The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, yesterday said politicians are responsible for the rising violence in the country.
He also said the problems in the country are caused by the undue struggle by politicians to position themselves ahead of the 2015 elections.
The Sultan however stressed the need for the federal government to dialogue with the Boko Haram insurgents with a view to securing the freedom of the over 200 schoolgirls abducted in Chibok, Borno State.
Speaking during a chat with reporters at a Ramadan dinner held in his palace in Sokoto, the monarch pointed out that the incessant killing of innocent citizens was all politics, saying politicians were behind the myriad of problems ravaging the country.
“Politicians are the main problem of this country. The whole issue of insecurity in this country is geared towards 2015 elections and nothing more. If there is no election in 2015 and they said till 2030, everything will cool down.
“You see, everybody is trying to take his own position and put himself at a vantage point to gain an extra mile ahead of 2015. The whole thing is all about politics. That is why you see the killings but what we find painful is that innocent people are being killed everyday, especially people that don’t even know what is politics.
“We are shedding too much blood of innocent Nigerians and God will not be pleased with us when we keep on shedding innocent blood because their cries mean a lot,” he said.
He said Nigerians must put aside their religion and ethnicity and come together to tackle the problems of the country.
“The best thing is let us identify these problems, we need to just come together, let us leave religion and ethnicity out of this issue. Let us be sincere and trust ourselves by coming together to solve our problems.
“There are some insurgents killing our people. How do we stop them? Let us find a way to stop them. These people doing this are not spirits but human beings. So let us work together to solve our problems,” he stated.
The Sultan underscored the need for the federal government to do whatever it takes to rescue the schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok.
He lamented that the government had not done enough to alleviate the suffering of the ordinary masses in the country.
The Sultan observed that the United States (US) was able to secure the release of an American soldier in exchange for five Taliban commanders recently and wondered why some people were advising the federal government against entering into negotiation with the insurgents for the release of the schoolgirls.
“As you are aware, for just one soldier, the United States released five Taliban commanders as part of the negotiation. Some people said the federal government should not dialogue with these people. Are they saying this because those girls are not their own children?
“We said government should dialogue with the insurgents because when you are sick you will pay any amount to get cured. If their daughters were the ones abducted by the insurgents, they would have paid ransom to secure their release.
“When there are riots, it is the children of the poor that are killed, not my children or the children of the commissioners, governors, ministers and big men who are in highly fortified houses,” he stressed.
