*As Sultan urges Nigerians to seek divine intervention through prayers
By OUR REPORTER, Kaduna
Northern Nigeria Traditional Rulers Council has told the Federal Government that unless the necessary action is taken, insecurity, poverty and unemployment in Nigeria, and North in particular, have made Nigeria sit on a keg of gunpowder, ready to explode.
The Council spoke through its Chairman and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, during the 6th Executive Northern Traditional Rulers Council committee meeting, held Abubakar, at the Arewa House, Kaduna, on Wednesday February 14, 2024.
They told the central government that the traditional rulers, religious leaders as well as state governors have been pacifying the masses and the jobless youth not to revolt against political leaders at the helm of affairs.
“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 socio-economic plight,” the Council said in the Sultan’s address.
He said, “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 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. Because that would be the biggest problem, because we can’t quieten these people 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.”
“So, we have this onerous task of reaching out to everybody, calm them down and assure them things would be okay, and they should continue to pray and pray and still do something good, because prayer without work will not bring anything.”
“To make matters worse, we are faced with rising level of poverty of most of our people; 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 okay. I have said it so many times and at so many fora that, things are not okay in Nigeria and 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.”
He continued, “We must find jobs for our teeming youth that are sitting idle and I have said it so many times, we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder, having teeming youths, millions of them, without jobs, without food, we are looking for trouble.
“But, we thank Allah we believe in ourselves, we believe in Almighty Allah to bring succour to all our problems and 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.”
“We are gathered here again for the sole purpose of looking at the issue troubling our dear Northern States. We also invited the security chiefs, the IGP, Chief of Defence Staff, DG 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 term 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, we bring out so many beautiful ideas on how to solve our problems, we go back to our various places and go to bed, leaving such solutions here in this conference hall. So, how do we implement them?”
“This is why we invited the leadership of Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) to come and interact with us on the outcome of similar meeting they organized in Abuja. We invited the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to be part of us and talk to us too, because as elders, some of whom have been in politics, who have done a lot for the North and the country. At the end of the meeting, we believe we will come up with various suggestions on how to resolve our numerous problems in the North.”
“Education is important, so whatever issue you want to bring to us here, you must talk about education, you must talk about health issue and of the two monsters that have been harassing all of us here, that is insecurity and poverty.”
“So, I think it’s good we talk about these things and let us be very honest with ourselves, let us be very frank about what we are going to tell ourselves here; it is no time to hide things.”
“I believe at the end of this meeting, we should have very good suggestions to our political leaders, to our security chiefs, that when such is implemented, we will have a better North and at the same time have a better Nigeria,” the Sultan said.
