Sultan blames northern govs for insecurity, illiteracy

The Sultan of Sokoto and Chairman of the Northern Council of Chiefs and Emirs, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III has blamed the northern political leaders for slowing down the quest for a peaceful and development in the North.


Emirs, Chiefs and the leadership of the Northern Elders Forum met on Wednesday in Kaduna in their quest for peace and unity of sons and daughters of the region.

Sources at the meeting, which was held at Lugard Hall, Kaduna said the monarchs and the elders deliberated extensively on the security and other challenges confronting the region, with a view to finding lasting solution to the problems.

But the Sultan of Sokoto and Chairman of the Northern Council of Chiefs and Emirs, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, at the event, blamed the northern political leaders for slowing down the quest for a peaceful and developed region.

The Sultan noted that the traditional institution had existed long before the amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914 with a stronger leadership and vision to see their communities living in a more peaceful atmosphere; more developed and more prosperous; therefore, “they were in a better position to advise the political leaders.”
The Sulta lamented that after the meeting of the traditional rulers last year, they(traditional rulers) presented their position papers to the governors of the security situations in the north and nothing was done about it.
He said, “In our quest to develop the North because we are northern leaders, first we always try to reach out to our political leaders. I want to put on record here that, even last year, we presented a position paper to the Northern Governors Forum on the way forward to reduce the suffering of our people caused by lack of education, by insecurity and all sort of things.


“The paper has been given to them and I want to draw the attention of the northern governors forum that we are yet to hear anything on that paper we gave them. They should reach out to us to brief us so that we can continue to contribute on how really to sustain peace and development of the North.

“We are here to continue our deliberations in our quest to have a peaceful, stable and developed North, as most of you know the days of Ahmadu Bello (of blessed memory) things were much better than they are now.”