Sultan of Sokoto reveals the worst place to live in Nigeria

The North is the worst place to live in Nigeria, the Sultan of Sokoto and President of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, said on Thursday.

He stated this about the same time governors of the six northeastern states met in Yola, Adamawa State where they lamented the security challenges bedevilling the region and also sort for power to prosecute Boko Haram suspects.

While speaking at the 4th Quarter Meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), Sultan Abubakar lamented insecurity and high cost of living, saying there must be deliberate action to address the issues.

The outcry by the Sultan came few days after a call by the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) on President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle raging insecurity in the North.

The Sultan, who is also the Co-Chairman of NIREC, said the poor people that form the majority were suffering.

He, however, noted that people should not behave irresponsibly and expect that the country would be a better place for them.

“We have security problems in the country. Bandits now go into people’s houses to kidnap and not on the highway anymore. In the last couple of days, they are going into institutions. In Zaria, they went to ABU and the polytechnic and took away people,” he said.

The Sultan said that in the North West, in particular, people can’t sleep with their eyes closed and lamented that even on Wednesday, a village was razed down in Sokoto but people don’t hear about such incidents.

“The insecurity in the North is so high that people are afraid of travelling from Funtua (Katsina State) to Zaria (Kaduna State); a journey of about 48 or 50 miles. This is not to talk of from Sokoto to Abuja or Kano.

“We know what we are going through. We are so insecure in the North that people are losing hope. People keep things in the house so that when the bandits come, they would let them be free.

“A couple of weeks ago, 76 people were killed in Sokoto by bandits in a day, it is not seen as a story because I went there with the governor of Sokoto but you don’t hear these stories because it happened in the North and we don’t have the media that is strong enough to bring out these atrocities by the bandits; so people think that the North is secure.

“The North is not secure at all; in fact, it is the worst place to be in this country because bandits go about in villages with their AK47 and nobody talks to them. They stop at the markets and buy things and even collect change with their weapons,” he said.

While lamenting the high cost of food and cost of living in the country, the Sultan said, “Food prices are on the increase and we need to do something about it. The cost of onion is too high and beyond the reach of many people.

“A hungry man is an angry man. The rising cost of foodstuff in the markets is an issue. The high cost of onions in Nigeria today is an insight into the current economic hardship in the country.

“I think we need to sit down and look at these issues…We do not lack recommendations and solutions to our problems. What we lack is implementation and that sense of purpose to do the right thing. We don’t like doing the right thing, we always want to cut corners,” he said.

On the recent #EndSARS protests, the Sultan said, “We have heard people calling for the scrapping of SARS.

“The president has done that and we later said bring police back. We cannot do without the police; we cannot do without our security agencies. No matter (how) bad the security agencies are, there are still excellent officers.

“What we need to do is to fish out the bad elements from the security agencies and to reform the agencies and make them better,” he said.

Also speaking, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Co-Chairman of NIREC, Dr Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, appealed for a concerted effort from Christians and Muslims to contain social vices including rape.

He called on the government to address the concerns raised by the #EndSARS protesters instead of clamping down on them.

On his part, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, regretted that Nigeria was still faced with insecurity.

“Today, despite all efforts including the deployment of enormous resources, our country still faces a measure of insecurity, which is impacting negatively on our economy, social life, education of children and young persons, investment and remains a threat to lives and livelihood,” he said.

He said the theme for this 4th Quarter 2020 meeting ‘Questing for peace in the challenges of insecurity and COVID-19’ was apt considering that peace and security were critical ingredients for growth and development.

He urged NIREC to use its traditional and religious capacities to further escalate its outreach to all Nigerians especially the youths at the grassroots.