The Sultan of Sokoto and President General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, has warned that the country may not survive if the Buhari government fails to address the issues spurring anger, hatred and intolerance in the country.
He said the time for excuses is over, and called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to start taking responsibility for all the atrocities being committed under his watch.
Abubakar who made the statement in reaction to a viral video by a popular Islamic cleric in Zaria, who vowed that there would be reprisals over the recent killing of 22 travellers in Jos, Plateau State, said religious leaders who make statements that encourages killings in the country, must be hold accountable irrespective of who they are, whether Christians or Muslims.
He said he does not understand the reasons behind Buhari’s inability to take actions against such people especially the Imam in the viral video.
“What are our security agencies doing that they cannot invite those making these videos and saying nasty and bad things that raise tensions higher? Nobody should be above the law, whether you are a Christian or Muslim. You cannot incite people to kill innocent people,” the monarch said.
While lamenting the level of insecurity in the land, Abubakar said it had become a worrisome situation that the security agencies were unable to demystify the so-called “unknown gunmen,” who raid communities and institutions, kill unarmed citizens and abduct scores of people unchallenged.
He said, “How can people, who do these things, be unknown? Where are our intelligence agencies? Don’t we have a proactive intelligence agency that will think ahead of the bandits?
In eastern Sokoto alone, there was a day we buried 76 persons, who were killed in cold blood by criminals who came from ‘nowhere’. There was another day we buried 48 persons in the same Sokoto, but you didn’t hear about it.
“All the people committing such atrocities must be identified. The security agencies must up their game, find them and take action on this kind of carnage. If we start doing so, all this carnage we see in this country will stop.”
The Sultan called on the President to convene and chair a national dialogue on the challenges facing the country with a view to designing lasting ways to solve them.
He stated, “What is so difficult in the Presidency leading a national dialogue? Why are we afraid of talking to one another in a dialogue? What dialogue cannot solve, violence cannot solve it either.
“So, I think it’s high time we put aside ethnic and religious sentiments and told ourselves the truth that what is happening in this country is not right. This is the way we should go if we really want to have a country. The President should lead the way in this.”