The leader of Muslims in Nigeria and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad
Abubakar III, has declared the traditional institution’s support to
President Muhammadu Buhari’s war on corruption.
Similarly, the Sultan, who is also a member of the General Abubakar
Abdulsalami-led National Peace Committee, called on the president to
ensure that all those who had stolen the country’s national wealth, were
not spared, but be made to face the music.
This is even as he said the properties of those culpable should not only
be confiscated, but such people should be prosecuted and sent to jail.
The Sultan spoke on Monday, in Abuja, as a keynote speaker, at the
National Security Summit, organised by the Nigeria Police, in
collaboration with The Sun Publishing Limited.
According to the Sultan, the on going fight against terrorism by
President Buhari was already yielding positive results, he also noted
that to succeed in the fight against corruption, President Buhari needed
to find a way of operating within the Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio’s concept
of State and Human Security, as was done in the Sokoto caliphate.
Noting that the said concept was built on three pillars, the Sultan also
noted that there could be no development without justice, since justice
was the basis of all progress. He listed the three pillars as justice
and fairness to all, socio-economic development and the fight against
corruption.
He said:
“At an early stage of the Caliphate, its leaders realized that they
needed honest persons at all levels to be able to establish a decent
state. ‘Leaders,’ according to (the late) Sultan Muhammad Bello, are
like a spring of water and all your officials are like water wheels. If
the spring is pure, the filth of the water wheels cannot harm it. If on
the other hand, the spring is polluted, the purity of the water wheel
will have little effect on the purity of the water. We thank God that
our current president is like a spring of water.”
The ruler was urged by the caliphate leaders to estimate their employees
wealth before appointing them and also watch their conduct at all
times.
He said:
“He shall confiscate whatever is in excess of their legitimate income
and, if in doubt, confiscate half of it. To his subjects, he will be ‘as
the Shepherd of a flock among ravening lions. “On this note, I call on
the president to confiscate the properties of all those who are guilty
of corruption. They should be prosecuted and send to jail.
In regards to bribery and gift-giving, Shaykh Abdullahi Ibn Fodio
said ‘another thing agreed as being illegal is the collection of bribes
on behalf of the leader or other officials like the judges and other
employees. It is also illegal to accept gifts from the common people.
For such action is the door leading to all types of calamities. When a
gift finds its way to a man of authority, justice and goodness will find
its way out of him; and what he does is to purchase for himself a place
in hell.
The Sultan added:
“Our national security agencies must join the crusade against
corruption, with commitment and determination. Regardless of how well
trained and equipped an organisation is, it cannot attain its full
potential if it allows corruption and corrupt elements to grace its
corridors. Those who conspire to corrupt our national institutions from
the outside must face the same consequences as those who do it from
within,”
“I wish to call upon President Buhari, to whenever feasible, institute a
national integrity plan, supported by a National Integrity Institute,
which shall refocus our ethical, moral and spiritual energies and the
indomitable spirit of our people into building a peaceful, prosperous
and democratic country, able and willing to take its pride of place in
the comity of nations.”
Also the National Chairman of the Police Community Relations Commission,
Alhaji Farouk Maiyama, challenged the nation to embrace the totality of
community policing as the most effective way of fostering a safer
nation and making the police work better.
Maiyama said so long as the task of the police was must be felt in the
community, what would make it work better and effective was grassroots
integration with the community, saying there was no person that
threatened the security of the community that does not live among the
people and known by the community.
He said if the people and the police were able to build better trust, it
would be easy to get rid of crime and make the nation safer and
progressive.
The Sun
