By Ken Afor
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently address the current economic hardship in Nigeria before things get out of hand.
The monarch, who made the call during the 6th executive Northern Traditional Council Committee (NTC) meeting at the Arewa house in Kaduna State, lamented the level of poverty, unemployment, and insecurity in the country, particularly in the north.
The Sultan of Sokoto, while addressing members at the meeting, stated that there is a stage at which traditional rulers, religious leaders, and state governors can appeal to the people for calm and discourage them from rebelling against political leaders whom they voted into power and the authorities.
He, however, warned that if urgent measures are not taken to address the current economic crisis, there is a tendency for the masses to rise up and express their loss of faith in the administration of President Tinubu.
According to him, “It is getting to a level that traditional leaders could no longer pacify the people from revolting against government and political leaders that supposed to find solutions to their lingering socioeconomic plight.
“And let’s not take it for granted; people are quiet, they are quiet for a reason, because people have been talking to them. We have been talking to them, we have been trying to tell them that things will be okay and they keep on believing.
“I pray to Almighty Allah that they will not one day wake up and say we no longer believe in you that would be the biggest problem. We can’t continue to keep these people quiet as traditional, spiritual leaders and diplomats forever.
“We have reached that level, people are very agitated, people are hungry, they are angry, but they still believe there are people who can talk to them. They believe in some of their Governors, some other traditional rulers and some of their religious leaders, fortunately some of us double as traditional and religious leaders.”
While recognizing the responsibility of traditional rulers and religious leaders to reach out to the people and assure them that things would improve, the monarch reiterated the need for the government to take concrete action rather than relying solely on prayer.
Weighing in on the spate of insecurity in the north, the northern leader stated that the reason for the increased crime in the region was not due to a new government but because of the vast number of unemployed youths.
He expressed fears that if pragmatic steps are not taken to address the level of unemployment in the region, things might escalate, creating another problem.
He said: “So, we have this onerous task of reaching out to everybody, calm them down and assure them that things would be okay. And that they should continue to pray and still do something good because prayer without work will not bring anything good.
“To make matters worse, we are faced with rising level of poverty of most of our people. They lack normal sources of livelihood by the common man to have even a good meal a day.
“But I believe talking about insecurity and the rising level of poverty are two issues that we cannot fold our arms and think everything is fine. I have said it so many times and at so many fora that things are not alright in Nigeria. Of course, things are not okay in the North.
“What are the real issues bringing about poverty and rising cases of insecurity? I don’t think it is the issue of new government. To me, this government is a continuation of the former government. It is the same party. So, what really is the problem? I think that is one of the reasons we are here to talk to ourselves.
“We owe it a duty to the teeming millions of people that believe in the traditional institution, to bring solution to the various problems facing them. We will not fail in doing that. We will do our best. We must find jobs for our teeming youths sitting idle. I have said it so many times; we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder having teeming youths without jobs and food. We are looking for trouble.
“We are gathered here for the sole purpose of looking at the issue troubling our dear Northern states. We also invited the security chiefs, the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Chief of Defence Staff, and Director-General, DG, State Security Service, SSS, to be with us and interact with us because of our concern for the rising insecurity in the North in particular.
“We have had such meetings before with the Northern Governors, so many times at Kashim Ibrahim House. We have entered into a new cycle of leadership. Some new Governors have come on board while some are having their second terms and still we are faced with these insecurity issues.
“I have said so many times that we never lack solution to our problems. What we lack is implementation because we meet today, bring out so many beautiful ideas on how to solve our problems, go back to our various places and go to bed, leaving such solutions here in this conference hall. So, how do we implement them?”
“But, we thank Allah we believe in ourselves, we believe in Almighty Allah to bring succour to all our problems. We will keep on praying and urging our political leaders, who we believe will do something better.
“We are only advisers to the political leaders, that is all we can do. But if we are empowered and as strong as the governors by the constitution, by the amount of funds they get from the Federal and states revenues, we can also do a lot.
“However, we are ready to work with the governors because we believe in them. We believe in what they are doing and must work with them. And if the governors too want to have peace and stability in their states, they must work with the traditional leaders.”
