One of Nigeria’s most respected traditional and religious leaders, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, believes Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder which could explode at any time.
The Sultan, who is also the Chairman of the Northern Traditional Rulers Council, while lamenting the hardship Nigerians are going through, said as a result of the economic and security challenges confronting the country, the people were angry and hungry and could resort to taking the law into their hands.
Sultan Abubakar who expressed his concerns for the nation while speaking at the 6th Executive Committee Meeting of the Northern Traditional Rulers Council in Kaduna on Wednesday, said he was worried that millions of Nigerian youths have been left without jobs and food which could be a trigger for criminality and insurgency.
The Sultan decried the economic hardship in Nigeria which he said had reached a level where citizens were agitated, angry, and hungry.
“We have now entered into a new cycle of leadership. Some new governors have come on board, while some are having their second term and still, we are faced with these insecurity issues,” the revered leader said.
“To make matters worse, we are faced with the rising level of poverty. Most of our people lack normal sources of livelihood.
“However, I believe talking about insecurity and the rising level of poverty are two issues that we cannot fold our arms and think everything is okay. I have said it so many times and at so many fora that things are not okay in Nigeria and of course, things are not okay in the North.
“We must find jobs for our teeming youths that are sitting idle and I have said it so many times, we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder; teeming youths, millions of them without jobs, without food. We are looking for trouble.
“We’ve reached that level; people are very agitated, people are hungry, they are angry. But they still believe some people can talk to them; they believe in some of their governors, traditional rulers, and religious leaders.
“So, we have this onerous task of reaching out to everybody, calm them down and assure them things will be okay; and they should continue to pray and pray and still do something good because prayer without work will not bring anything,” he added.