TheCable

Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, Sultan of Sokoto, says Nigeria being one entity is not a mistake because God wanted it to be that way.

The Sultan said this on Thursday at the 2020 Leadership Newspaper award and conference in Abuja.

According to DailyTrust, he said the country’s division will not stop existing problems peculiar to each group, adding that everyone needs to come together in solving them.

“If we are to go our 1 million ways, how do we survive? God Almighty will and can never make a mistake, that is his will and must be obeyed,” he said.

“Bringing us together as Nigerians is not a mistake and that is what God wanted. If he wants anything else he will do it in no time so we have to accept our religious beliefs as good Christians and Muslims. We all know we are from one source and creator.”

The Sultan said those trying to fan the embers of hatred through religion will not succeed.

“We have to lived together as one people to face these challenges of insecurity, no one can do it alone as the commander-in-chief or the chief of defence staff. We must rise up to take the issue of insecurity as our own personal problem, we must all contribute to this challenge of insecurity and if we do that, in a couple of years we will be driving with our eyes closed from Kaduna to Abuja with no potholes; from Kaduna to Sokoto with clear roads and Maiduguri to Kano, that is our prayers in the next few weeks, month or years as we will get to that level,” he said.

Also speaking, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said the notion that the hasty amalgamation of Nigeria by the British hinders nation-building is wrong.

He said prior communication through trade and other areas indicated that the different entities were not strangers.

He, however, blamed the elite for failing to build a sturdy institution that thrives on social consensus.

“Some of the elites can’t come to consensus when it comes to insecurity. The chief weakness that we have is the human one. Our political, economic and religious elites are socially irresponsible. Either by selfish interest or lack of self awareness, they are unable to build the social and political consensus upon which a just and orderly society can start,” he said.

“Since dominance was premised on some forms of consensus, the elite depended on a dubious way through the promotion of tribal and religious fault lines for legitimacy.”