The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar has advocated dialogue as the panacea to the agitation for the breakup of Nigeria.
Speaking when he hosted leaders of resident communities, heads of security agencies, civil society groups and media practitioners to a Ramadan break fast dinner at his palace in Sokoto, the monarch maintained that no matter the call for secession, Nigerians would remain one big family.
He said, “No matter what anybody can say, no matter what is happening, we are still one big family.
“Let’s sit down, discuss these issues. So that together we can find out what really went wrong. Let us retrace our step and see where we started getting things wrong so that we can find the way of sorting things out.
“It is a simple thing because we are all eager to live in peace, united and to have a morally upright country based on justice, equity and above all fear of God
“I am totally disappointed over what is happening. I like challenges and we are in a challenging period and we will take it up. We will continue preaching love, impartiality, respect and unity in the country.”
Urging Nigerians to shun suspicion and respect one another, the Sultan called on elders to caution their youth.
He said, “If you see your son misbehaving and decides to keep quit it means you are supporting him because no father want to see his son going astray without doing anything.”
Abubakar noted that God never made a mistake by, “creating us as Nigerians,” adding that as men of faith, Nigerians should accept that and live in peace with one another.
He said, “We don’t have to resort to uncomplimentary remarks or violence to make our demands heard because insecurity doesn’t help anybody. No violence pays anybody or resolve any problem.
” We should stop looking down on others unless we want to lift them up. We should understand ourselves and respect one another.”
