leaders to undergo a drugs test, saying they were deceiving themselves if they refused to acknowledge they were "part of the problem".

Speaking at a conference on drug abuse in the northern city of Kano yesterday, Muhammad Sanusi II said he was prepared to take a test and "if I am found not worthy of being emir I will quietly resign".

It was hypocritical for “a governor or senator or any big political office-holder” to condemn drug abuse while having “highly drugged thugs as his bodyguards", he said.

The emir added:

Today, it is better to be a drug baron on the payroll of a political leader than to be a legally recognised security man, which means we must clean our acts before trying to achieve anything."