Sultan of Sokoto: Northern Elders Have Failed the Region The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, in this interview with journalists in Sokoto, conducted during the Ramadan, speaks on the current security challenge in the North and other issues. Mohammed Aminu was there. Excerpts: - On the role northern elders should play in the effort to end violence in the region. I am happy that the Kaduna-based group, Peace Revival and Reconciliation Foundation of Nigeria (PRRFN) has taken the responsibility of doing what the elders have failed to do in the North. This is a group of youths, a team of young men and women comprising Christians and Muslims, who are working for unity and peace in the North. These youths are doing what the elders are supposed to do. The elders are busy fanning the embers of hatred, instability, disharmony, ethnicity and religion but these youths have taken over the job of the elders to correct things that are wrong in the region. The elders should be ashamed of what they are doing because the youths have taken it upon themselves to correct things that are not going well in the polity. These youths are working to ensure that there is peace, stability and unity among different ethnic groups and religion. It is the youths that will be hoodwinked and deceived into taking up arms by the elders to fight their neigbours and to be killed in the process. The youths are always the victims of violence and this thing must stop. These elders are in the comfort of their homes secured, while the sons and daughters of the downtrodden are sent out in the field to be killed while they continue to live in affluence. So, I am challenging the youths to say no to this violence. They should say no when these elders are trying to lead them astray. As a youth, you have your life to live. As youths, you have a bright future, you are vibrant and you should fashion out where this country should be heading to. We are happy with what this group is doing and have been working with its leader, Barrister Solomon Dalung, to find a lasting peace in Kaduna and Plateau states. I am happy that things are taking shape in a positive way and the group is doing its best to bring unity in the North. So, I am glad that this group is here at the palace to felicitate with us and share the love of brotherhood in the spirit of the Ramadan. - On what religious leaders should do to promote religious harmony in the country. What I always preach is for people to live in peace with one another. I will always preach the need for peaceful coexistence. God cannot be wrong by creating us as Christians, Muslims, Budhists and Hindus. That is why He said in the holy Quran that he created us into tribes and nations. So, God cannot be wrong because if He had wanted, He would have made us all Chinese or Christians. But He created us into tribes and nations. There is a place in China where some minority Muslims are not allowed to fast. In fact, they are given free lunch and they are practically not fasting. So, if anybody wants to wage a war to compel others to convert to Islam whereas Almighty God said there is no compulsion in religion, then that person is not a true Muslim and not acting for Islam. That is the only way we can separate the truth from darkness. That is why it is very wrong for people to generalise things and I keep on saying that people should not generalise issues. I have never heard of Christian terrorists but all we hear in the media is Muslim terrorists when it happens to be a Muslim. This issue is everywhere in the world and it is a global thing where people are tagged Islamic fundamentalists or Muslim terrorists. Why not treat such people as terrorists and common criminals and deal with them according to the laws of the land, whoever he is? As long as we continue to label other people negatively because of the religion they belong to or certain activities being done by a particular religion, then we will continue to have problem. So, anybody who commits an offence should be dealt with as a criminal. - On how Nigeria can solve the Boko Haram insurgency, given the unremitting bomb and gun attacks by the group despite the federal government’s efforts to contain the menace. There is only one life and it is only Almighty God that can take it. That is why the two major religions of Islam and Christianity really abhor taking the life of innocent people without due process. Suicide bombers are not representing any religion because in Islam there is nothing like that. Islam abhors the taking of life of innocent people without due process. Therefore, I want to call on all those who think that what is happening in the North, in particular, is a plan to exterminate other religions to have a rethink. There is no plan to emasculate any religion and we want to make that very clear to all. We must come together and we must continue to talk to one another if we want to find concrete solutions to the myriad of problems affecting us. We have to strengthen the tie of brotherhood and unity in this country. The Ramadan is coming to an end and this shows how our life is fast diminishing. The Almighty God doesn’t make mistakes. We are in this world temporarily and that is why we need to be our brothers’ keeper, so we must help one another irrespective of religion. - On the recent death of some journalists in an auto accident. I want to once again commiserate with the Nigeria Union of Journalist for the death of its three officials that lost their lives in a motor accident. We pray that God will give their families the fortitude to bear the loss. The death of the journalists shows the importance attached to the life of humanity and people felt bad when God took their lives. There is virtually nobody in Nigeria who did not commiserate with the NUJ or the families of the three journalists. In fact, the Presidency, political leaders and various groups expressed sadness over the incident. Do we really sit down in our own places and homes and think we can just wake up and start killing one another in the name of terrorism and whatever it is? Are we the same people that will sit down somewhere and plan to take other people’s lives in the name of religion? I think something is wrong somewhere and we have to ask ourselves, what are the causes of this insecurity and who are behind the upheavals in this country and, particularly, in the North. - Advice to journalists. As journalists, you must do investigative journalism. You must go deep and find out who are those individuals behind the violence and upheavals in the country. I believe we have to challenge journalists to be up and doing. We want constructive criticism, where people write facts and not fiction. Some of you write to sell your newspapers; some of you journalists don’t care about the security of this country and engage in sensationalism because you really want the newspapers to sell. - On his advice to politicians currently strategising ahead of the 2015 elections. I stand totally on the part of truth and justice and nothing more. Wherever there is truth, we will be there and we will always tell the people the truth till the end of my life. We will always call on our leaders to give justice to the people in the course of the discharge of their duties. So many things have been going on, rightly and wrongly, in the country. So many people have kept off while some are strategising for 2015, but you will never hear anything from me about 2015 elections. The only thing is that we will continue to pray to God to give us leaders that will take us out of this quagmire, out of this present situation in the country and nothing more. We are not politicians and based on our positions as traditional leaders, we will always remain apolitical. So, we will keep on praying to God to give us leaders that will lead us right and take us to the Promised Land. - On the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities. I am always sad when I hear of strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities. These strikes hardly occur outside the country or in private universities. It is sad that in some Nigerian universities, students spend seven years and graduate without acquiring any knowledge or have anything on their heads. During strikes, students stay at home, lazing away and doing negative things, and by the time the students are called back, they are rushed with exams without imbibing anything. So, I feel very sad when I hear of ASUU strike. We are now back to square one and we seem not to have a solution at hand to solve the problem. So, as fathers, we will continue to plead, we must find a common ground. I am pleading with ASUU to call off the strike and for the federal government to be given a chance once more. We must find a common ground. I believe ASUU and the federal government should give dialogue a chance. We must find a common ground. Negotiation is a give-and-take and people should negotiate based on mutual respect. I don’t believe in strike action because students and parents suffer in the end. I believe we will make headway and find a way out of the problem. We want to see education move to greater heights in this country. As a Chancellor of one of the foremost universities in the country, I want to see education take its rightful place of development in the country. I was at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, few months ago and the situation is pathetic. That is why we made an endowment to raise some money to build infrastructure for the university. I really commend General Theophilus Danjuma for donating a building worth N2.5 billion to ABU. And I believe with people like him, we will make headway in transforming our universities to what it is supposed to be. So, the strike should be an issue of give-and-take and what you will give should be what the federal government will be able to give and afford. So, I call on ASUU to suspend the strike action, resume talks and go back to the negotiating table so that we can make progress, while at the same time the federal government should fulfill its obligation.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 00:14:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015