A group of Northern Elders under the aegis of Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace Development have commended the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar for demonstrating the courage to speak on the deplorable security situation in the troubled region.
According to the group, the position of the Sultan aptly captured a true reflection of the state of insecurity in the North which they maintain, is largely responsible for the food crisis bedevilling the country.
In the bid to proffer lasting solution to the security challenges, the Coalition called for the immediate removal of the Service Chiefs as part of the restructuring of the security architecture of the country.
While reflecting to Sultan’s position, the Coalition in a statement co-signed by its national coordinator, Mr Zana Goni and the National Women Leader, Hajia Mario Bichi, submitted that the Sultan vindicated their consistent alarm on the state of insecurity in the region.
In the bid to address the myriad of crises bedevilling the region, the group called on other prominent Northern leaders to join their voices in projecting the true position of things in the region, with the view to draw the attention of relevant authorities.
The statement read: “More importantly, they reiterated their call on President Muhammadu to rejig and restructure the security architecture in the country, in order to cause meaningful change in status quo.
It continued: “We most respectfully commend the Sultan of Sokoto, our father, for stating the true position of things in the North, as it concerns insecurity.
“We had said it over and over again, that the state of insecurity had reached a point where our farmers can hardly access their farms, even as travellers on busy highways can no longer guarantee their safe arrival without being kidnapped.
“Our mothers, fathers and children are now at the mercy of terrorists and bandits, who kill, harass and destroy property without being confronted, in many instances, by our security operatives.
“As patriotic elders, we think the position of the Sultan is a Clarion call to our dear President, His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, to restructure the security architecture in the country without further delay.
” We applaud our President for ensuring huge budgetary allocation to the military and security sectors, thereby demonstrating his interest in securing lives and property.
“We, however, regret that our Security Chiefs have not shown commensurate commitment in tackling these security challenges, owing to what we see as lethargy and spent ideas.
“Accordingly, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Service Chiefs without further delay, and appoint younger senior officers that will bring fresh perspectives and ideas to bear in addressing the deteriorating security situation in the North in particular, and the country in general.”
Recall that the Sultan of Sokoto had at last Thursday’s meeting of the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), expressed grave concern over the precarious security situation in the North, saying the region was now the worst place to live.
Reflecting on the activities of bandits in the North West, the Sultan said: “people leave foodstuff in their houses for bandits.”
While calling for urgent action through actionable engagement, the spiritual leader of Muslims in Nigeria said: “Security situation in Northern Nigeria has assumed a worrisome situation”, regretting that no strong media platform could report the story to the world.
The monarch had said: “Few weeks ago, over 76 persons were killed in a community in Sokoto in a day. I was there alongside the governor to commiserate with the affected community.
“Unfortunately, you don’t hear these stories in the media because it’s in the North. We have accepted the fact that North me doesn’t have strong media to report the atrocities of these bandits.
“People think the North is safe but that assumption is not true. In fact, it’s the worst place to be in this country. Because bandits go around in the villages, households and markets with their AK 47 rifles and nobody is challenging them.
“They stop at the market, buy things, pay and collect change, with their weapons openly displayed. These are facts I know because I am at the centre of it. I am not only a traditional ruler; I am also a religious leader.
“So, I am in a better place to tell the story. I can speak for the North in this regard because I am fully aware of the security challenges there. We have to sincerely and seriously find solutions to the problem; otherwise, we will find ourselves soon, in a situation where we would lose sleep because of insecurity.
“As religious leaders, we must promote peace, love, unity and tolerance among our followers. We will discuss all these issues at the close door session of the meeting and possibly come out with strong suggestions for government,” the Sultan noted.
Well said, Sultan; but the truth, Sir, is: we are all harvesting the fruits the north planted years ago by denying its young people access to western education and instead using themfor political thuggery.
The rain is now beating all of us in the country, but of course beginning from the north.
Truth is, it will hammer us for quite a long time to come even if the dead wood service chiefs are removed. This is because the terrorism and banditery have taken a strong root and festered for a very long time without a serious check.
One way to begin to reclaim Nigeria beginning from the north is to invest massively in education – especially at the primary and secondary school levels. Secondly is to urgently restructure this nation fundamentally, not applying peripheral approach; and this must be done before any talk of general election in 2023.
The spiritual and traditional rulers in the north, in concert with their southern colleagues, must champion this issue of restructuring because they stand to benefit the more of their people/citizens are liberated. The feeling that the north will lose out from restructuring is totally wrong. The present arrangement is only beneficial to the few greedy northern and even southern elite who misrepresent the region and hijack all the benefits to the total exclusion of the majority of the hapless citizens.
A restructured polity will expose them and force the political elite to work for the people and open up the north to invest in their people. Enough of this wickedness from Nigeria’s political elite, especially those of northern extraction.