The Sultan of Sokoto and President of the Nigeria Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, has urged Nigerians to see dialogue as a tool to solve some of the challenges of the country.
He said this at the 19th edition of the Daily Trust Dialogue, with the theme, “2023: The Politics, Economy and Insecurity”.
The programme held in Abuja, on Thursday.
The Sultan, who was the Royal Father of the Day, commended Media Trust Limited for organising dialogue series over the years.
“Sardauna (late Premier Ahmadu Bello) succeeded because he was just and fair to all. We learnt in military training that war is too important to be left to the soldiers alone. Therefore, national development is too important to be left to the politicians alone,” the Sultan said.
He also commended the Chairman of the event and former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (Retd.) for midwifing the current democracy by stamping his foot on the ground.
The Sultan said there would soon be a national event to celebrate his attainment of 80 years.
He said, “What wars cannot resolve, dialogue can resolve it. I am an advocate of dialogue and I cannot be tired of dialogue. Without security, you can’t develop, you can’t even worship God. We cannot get tired and we must not get tired of talking peace.
“Leadership is a trust from Allah and that is why we bring to the attention of the leaders what is happening. So, politicians should not see our talking to them as challenging them.
“Let us always do right and leave the rest to Allah. We should tell ourselves the home truth, commend people when they do good and tell them when they are wrong. Let us continue to talk, the more we talk to each other, the more good things come to our head,” he said.
The royal father also said that the 2022 is very important and politicians would do more talking, hence, the need for all to also talk to each other.