War on corruption: Confiscate looters’ property, Sultan tells Buhari

The leader of Muslims in Nigeria and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, has declared the traditional institution’s support to President Muhammadu Buhari’s war on corruption.

Similarly, the Sultan, who is also a member of the General Abubakar Abdulsalami-led National Peace Committee, called on the president to ensure that all those who had stolen the country’s national wealth, were not spared, but be made to face the music.

This is even as he said the properties of those culpable should not only be confiscated, but such people should be prosecuted and sent to jail.

The Sultan spoke on Monday, in Abuja, as a keynote speaker, at the National Security Summit, organised by the Nigeria Police, in collaboration with The Sun Publishing Limited.

According to the Sultan, the on going fight against terrorism by President Buhari was already yielding positive results, he also noted that to succeed in the fight against corruption, President Buhari needed to find a way of operating within the Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio’s concept of State and Human Security, as was done in the Sokoto caliphate.

Noting that the said concept was built on three pillars, the Sultan also noted that there could be no development without justice, since justice was the basis of all progress. He listed the three pillars as justice and fairness to all, socio-economic development and the fight against corruption.

He said:

“At an early stage of the Caliphate, its leaders realized that they needed honest persons at all levels to be able to establish a decent state. ‘Leaders,’ according to (the late) Sultan Muhammad Bello, are like a spring of water and all your officials are like water wheels. If the spring is pure, the filth of the water wheels cannot harm it. If on the other hand, the spring is polluted, the purity of the water wheel will have little effect on the purity of the water. We thank God that our current president is like a spring of water.”

The ruler was urged by the caliphate leaders to estimate their employees wealth before appointing them and also watch their conduct at all times.
He said:

“He shall confiscate whatever is in excess of their legitimate income and, if in doubt, confiscate half of it. To his subjects, he will be ‘as the Shepherd of a flock among ravening lions. “On this note, I call on the president to confiscate the properties of all those who are guilty of corruption. They should be prosecuted and send to jail.

In regards to bribery and gift-giving, Shaykh Abdullahi Ibn Fodio said ‘another thing agreed as being illegal is the collection of bribes on behalf of the leader or other officials like the judges and other employees. It is also illegal to accept gifts from the common people. For such action is the door leading to all types of calamities. When a gift finds its way to a man of authority, justice and goodness will find its way out of him; and what he does is to purchase for himself a place in hell.

The Sultan added:

“Our national security agencies must join the crusade against corruption, with commitment and determination. Regardless of how well trained and equipped an organisation is, it cannot attain its full potential if it allows corruption and corrupt elements to grace its corridors. Those who conspire to corrupt our national institutions from the outside must face the same consequences as those who do it from within,”

“I wish to call upon President Buhari, to whenever feasible, institute a national integrity plan, supported by a National Integrity Institute, which shall refocus our ethical, moral and spiritual energies and the indomitable spirit of our people into building a peaceful, prosperous and democratic country, able and willing to take its pride of place in the comity of nations.”

Also the National Chairman of the Police Community Relations Commission, Alhaji Farouk Maiyama, challenged the nation to embrace the totality of community policing as the most effective way of fostering a safer nation and making the police work better.

Maiyama said so long as the task of the police was must be felt in the community, what would make it work better and effective was grassroots integration with the community, saying there was no person that threatened the security of the community that does not live among the people and known by the community.
He said if the people and the police were able to build better trust, it would be easy to get rid of crime and make the nation safer and progressive.

The Sun