Sultan of Sokoto’s talk, my thoughts
On Tuesday afternoon, the Wilson Center in Washington DC hosted the Sultan of Sokoto. An even better recording than my audio only thing is available on the Wilson Center’s YouTube page. For some reason, it didn’t occur to me that they’d record it, so I can now delete this large file from my phone.
Some highlights of the Sultan’s talk:
The Sultan acknowledged that there’s a problem within Islam in Nigeria. He believes dialogue is the only way out. He also said that religious conflict isn’t caused by religion but by politicians. “We always call on people not to vote on religious sentiment.”
“I can’t be a true Muslim if I don’t believe in Jesus,” is an interesting quote that a lot of Muslims, especially of the ‘radical’ bent have to take note of. Regarding Muslim/Christian cooperation, he had a very interesting allegory. “Mosquitos go to churches on Sunday, and mosques on Friday. Muslims and Christians must find ways to work together.”
“We must not go back to the days of killing people over rumour of cartoons in far away places. You can’t fight for God.” This one, I can’t repeat often enough.
Finally, he had this huge one to drop about Boko Haram, “Boko Haram was founded and funded by politicians.” Which is something we all know anyway. Someone replied me on Twitter to say that I should ask him to name the sponsors. If I may on his behalf, that’s not how it’s done. Law and order, in my books at least, indicate that investigative authorities here, should do their jobs. Can they interview/interrogate the Sultan? Can the case against Ali Ndume be finished?
On girl child education, which is without doubt, a major issue in Northern Nigeria, he had the following to say — “We frown at refusal to send girls to school. Girls should be educated because they are the leaders of our homes.” He also made a promise that we can hold him to, “In the last three years I have supervised work towards the establishment of an all female medical university in Nigeria.” Towards the end, he was asked for a timeline about this, and I think he said next year or 2018. I can’t remember.
Watch for my question on the herdsmen conflict about an hour and sixteen minutes in. To that, he made two very interesting comments — “We have met, and will continue meeting with Tiv leaders over the herdsmen crisis. The government must find a solution.” He also had this to say regarding the herdsmen, “Times have changed. We have to have ranches. Moving cows from Mali to Nigeria no longer works.”
To all the zombies we have running loose in Nigeria, he had this to say, “If the government is doing right, support them. If the government is doing wrong, tell them they are doing wrong.”
My thoughts, which I summarised on Twitter are quite simple:
Just based on what he said that day, Sultan Sa’adu Abubakar appears to be ahead of his time, and of his peers in Northern Nigeria. The truth is, many leaders in the north know what needs to be done to lift the region out of the desperate poverty it finds itself in, but as many events over the last years, such as this Wikileaks cable imply, leaders in the North are not interested in doing what needs to be done, because they know, that if for example, Western education becomes the norm in their region, then their authority, the authority they hope to pass on to their children, will be challenged. My view, which has been shaped by reading Bala Usman, is that they will not do it. A lot of what the Sultan said is true. But it is one thing to say it in a talk shop in the West. It is quite another, to say it, and have it done, among his subjects in Nigeria, which is where the work really needs to be done.