Posted by By Jude Owuamanam, Jos on
Chairman, Council of Elders, Northern Unity Forum, Dr. Olusola Saraki, has decried what he described as the inability of the present crop of leaders in the North to imbibe the virtues of the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello.
Chairman, Council of Elders, Northern Unity Forum, Dr. Olusola Saraki, has decried what he described as the inability of the present crop of leaders in the North to imbibe the virtues of the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello.
He accused the leaders of having completely abandoned Sardauna's concept of Northern unity.
Saraki, who spoke while on a condolence visit to the Plateau State Governor, Mr. Jonah Jang, in Jos on Thursday, condemned the crisis that rocked Jos recently.
He said that the reasons adduced for the cause of the crisis fell short of the legacy the late Sardauna bequeathed to the present leaders in the North.
He said, 'The crisis was a great surprise to us, this is not the legacy bequeathed to us by the late Sardauna of Sokoto. Now and again, we keep talking of Sardauna, we the leaders he left behind have failed to emulate the legacy he left behind.''
Saraki said that when the Sardauna was alive he surrounded himself with different tribes and religions and never discriminated against anyone of them.
He expressed regret that today, things were getting worse in the North.
He said, 'We need to take the issue seriously. The issue before us is the unity of the North irrespective of religion, where one comes from or what one believes in.'
Saraki said it was unfortunate that Nigerian politicians had injected various forms of antics and sentiments into politics for cheap political gains, adding that the recent peaceful election in Ghana had demystified Nigeria as a giant of Africa.
'We all saw what happened during the American election, there was no killing; also in our neighbouring Ghana, election was conducted recently without any rancour.
'I think we should show an example to other Africa leaders to emulate. In our country we introduce so many things to politics for selfish reason.'
Jang said one of the things causing a setback for the North was the issue of incessant crises.