The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar has attributed the level of hunger in the country to the laziness of Nigerians.
He made this known while responding to the remarks of the chairman of the Shura committee of the National Islamic Centre, Ahmad Bello who said that there is extreme hunger in the land at the 22nd annual Ummah Convention held in Sokoto.
“The chairman, Shura committee talk about hunger in the land but let me make it clear that we are hungry because we are lazy,” he stated.
The Sultan noted that Nigeria was endowed with fertile land and that if properly harnessed could lead the country to greatness but for the laziness of the people.
He recalled that agriculture had been the pride of the north in the past which need to be restored.
The monarch urged Nigerians, particularly northerners to take advantage of the agricultural programmes initiated by their state and federal governments for development of the region and the country in general.
He also harped on the unity of the Ummah and the need for them to live peacefully with other religious faithful.
Sultan urged the organizers to ensure that their resolutions and recommendations reach those people in government for onward implementation.
However, Bello advised the federal government to address the cognate issue of hunger in the country.
“Let us be very frank and blunt about this- there is hunger, extreme hunger in the land.There is no more vociferous and forceful evidence on this than the millions of our hapless children, all victims of cruel parental neglect, who go about begging for food from households, on streets, or just eating out of the dustbin,” he stated.
The committee chairman added:”Our political and spiritual leaders must do something about this, and urgently too, as it would be a crime, a sin and a folly not to do so.”
He congratulated the federal government for defeating the Boko Haram threat to security and advised it to investigate and gather intelligence on some pertinent questions about this “glaringly licentious and clearly unIslamic group.”
Delivering a lecture on “Agriculture: take offPanacea for Nigeria’s Economic Recession”, the Vice Chancellor, Al-Qalam University, Katsina Professor Shehu Ado stressed the need for Nigeria to take agriculture to the centerpiece of industrialization and take-off.
He said by focusing on an action-oriented process, Nigeria could accelerate agric-led development that leads to self-reliant productive economies capable of eradicating hunger and poverty.