The Jama’atu Nasril Islam(JNI) led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar lll, has acknowledged that Nigerians were faced by difficulties but embarking on nationwide protest is not the solution.
The Muslim organisation appealed to the protest conveners, stakeholders and the Federal Government to engage in dialogue before the situation escalates.
JNI in a statement issued by its Secretary-General, Prof. Khalid Abubakar-Aliyu in Kaduna, explained that the global landscape showed that protests had led to uncontrollable scenarios in countries like Libya, Syria and Iraq.
The Sultan of Sokoto implored Nigerians to be introspective and honest, acknowledging that discontentment and disillusionment needed to be addressed by the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government.
JNI called on the government to secure the country to ensure access to land and cultivation, provide subsidised farming materials and promote industrialization
as well as enhance quality education, especially primary, technical, and vocational education
“The JNI advocates for sober reflection, sincere humility, and continued prayer to Allah, while citing Qur’anic guidance and the Prophet’s teachings on supplication.”
“Arising from the recent calls and counter-calls for protest in Nigeria, occasioned by food insecurity, inflation, abject poverty and escalating national security challenges, it becomes very worrying and requires immediate attention.”
“Therefore, JNI under the leadership of His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar with all sense of responsibility appeals to the protest conveners, their covert and overt benefactors, as well as other critical stakeholders and the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) to urgently engage in critical and realistic dialogue before the situation degenerate or snowballs into an uncontrollable scenario.”
“Nigerians no doubt are passing through difficult challenges, but protest might not be the panacea. The global landscape is replete with sordid tales of repercussions of protests in Libya, Syria, Iraq, US (Capitol Hill), Ukraine, Tunisia, Sudan, Russia, among others did not yield desired results, rather they rendered most of these countries either ungovernable or partly destroyed.”
“A glance through the events in Kenya gives some glimpses of what might envelop our dear nation Nigeria, which is struggling to survive the multiple challenges that dot the landscape of the country! Undoubtedly, protests in Nigeria could mar our efforts at addressing these challenges.”
“Be that as it may, we should learn from the bad experiences of protests in other climes and we should avoid the bobby traps they had fallen into, in their bids to achieve good governance against the notion that protest is the only way out, because that is the language the government is said to understand.”
“The FGN should make more frantic efforts to secure the country, such that the citizens would have access to their lands and cultivate them; provide subsidised farming materials, promote industrialization, create self-sustaining agro-business in the six geopolitical zones. The government should also enhance quality education, especially primary, technical and vocational education,” the apex Muslim body added.