The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, has expressed serious concern over how corruption, illicit wealth and unchecked social media content are eroding discipline within families and weakening Nigeria’s moral foundation.
Speaking on Monday at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji, during the opening of Exercise Haske Biyu 2025, themed “Family and National Security,” he said that the family remains “the smallest yet most important building block of society.”
According to the Sultan, essential values are formed early in life within the family. When families weaken, so do communities.
He emphasized that the world has not and will never invent anything to replace the family.
“The world has not and will never invent anything to replace the family.”
The Sultan also pointed to modern challenges, including unregulated digital content, abuse of drugs, and the pursuit of illicit wealth, as threats that undermine parental guidance and expose young people to negative influences.
He advised stronger marriage advisory councils and reforms in basic education to give greater emphasis to values.
He also called for tighter regulation of harmful online content and for ensuring that no child is ever left out of school, stressing the need to properly fund institutions dealing with the country’s crisis of out-of-school children.
He appealed to President Bola Tinubu and other national leaders to give more attention to the connection between family values and national security.
He emphasized that Nigeria’s issue is not the lack of solutions, but the lack of political will to implement them.
