The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, yesterday gave a damning report on the anti-corruption war of the present administration.
He declared that in spite of the effort being made by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), cases of corruption were still very high in the country.
The royal father, who is also the Chairman, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) made this known in Abuja, at the presentation of a book, ‘Dynamics of Revealed Knowledge and Human Science’, written in honour of the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Examination (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede.
According to the Sultan, the level of corruption was taking a dangerous dimension because most Nigerians at the epicentre of power were not committed to the anti-graft war but were only concerned with their selfish interest.
He said: “Corruption is at a very high level and its left for us to fight it to its terminal end. We shall not just sit down and be thinking that things are okay, things are not okay. We have said it so many times but it is left for us to sit together and find out ways and means of getting things back on track in this blessed country.
“The snake issue has been such a humorous thing that cartoons are centred around it. It is humorous but it is a sad reality of our country. Where is our moral values? Somebody just gets up, takes government’s money and goes away and nobody challenges him? Why do people do things with impunity?
“It’s a joke snake swallowed N36 million maybe in dollars, but the reality is facing us and the earlier we do something about it the better for us. Let’s not sing further, things are bad,” he said.
The Sultan, who lamented the decline of moral values in the society, accused politicians of capitalising on the general insecurity across the country, especially the herdsmen killings, to boost their political ego.
“Nowadays, we don’t have statesmen. We have men of states because people are aligned with their state and embrace their religion more than Nigeria. We have governors that only see their immediate environment as their own constituency and if you don’t belong to their tribal or ethnic background, you are finished.