The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar has advocated
dialogue as the panacea to the agitation for the breakup of Nigeria.
Speaking when he hosted leaders of resident communities,
heads of security agencies, civil society groups and media practitioners to a
Ramadan break fast dinner at his palace in Sokoto, the monarch maintained that
no matter the call for secession, Nigerians would remain one big family.
He said, “No matter what anybody can say, no matter what is
happening, we are still one big family.
“Let’s sit down, discuss these issues. So that together we
can find out what really went wrong. Let us retrace our step and see where we
started getting things wrong so that we can find the way of sorting things out.
“It is a simple thing because we are all eager to live in
peace, united and to have a morally upright country based on justice, equity
and above all fear of God
“I am totally disappointed over what is happening. I like
challenges and we are in a challenging period and we will take it up. We will
continue preaching love, impartiality, respect and unity in the country.”
Urging Nigerians to shun suspicion and respect one another,
the Sultan called on elders to caution their youth.
He said, “If you see your son misbehaving and decides to
keep quit it means you are supporting him because no father want to see his son
going astray without doing anything.”
Abubakar noted that God never made a mistake by, “creating
us as Nigerians,” adding that as men of faith, Nigerians should accept that and
live in peace with one another.
He said, “We don’t have to resort to uncomplimentary remarks
or violence to make our demands heard because insecurity doesn’t help anybody.
No violence pays anybody or resolve any problem.
” We should stop looking down on others unless we want to
lift them up. We should understand ourselves and respect one another.”
By Seun Opejobi
