North, worst place to live in Nigeria – Sultan

 

Rabsreporters; reports that, the Sultan of Sokoto and President of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, has said that the north is the worst place to live in Nigeria.

While speaking at the 4th Quarter Meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), Sultan Abubakar lamented insecurity and high cost of living, saying there must be deliberate action to address the issues, DailyTrust reports.

The outcry by the Sultan comes a few days after the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) called out President Muhammadu Buhari on tackle raging insecurity in the North.

The Sultan, who is also the Co-Chairman of NIREC, said the poor people that form the majority were suffering. He, however, noted that people should not behave irresponsibly and expect that the country would be a better place for them.

“We have security problems in the country. bandits now go into people’s houses to kidnap and not on the highway anymore. In the last couple of days, they are going into institutions. In Zaria, they went to ABU and the polytechnic and took away people,” he said.

The Sultan said that in the North West, in particular, people can’t sleep with their eyes closed and lamented that even on Wednesday, a village was razed down in Sokoto but people don’t hear about such incidents.

“The insecurity in the North is so high that people are afraid of travelling from Funtua (Katsina State) to Zaria (Kaduna State); a journey of about 48 or 50 miles. This is not to talk of from Sokoto to Abuja or Kano. We know what we are going through. We are so insecure in the North that people are losing hope. People keep things in the house so that when the bandits come, they would let them be free.

“A couple of weeks ago, 76 people were killed in Sokoto by bandits in a day, it is not seen as a story because I went there with the governor of Sokoto but you don’t hear these stories because it happened in the North and we don’t have the media that is strong enough to bring out these atrocities by the bandits; so people think that the North is secure.

“The North is not secure at all; in fact, it is the worst place to be in this country because bandits go about in villages with their AK47 and nobody talks to them. They stop at the markets and buy things and even collect change with their weapons,” he said.

While lamenting the high cost of food and cost of living in the country, the Sultan said, “Food prices are on the increase and we need to do something about it. The cost of onion is too high and beyond the reach of many people. A hungry man is an angry man. The rising cost of foodstuff in the markets is an issue. The high cost of onions in Nigeria today is an insight into the current economic hardship in the country.

“I think we need to sit down and look at these issues. We do not lack recommendations and solutions to our problems. What we lack is implementation and that sense of purpose to do the right thing. We don’t like doing the right thing, we always want to cut corners,” he said.