Sultan’s blunt warning: “You cannot steal money and expect God to bless your Hajj”

ABUJA — The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, delivered one of his most direct anti-corruption rebukes in recent memory this week, cautioning politicians and public office holders against sponsoring pilgrimages to Mecca and Jerusalem with stolen public funds.

ValidViewNetwork can confirm that the Sultan issued the warning at the opening of a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) in Abuja, telling participants plainly that corrupt funds cannot buy divine favour. “God is not corrupt” “You cannot steal money and send people to Jerusalem or Mecca with corrupt funds and think God will accept your deeds. God is not corrupt, so you cannot use corrupt money for Hajj or anything else,” the traditional and religious leader told the gathering.

He further urged religious leaders to actively partner with anti-corruption agencies rather than shield offenders on account of faith or status.

No sacred cows, Sultan insists

According to reports gotten by ValidViewNetwork, Abubakar pushed the point further, telling the EFCC to pursue corrupt individuals “regardless of their political or religious affiliations” and instructing that titles should carry no weight once someone faces the law: “When someone is facing the law, do not tell me he is the pastor of so-and-so church or the chief imam of so-and-so mosque. We do not want to hear that.”

Findings show the Sultan’s remarks were delivered alongside the formal handover of the Interfaith Anti-Corruption Manuals, a joint EFCC-religious leadership initiative first inaugurated in 2014 and re-inaugurated by President Bola Tinubu in January 2024.

It is now expanded to address cybercrime and money laundering risks within religious institutions.

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Committee chairman Prof. Adedibu Ojerinde described the project as shifting from publication to practical execution, urging clerics to weave anti-corruption themes directly into Friday and Sunday sermons.

ValidViewNetwork gathered that the Sultan also urged religious leaders to move beyond mere “tolerance” toward genuine mutual understanding between faiths, and cautioned clerics against using the pulpit to incite division during election periods.

Coming at a moment when EFCC scrutiny of clerics and public officials alike remains a live national conversation, the Sultan’s remarks add moral weight from one of Nigeria’s most respected traditional institutions to a fight that, by his own admission, still has a long way to go. ValidViewNetwork reports.