The Chairman, Northern Traditional Rulers Council and the Sultan of Sokoto, Dr Sa’ad Abubakar, says the stability of Nigeria remains the top priority of traditional rulers in the region.
The Sultan made the remarks at the opening of the 6th General Assembly of the Northern Traditional Rulers Council, on Monday in Kaduna. He said as leaders at the grassroots, the traditional rulers have much at stake in ensuring peace and stability in the country and will continue to advise government at all levels.
Abubakar stressed that the traditional institution was not in conflict with the government, but working as partners to enhance national unity, growth and development. The Sultan urged traditional leaders across the country to contribute their best towards nation building.
He said that the meeting would focus on the challenges in the northern region and proffer solutions. According to him, the Council would deliberate on raising access to qualitative education in the region, as a tool of fighting crime and insecurity.
He expressed the belief that the more people became educated, the less the level of criminality. “We are working on uplifting the standard education in our various communities and quality teachers, with good teachers, we will have quality education and good graduates,” he said.
“To our governors, we will support them when they have good programmes, we will work very hard to ensure successful completion of their programmes,” he added. He explained that they would continue to caution political leaders and advise them to always put the people first and to fear almighty Allah.
Abubakar appreciated the contributions of the Arewa Consultative Forum in finding solutions to the problems in the region. On his part, Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State said the meeting is coming at a time government was working with security agencies to maintain peace.
He called on the traditional rulers to continue to encourage youth in their respective communities to identify with government policies geared towards improving their standard of living and development of communities.
The Governor, who was represented by his Deputy, Dr Hadiza Balarabe said the state government would continue to encourage traditional rulers to take strong decisions on issues of education and security.
In his message, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha said Federal Government appreciated the importance of traditional institutions to the success or failure of security in the country in view of their closeness and daily interactions with Nigerians. He reiterated government commitments to addressing security the challenges in Nigeria.
Mustapha said that apart from deploying huge resources and political will to address security challenges, the Federal Government recently launched a new National Security Strategy to sustain current efforts and introduce new methods and technology into national security architecture.
The SGF urged the traditional rulers to come up with new solutions to the challenges of insecurity in the country. He also called on them to continue to complement the efforts of government to stem the rising tide of insecurity and save the future of the nation. “I wish to leave this gathering with this, the nation must remain peaceful, united and strong so that our economic potentials would be fully realized.”