Sultan supports dialogue, rules out war in Nigeria

The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, on Wednesday recommended dialogue as the best way to tackle the different difficulties presently confronting the nation.

The Sultan ruled out the likelihood of starting a war in the nation, deliberating who will wage war against others.

Abubakar, who is also the President of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, talked at the 2021 Second Quarterly Meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council with the topic, “Ethnics, religious and political profiling is avoidable.”

He jointly chairs the council with the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Dr Samson Ayokunle.

Abubakar said, “People have been talking about war, there will not be war in Nigeria. Who is going to fight who?

“In families, we have Christians and Muslims, you have ethnic nationalities in your country, you have inter-married.

“So, all these noise people are making is trying to draw attention to what they can get out of this country, and if you look at them, they are in minority.

“In this country, there are excellent people that mean well for common man and humanity, and that is what God created us to do.”

The traditional ruler appealed to Nigerians to cooperate to tackle the difficulties of the country through dialogue.

He added, “Let us continue to work together. Let us continue to sit together. Let us continue to dialogue. I am a total believer in dialogue and nothing will change my mind because my religion teaches me to always dialogue and I believe no problem is too big not to be resolved when we sit down and talk because even wars are fought to bring peace.

“But if you know you can bring peace without fighting a war, then why do you have to take up arms? Peace is the most important aspect of our lives because without peace, we can’t even worship.”

Meanwhile, Ayokunle lamented that the present security difficulties had incapacitated human activities across the country.

He said, “Many things are not right with the nation, the most challenging one today is insecurity which has almost paralyzed all human activities apart from the havoc the restriction brought about by COVID-19 has done.

“To travel short distance today calls for serious prayers, and travelling with perhaps every security personnel because of kidnapping for ransom, ritual killing, armed robbery, insurgents attack, banditry and other forms of violent attack.

“Farmers’ lives are threatened on their farms while some have been killed while farming.

“The result of attacks on farmers is the scarcity of farm products which will lead to famine if care is not taken by those in authority quickly.”

Ayokunle also showed confidence that the solution to the delusion of difficulties in the nation is not break up. He urged the government to address the worries of the citizens.