The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, has lamented the hoarding of wealth by public officials.
He called for comprehensive measures to curb corruption and promote fairness in the country.
Most Nigerian leaders live larger than life, flaunt ill-gotten wealth while the citizens live in abject poverty.
The World Poverty Clock in a 2023 report reported that there were 71 million extremely poor Nigerians.
The World Poverty Clock is a tool used to track poverty progress worldwide.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) classified 133 million Nigerians as multidimensionally poor.
The Sultan, who spoke in Abuja yesterday at the 2024 first quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) with the theme: “The Role of Religious Leaders in Combating Corruption and Cybercrime,” queried why corruption has refused to go in Nigeria.
He stressed the need to commission a study to find out why we are being beleaguered with corruption.
Sultan Abubakar said, “Many who come into office get rich overnight and when they leave office, they become multi-billionaires with private jets. Nobody is bothering to find out how these people (past public officeholders) made their money. He becomes a big man.
“This will continue as we keep on having officeholders that come and become lords doing what they want; give whom they want to give, deny whom they want to deny and the issues continue like that.
“I think it is important for us to look at how our leaders do whatever they want to do – nobody checks you. Nobody will tell you that you’re wrong. After your tenure you leave for you to know that nothing is permanent.
“We will all leave this wretched world whether we like it or not and we will all go into the beyond with nothing. So, why are we amassing so much to the detriment of our fellow human beings that can’t even afford one meal a day.
“We see people everyday along the street begging for food to eat and now they commit crimes. If you want half a battalion or 1,000 boys to form a unit to go and commit criminal activities, you will do so. Just distribute N500 notes to each of them. That’s the situation we have. We must take action before this corruption thing consumes all of us,” he added.
Also, the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), Senator George Akume implored the meeting to come up with strategies to fight corruption and other vices, taking the message back to the grassroots and their various congregations.
He said, “This administration, since inception, has remained focused on saving the economy of our nation through the implementation of programs under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
“Difficult decisions have been taken to prevent a total collapse of the system and the government has never relented in expressing its deepest sympathy with the people over the resultant hardships Nigerians are passing through. At the same time, the government has left no stone unturned to positively change the trajectory of our economy and to take sustainability measures.
“I must quickly add that to enjoy the gains of all these efforts, all hands must remain on deck to fight corruption, cybercrime and associated criminal tendencies, for the purpose of restoring our values and national integrity.”
For his part, the executive secretary of NIREC, Prof Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua said the world is constantly developing new technologies and there are benefits and also risks in cyber technology.
The benefits, he said, would accrue if the political system and governance at all levels could provide job opportunities where the young graduates could apply this technology in their various areas of work.
