The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, said on Saturday, identified money based politics as a major factor responsible for unprecedented corruption and bad governance in Nigeria.
The monarch, who doubles as the President-General, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), made the assertion at the 23rd Ummah Convention, organised by the Ummah Movement, in Abuja.
The theme of the convention was, “The Muslim Voice on Good Governance in Nigeria”, NAN reports.
He regretted that the nation’s political culture had deteriorated and become increasingly mercantile, where money becomes everything, saying “we cannot allow full reins to money politics and expect corruption to go away.
“This is partly responsible for bad governance that has characterised our polity, subverting our development, perpetrating poverty and eliciting the unending social conflicts.
“This money based politics will continue to fuel the unprecedented corruption we see in our society; as a result of these our pristine values as people have been supplanted and our future thrown into jeopardy.
“All leaders, political, spiritual and traditional need to come together to salvage our polity from dangers that the current political culture poses.
“The consequences of ignoring these standards are already showing and we must not wait until the bubbles busts,” Abubakar said.
The Sultan admonished leaders at all levels to take issues of leadership seriously, saying “we cannot ignore centuries old wisdom which places high premium on leadership and places criteria for shouldering responsibilities.”
He said that in Islam, leadership was fundamental and it was bestowed at every level as a trust from Allah and for which Allah would hold those entrusted to account.
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