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.