The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, on Thursday declared that the poverty level of people living in Northern Nigeria is currently on the rise and residents may be forced to revolt if they’re not continuously pacified by traditional and religious leaders.
The Sultan stated this during the 6th executive Northern Traditional Council Committee meeting at the Arewa House in Kaduna.
The Sultan said “We are faced with rising level of poverty of most of our people. They lack normal sources of livelihood by the common man to have even a good meal a day.”
Speaking earlier, the Sokoto Sultan said the economic state is “getting to a level that traditional leaders could no longer pacify the people from revolting against the government and political leaders that were supposed to find solutions to their lingering socio-economic plight.
“And let’s not take it for granted; people are quiet, they are quiet for a reason, because people have been talking to them. We have been talking to them, we have been trying to tell them that things will be okay and they keep on believing.
“I pray to Almighty Allah that they will not one day wake up and say we no longer believe in you that would be the biggest problem. We can’t continue to keep these people quiet as traditional, spiritual leaders and diplomats forever.
“We have reached that level, people are very agitated, people are hungry, they are angry, but they still believe there are people who can talk to them. They believe in some of their Governors, some other traditional rulers and some of their religious leaders, fortunately, some of us double as traditional and religious leaders.
He added that the leaders have an “onerous task of reaching out to everybody, calm them down and assure them that things would be okay. And that they should continue to pray and still do something good because prayer without work will not bring anything good.”
“We are only advisers to the political leaders, that is all we can do. But if we are empowered and as strong as the governors by the constitution, by the amount of funds they get from the Federal and state revenues, we can also do a lot.
“However, we are ready to work with the governors because we believe in them. We believe in what they are doing and must work with them. And if the governors too want to have peace and stability in their states, they must work with the traditional leaders.
“We are gathered here for the sole purpose of looking at the issue troubling our dear Northern states. We also invited the security chiefs, the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Chief of Defence Staff, and Director-General, DG, State Security Service, SSS, to be with us and interact with us because of our concern for the rising insecurity in the North in particular.”
