The Sultan
of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, yesterday cautioned those
killing in the guise of fulfilling God’s injunction, saying their reward would
b
e hell fire.
He said it
was a huge lie for people to nurse such belief, stressing that human life
should be protected, whether the person is a Muslim or not, adding that the
dignity of man covers all, including Muslims, Christians, Hindus and others.
“Shouting
Allahu Akbar to kill your fellow human being in the belief that you are
fulfilling God’s injunction is pathway to hell and not the teaching of Allah,”
he stressed.
He
emphasised that Fulani herdsmen who go about killing people “are criminals and
not genuine herdsmen. We don’t call them herdsmen, because herdsmen cannot kill
another human to protect cow.”
The Sultan
also spoke on the need for understanding and recognition of various ethnic
groups in the country, stressing that time has come for every divisive and
selfish tendencies threatening the country and retarding its progress to be
done away with.
He
particularly asked Muslims to project and applies the best value of Islamic
civilisation at these very trying moments of restructuring. Delivering the 9th
Dignity of Man Lecture at the 57 Founders Day celebrations of the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), the Sultan said: “Human dignity is God-given. Any
society where the sanctity of life is not protected cannot be said to be
civilised.
“In other
words, the sanctity of human life, the honour conferred in the human person and
the investment in the development of the human person are the metrics to
measure human civilisation.
“This
promotion and protection of human life and dignity can only come through
education. Education holds the key to development and development is
people-centered and people-driven.”
According to
him: “Modern education, which subsumes the Greek and Islamic traditions and our
indigenous and Islamic educational traditions should be harnessed to ensure
that the dignity of man is restored in our country, especially in these
difficult times when the sanctity of human lives appear to be under threat.
“Man has no
dignity if he has no education. The less education, the less his dignity.”
Quoting his great grandfather, Uthman Dan Fodio, he said: “The man without
education is like a country without inhabitants.”
Speaking
specifically on the title of his lecture, ‘Restoring the dignity of man:
Education as a veritable tool,’ he said no nation can develop without the
education of its citizenry, saying: “Societies that take education seriously tend
to be more developed, healthier, happier and better.
“Societies
that do not embrace education wallow in retrogression, hunger, abuse of human
rights and absence of dignity and human honour.”
Also
speaking, Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and his Delta State
counterpart, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, emphasised the need for proper attention on
education, which they said is the bedrock of the development of any country.
The
governors urged the university to continue to play leading role in education as
a way of contributing to national development, in line with the visions of the
founding fathers, particularly the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who set up the
institution to restore the dignity of man.
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