Unlike governors, traditional rulers don’t run away from Nigeria – Sultan

The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Mohammad Abubakar II, has disagreed with the notion that traditional rulers are afraid of governors.

He stated this on Tuesday at a Stakeholders’ roundtable on Northern Nigerian Youth Development, organized by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation in Abuja, in reaction to former Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, who said traditional rulers were afraid of their governors.

The Sultan said traditional rulers have higher stakes in Nigeria than governors, stating that they stay with their subjects and do not run away from the country.

The traditional ruler maintained that they were ruling the country even before Nigeria got independence, adding that as monarchs they have more stake and understanding of the country than governors.

“I heard that traditional rulers are afraid of their governors. No, traditional rulers are not afraid of the governors. Traditional rulers are only respecting themselves, respecting the governors who have authority in the various states, not fear,” Sultan stated.

“Whenever anything is done, we don’t give up. We leave everything to Almighty Allah, who brought changes to the world and we accept changes as there are.

“Because we all knew, before the governors came to be, our institutions had been ruling the present Nigeria since 1914. There was no Nigeria then before we got independence in 1960. So we have more stake as traditional leaders in the country because we know what our people feel and we are honest with them and we don’t run away whenever anything happens.”