Sultan Calls For Total Cancellation of Debts of Developing Countries
SEKINAH LAWAL
… Seeks For End To Genocide In Gaza
The Sultan of Sokoto
His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto and President General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, at the World Council Meeting in Istanbul Turkey recently called for total cancellation of debts of developing countries and an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Deliberating on; RESTORING THE SACRED IN A TIME OF GLOBAL CRISIS, over 60 religious leaders, members of the Religions for Peace World Council, and leading experts, gathered in Istanbul to launch the Shared Sacred Flourishing initiative and engage in thematic dialogues on Ethics in Artificial Intelligence and the Global Debt Crisis.
The following is a portion from the Remarks of His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto at the World Council Meeting in Istanbul Turkey.
………As faith leaders, we carry not only the voices of our people but the moral authority of our traditions. Let us use that authority to insist: Debt must serve life – not the other way around.
My dear brothers and sisters, this is a sacred moment, a sacred responsibility and a shared future.
This World Council is not merely a meeting of minds. It is a gathering of conscience. And so I say: let us not leave here with polite agreement and empty declarations. Let us leave with a firm commitment – with faith in action.
Let us call for the lifting of this heavy burden – of unjust debt, of structural injustice, and of intergenerational despair. Let us replace it with the shared joy of justice, dignity and hope.
As Co-President of Religions for Peace, I pledge that we will continue this work. That we will raise our voices. That we will stand with the poor, the indebted, the vulnerable – not out of charity, but out of love, solidarity and sacred duty.
Let us demand for total cancellation of debts of developing countries.
Before I conclude, I feel obliged to remind us about another debt that we, the faith communities, owe humanity. This, as many of you would expect, is the current genocide going on in Gaza where innocent children are starved to death in large numbers.
Our collective conscience as faith community is being challenged by this tragedy that has gone on for far too long.
We must rise to the occasion and address this issue as well. People of conscience around the world, some of them European and American politicians and Jewish groups have come out to take a categorical stand against this atrocity.
We the faith communities are even more entitled to do so coming from a constituency that seeks to propagate justice and equity. It is my hope that our gathering here will include this issue as one of the many inequalities and inequities that we should discuss and address. Let us lift this BURDEN TOGETHER.” His Eminence concluded.
