Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has described the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III as a worthy son of his fore-fathers.
Osinbajo who spoke in Sokoto today, Thursday, when he declared open an International Symposium on the Sokoto Caliphate said: “the Sokoto Caliphate was founded over 200 years ago on the sterling principles of honesty, piety, good governance and truthfulness, among others.
“The intellectual endeavours of the founding fathers of the caliphate on theology and jurisprudence, among others, were relevant now as they were then.
“They had left legacies of wealth of resources in their books premised on the principles of good governance and social justice.”
The vice president stressed the need for social justice, saying that its absence always lead to chaos.
Osinbajo therefore urged leaders to always protect public treasuries and not to loot them.
The vice president noted that the Sultan has continued in the path of his fore-fathers, urging him not to relent.
He also noted that the reign of the Sultan, who is also the President-General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, came at a challenging time for Nigeria.
“But the Sultan has handled them with pragmatism and graciousness.
“Leadership is a privilege and the leaders must set moral and ethical tones for the society,” he added.
Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State also described the Sultan as an intellectually-endowed leader.
Tambuwal commended the Sultan for his sustained moral and royal support to his administration.
“You are not only a bridge builder, but the bridge itself,” Tambuwal said.
The Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Shehu Galadanchi, pioneer vice chancellor, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, commended the Sultan for consistently working for peace, unity and development.
The Chairman, Main Organising Committee and Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, said: “The symposium was organised to reflect on the past, ponder on present and transform the future’’.
The keynote Speaker, Prof. Murray Last, Professor Emeritus, University College, London, said that the celebration of the Caliphate was to recognise its crucial importance.
He said: “The Caliphate has been an institution in Northern Nigeria that possesses an extraordinary phenomenon.
“The caliphate has strengths which we need to understand, not as political scientists but as Nigerians.
“For without the Caliphate, Nigeria might never have existed. It would have been more like Northern Ghana, a Burkina or a Mali.
“Celebrating the Caliphate and recognising its importance is truly a great pleasure.”
The celebrant, the Sultan advocated a national security summit of all stakeholders to brainstorm on most of the contemporary challenges affecting Nigeria.
These, he said, include insurgency, militancy, kidnapping, armed robbery, cattle rustling and farmers-herdsmen clashes.
However, Abubakar III, who is also the President, Jamaatul Nasril Islam (JNI), said that these burning challenges should be discussed at the proposed summit, as they were threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria.
Besides, the Sultan underscored the need for Nigerians to continue to live peacefully with one another irrespective of their various religious, political and ethnic leanings.
(NAN). [myad]
