Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto and President General, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), has accused the Nigerian military of avoiding direct confrontation with bandits and terrorists.
Sa’ad III said instead, the troops appear at the scenes of violent crimes after the assailants have gone, perhaps to mock the victims of such terror attacks.
The Sultan who is the spiritual leader of Nigerian Muslims, handed down his criticism at the second quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), with the theme: ‘Media and Effective Nation Building’, in Abuja on Thursday.
He expressed concern that the resurgence of attacks after the general elections was alarming.
He said, “Throughout the campaigns and the elections, we never had these cases of insecurity. Suddenly, after the elections, the killings continued across Niger, Plateau, Kaduna and other places.
“These killings are definitely not related to religion, but the activities of some set of uninformed people.
“Imagine a situation where bandits would invade a community, kill people and destroy their properties, with little or no resistance from the security officials, only for the security officials to appear long after the attacks and perhaps, to mock the people or look at the ashes of destroyed items.
“Few days ago, it was reported that some United States Embassy staff were killed and burnt in Anambra State. That’s barbaric and shouldn’t have happened because there is no justification for that.
“Why this resurgence? Definitely, these resurgences are not religious. Since a new government is coming in, we’re sure we can engage the government to hit the ground running in bringing solutions to these problems.
“But we cannot continue that way because when bandits just go into people’s communities, kill them and burn their houses and nothing is done, then when the deed is done, the security agencies will go there to do what? To look at the ashes that are being burnt?”
The Sultan also implored the media to take seriously the task of nation-building, by getting involved in governance at all levels. He equally advised the media to shun compromise.
“Take a look at what’s happening across the countries of the world where the media compromised in quality, facts and truth. It’s unfortunate that Sudan is going through war and the role of the media is crucial in ending or prolonging the war.
“The media played a different role in the 2023 elections. The media will also play a crucial role in the coming administration. So, we expect to hear from the media professionals on their challenges and expectations and pass the message to the incoming government,” he added.
In the same vein, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria and co-chairman of NIREC, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, noted that the media can prevent ethnoreligious crisis in the country, provided they take their job as “a calling and not a profession.”
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