- urges religious leaders not to commercialise prayers
Deposed Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has declared that Nigeria is living on borrowed time and that 2023 may make or mar the nation.
He spoke in Abeokuta, where the Muslims of the gateway State, led by Baba Adinni of Egbaland Chief Tayo Sowunmi, organised an event in his honour.
He said if Nigeria’s situation was grave in 2015, it is thrice so in 2023 and there is need for religious leaders to be wary of politicians who go about shopping for prayers ahead of elections.
He said: “Nigeria needs politicians who know what to do with power and are prepared for leadership. Nigeria needs religious leaders who will be weary of frolicking with politicians for easy lucre and access to the inner recesses of power. Nigeria needs traditional rulers who would speak truth to power and would not be afraid of being different.”
Sanusi counselled clerics to seek the will of Allah, through prayers, for competent leaders, rather than turning prayer to a commodity that could be purchased for selfish reasons.
According to him, Allah commands that power and leadership roles should only be entrusted in the hands of people who are competent.
“As religious leaders, we should stop praying for people and politicians who come to beg and offer us money during election period to pray for them to occupy leadership positions.
“Rather, we should carefully consider all the aspirants and identify the competent and honest ones and then choose on our own volition to pray for them,” he said.
Sanusi, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), however, declared that he was not nursing any presidential ambition.
He stated that he prioritised the traditional religious authority, which Allah had bestowed on him, above any political position.
The former Emir said that everyone could not go into politics, explaining that as a religious leader, he would continue to advise political leaders on good governance.
“Our responsibility as religious leaders is to talk to political leaders on the need for them to fear Allah and that their positions are temporary and transient.
“One of the most dangerous things in any society is to have leaders who forget or fail to realise how temporary and transient power is.
“So, we need to continue to hold them to account and stand up to them, confronting them when they are wrong,” he said.
Sanusi also advised those with ambition to contest for politicl positions during the 2023 polls to ensure that their motives were right, adding that “the interest of the nation must remain paramount to all”.