2023 general election: Sultan of Sokoto decries resurgence of insecurity

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III on Thursday, decried the resurgence of insurgency and banditry in the country just after the 2023 general election.

Speaking at the 2023 Nigeria Inter-Religious Council NIREC quarterly meeting in Abuja, Alhaji Abubakar who is the Co-chairman of the council said the reappearance of series of insecurities could be as a result of reports in the media.

Though acknowledging that the media played both positive and negative role in the general election, he maintained that the media must understand the situation in the country and demonstrate utmost professionalism in their reportage at all times.

“The resurgence of insecurity in the country is very alarming. Throughout the campaigns and elections, we heard nothing about bandits, killings but all of a sudden, after the elections, we heard killings of scores of people in Plateau, Niger, in Kaduna and other places. Why these insurgents? Definitely these insurgencies have nothing to do with religion.

“When bandits go into people’s community and kill them, burn their houses with little or no resistance from the security officials, and after the deeds has been done, the security agencies will now go there, to do what? To look at the ashes that is being burnt?

“Few days ago, it was reported that some United States Embassy staff were killed and burnt in Anambra state. That’s barbaric and shouldn’t have happened because there’s no justification for that.”

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Co-chairman of NIREC, Archbishop Daniel Okoh said the theme of the event “Media and Effective Leadership for Nation Building” was designed to foster unity and working relationship between the media and the leadership of the country.

He said: “The media can help to enrich the conversation of leaders by providing well investigated and research stories to improve the religious literacy of the leaders, which simply means having basic knowledge of other religions and engender respect for other religions.”

Declaring the meeting open, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha re-emphasized the importance of peaceful coexistence among Nigerians amidst cultural and ethnic differences.

“If God has entrusted the deliverance of Nigeria into the hands of Christians and Muslims alike, then failure to entrench peace in the nation will be akin to failing God. I pray that God should continue to guide the leadership of the Council with a united mission and sincerity of purpose to achieve the mandate for which it was established”.

The SGF who will soon be handing over to a new administration commended the religious leaders for their support over the years.

He however assured that the next government will support the council for smooth formulation and implementation of policies and programmes for ultimate success.

In her presentation of the paper titled Media and Effective Leadership for Nation Building, Mrs Eugenia Abu believed that the unity of the country could be achieved through quality contents in the media.

She however stressed the need for capacity building and effective training of media practitioners noting that this will reduce the spread of misinformation and fake news.

According to her, “Nigeria have a vibrant media and sometimes we take it for granted. Because we are able to read paper, we think every country is like that. We are not all the same across Africa. Nigeria remain the leading light and because we are the leading light we have to be responsible as media leaders. Leaders rally people round and the leaders are expected to possess the necessary skills and knowledge to make informed decision and solve problems effectively.

“It is very easy to call on the media and say, they could have done it this way, they could have done it better. As a media leader myself, I found out that it is very difficult to train media persons because of funding and if you don’t train them, they will transmit their lack of knowledge on TV, in Print. So we need to build the capacity of the media. They need to understand the country better”.