"He said all the noise about 2011 general elections would fizzle-out as soon as the election was over, saying this was what made it necessary for journalists to be just to Nigerians by reporting the truth about the forthcoming elections.

”Moving from the University of Benin(UNIBEN) to Ahmadu Bello University(ABU) Zaria as a Chancellor is like ‘Soldier come –Soldier go’.

There is nothing special about it as the two institutions are first generation universities who share peculiar problems such as low funding”,The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, stated this  recently when he hosted journalists working in Sokoto to a Ramadan dinner at his palace in Sokoto.

Alhaji Sa’ad, who was responding to some questions raised at the dinner, the third of its kind since he ascended the throne as the 20th  Sultan of Sokoto, lamented that chancellors don’t have executive say in the running of universities, saying that it was only during convocation ceremonies that they go to confer degrees on graduating students.

He said if Nigeria wants its universities to change for the better, the federal government must give specific roles to chancellors.This, according to him, was because chancellors are statesmen.

To site an example, he said, if the Sultan said something, the whole nation would listen, and if there was any crisis, God forbid, the people would listen to him when he talks.

He further stated that it would be worth-while for the government to give certain powers to the chancellors, such as having the power to appoint the Vice chancellor (VC). He said if this becomes the case, a lot would be achieved as all chancellors were worth their salt.

The Sultan disclosed that all the chancellors in the country were trying to form chancellors’ council on which platform they hoped to be meeting the minister of education to resolve crisis associated with Nigerian universities.

Asked on the advice he would give to Sokoto politicians against the use of religion to achieve their selfish political ends, as was allegedly the case in 2007 elections, the Sultan said he did not agree that
the 2007 politics in Sokoto was dirty and based on religious sects divide.

“Sokoto politics, as at then, was not based on religion but personalities, and I don’t believe it was based on particular religious sects as over 90 per cent of the people of Sokoto are Muslims”,he said.

Although the Sultan agreed that some politicians used religion when it suited them, however, he insisted that the Sokoto 2007 governorship election was purely based on personalities.

He said, as a religious leader, his advice to politicians was that they, and indeed all Nigerians, should go back to God and pray for a peaceful election as well as transition.

Responding to a question on the zoning crisis threatening to split the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Sultan retorted “I am not a politician and, therefore, do not want to comment on that, but all I know is that the members of the PDP will settle their problems so as to move forward”.

Earlier in his opening speech, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, who is a fellow of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), enjoined Nigerian journalists to give a fair, objective and balanced reportage of the 2011 general elections.

He said the media was a very powerful tool in whatever people do in life, adding that journalists should be guided by the knowledge that whatever they write- truth or falsehood, the public would accept it as the truth.

He said journalists should endeavour to tell the truth to those in position of authority by commending them when they were right and drawing their attention to instances where they were wrong so as to
make them to change for the better.

He said the role of the journalists from now to the end of the upcoming general elections mattered to Nigerians and therefore, they should not substitute truth with falsehood.

He said the danger in writing false stories was that once published, the damage it would cause could not be easily corrected.

He said this was why anytime a negative story was written about the Sultanate Council, he would remain silent rather than respond to it as doing so would, oftentimes, only exercerbate the problem.

He said journalists should feel free to come to him to verify whatever information they got concerning the sultanate, or to request an interview with him, assuring that he would oblige them.

Sultan Sa’ad further stated that some people were saying that if there was no election within a specified period of time, the country would break, but he does not believe so.

He said all the noise being made about the next general elections was part of politics.

He explained that this is because quarrels between politicians is akin to quarrels between husbands and wives who would  find a way to settle their differences without the knowledge of a third party.

He said all the noise about 2011 general elections would fizzle-out as soon as the election was over, saying this was what made it necessary for journalists to be just to Nigerians by reporting the truth about the forthcoming elections.

Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar ended his appeal for objective reporting to the journalists by quoting Sheik Usman Danfodiyo who wrote in one of his books that, “Conscience is an open wound.Only truth can heal it”.

To Nigerians, the Sultan said we should go back to God by committing ourselves and the nation before him, saying He  would surely see us through the myriads of problems facing us, as well as grant Nigeria an everlasting peace and development.

Speaking earlier, the chairman, Sokoto state council of the NUJ, Alhaji Labaran Lumo Dundaye, commended the Sultan for his kind disposition to the plight of the Sokoto working Journalists,
He seized the opportunity to appeal to the federal government to accord specific roles to the traditional leaders because of their role in fostering continued peaceful co-existence in the country.

Dundaye also commended the Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko led administration in the state for what he called, its penchant for according respect to the traditional institutions in Sokoto State, as well as fostering harmonious relationship between the state government and the Sultanate Council of Sokoto.

The Sokoto NUJ chairman rounded-off by lauding the track record of Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar in resolving ethno-religious crisis in the country as well as serving as a beacon of hope for the depressed and the less privileged members of the society.

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