The Emir of Katsina, Abdulmumini Usman, has warned the All Progressives Congress (APC) against making promises to Nigerians it does not intend to keep, saying leaders who deceive citizens for political gain will face divine judgment.
The monarch spoke at his palace in Katsina when he received the Director General of the APC Campaign and former Zamfara State governor, Abdulaziz Yari, and his delegation.
In remarks delivered in Hausa and translated into English, the emir said leadership carries a duty to serve honestly, and that pledging what one has no intention of delivering amounts to deception. While minor courtesies — kind words to a spouse or a sick person, or even a permissible ruse in wartime — are acceptable, he said deliberate political falsehood is not, and will be accounted for on the Day of Judgment.
He also rejected the notion that politics must be adversarial, describing it as the art of persuading others to accept one’s convictions rather than an exercise in hostility, character assassination, envy or mischief. “Politics is not madness,” he said.
The emir called on leaders and elders to speak the truth regardless of whose interests are affected, and to place public welfare above personal ambition. Genuine service to the people, he said, attracts divine support, while the country’s problems will persist until Nigerians change their ways and return to justice, unity and mutual assistance.
Warning against division, he invoked a Hausa proverb about a cracked wall allowing a lizard entry, but said the present threat is graver: “it is not even a lizard trying to enter, it is a whole camel.”
On the North-west, the emir decried worsening insecurity, which he said has made farming increasingly difficult and deprived communities of their livelihood. He also questioned the silence of leaders and elders over the collapse of major industries in the North, citing the Peugeot Automobile plant in Kaduna. “Where are the elders? We have to speak up,” he said.
He urged public officeholders to prioritise the welfare of ordinary Nigerians over personal wealth and luxury, stressing that assisting others outweighs self-enrichment. “Give, and Allah will give to you. Withhold, and Allah will withhold from you,” he said.
Traditional rulers, he added, can only advise political leaders and hold them morally accountable, but will not abandon their duty to speak out against injustice and deteriorating conditions in their communities.
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