As the nation seems to be counting the human and material losses it incurs almost on a daily basis because of the activities of the terrorist group Boko Haram, the Sultan of Sokoto and president-general, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Sa’ad Abubakar III, has condoled with Nigerians but assured that Boko Haram is not and will never succeed.
The Sultan, who spoke during a dinner with the 18th Regular Course of the Nigerian Defence Academy in his palace, added that he is very confident that those with the ideological inscription and conviction of Boko Haram are already declining in number.
“Insurgents are not succeeding and they will not. And with the way things are going, I’m sure that the real Boko Haram are very small now; it’s just that some miscreants are using it as a franchise to commit a series of crime against humanity.”
The Sultan, who decried that offences in Nigeria will continue so long as the government is not ready to do the right thing, added that Nigeria is a country that prefers sycophants to realists.
“People commit offences in Nigeria with impunity. And they will continue to commit it because they know they will not be punished for committing it. But the truth remains that, unless you punish an offender, nothing will change for the better. We must obey the law of the land. If we don’t do that, then, we will not have a country because a country where there is no law, then, there is no country.”
He stated that leaders in Nigeria at whatever position should endeavour to lead with the fear of God and exhibit justice in all their dealings. “Justice is sacrosanct to the wellbeing of any nation,” he said. “Justice is the foundation of any good governance.”
Advising leaders to strive and be upright in their dealings, not minding criticisms, the traditional cum religious leader said: “Leadership is a job that when you do something right nobody wants to remember but when you do anything wrong, the whole world would like to hear it.”
The Sultan commended President Goodluck Jonathan for the initiative of raising funds for supporting insurgency victims, admonishing Nigerians to be honest with themselves to facilitate collective achievement of our goals.
“Nigeria needs much more than we are getting in terms of truthfulness. And if we are not truthful to one another, we cannot get solutions to our problems. We therefore need to be more honest with ourselves to achieve the collective aim of having a nation which will be the pride of all.”
The Sultan lamented that the rancour between the Nigeria Police and the army is getting worse, warning the army against the use of force on civilians, just as he reminded them of the rule of engagement.
Decrying the recent incident in Zaria, Kaduna State, where the three sons of the Shi’ite Islamic movement leader, El-Zazaki, were killed, Sultan asked: “Is our military losing the training through excessive use of force or a way of defending itself? If things do not augur well for the country because of consistent clashes of soldiers, police and civilians, then we have a problem. We must find a way of reducing the friction between the military/police and the civilian as well. In those days, the military didn’t know anything like your religion, region or the rest but all they knew was rather you are a Nigerian.”
Speaking on the occasion, Flt Lt Mathias Ineke (rtd) observed that the replacement of merit with connection and nepotism is the major cause of the consistent clashes of the army and police down to the civilians.
Ineke said that until the nation goes back to recruitment based on merit, as was the case before, such clashes will be inevitable. A good number of those that were recruited through connections do not even know the rule of engagement, he said.
Former chief of army staff Azubuike Ihejirika and CDS Simon Ugomodiya admitted that there are bad officers on both sides, but said they would continue to work together for the good of the country. They further added that Nigerians must win the war against terrorism and that the $1bn loan for the army will help in providing more arms.
Source: Leadership
