The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, and his Rivers State counterpart, HRH King Appolus Chu of Eleme Kingdom, have described the purported snubbing of the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, by the Sultan of Sokoto, HRM Muhammadu Sa’ad as an honest oversight.

The Oluwo, in a chat with THISDAY, had reacted to a viral video where the Sultan allegedly ignored Sanwo-Olu, who was trying to greet him at a public function.
When the video surfaced on the social media, many alluded to the fact that the traditional ruler’s action might not be unconnected to the governor’ recent signing of the controversial anti-grazing bills into law.
However, in his reaction, the Oluwo said the Sultan was known in all circles as a humble man and would therefore not deliberately snub the governor.

He said: “No, anybody can do that. You might be on your own, anybody will try to, you know you shake everybody. The Sultan is very humble; he shakes everybody.
“Even you’ll see his people will never shake him but Sultan will come and shake everybody, even my own people. He has shaken my own Dongoyaro (..sic).

“Maybe his mind was somewhere else, or maybe he was looking somewhere and the governor was trying to greet him. The Sultan doesn’t have any problem with people. Even the people that abuse us, you’ll still see Sultan talking and greeting them.
“He’s a jovial and loving person to be with. If you get close to the Sultan and you know him,you will laugh all day. He knows how to make jokes that he won’t even laugh at.

“People who are making skits can’t make people laugh like Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, because when he talks like this, and he has that turban and covered his mouth so he talks and people won’t know that he’s talking and you by his side when you hear what he said you’ll be laughing.

“You don’t know what he was thinking at that time. He might not even be looking in the direction, or he was looking but there were other things distracting him. The governor might come and the governor is stretching his hand but the Sultan’s mind was not there. So, you see another person comes and he shakes them.”

King Appolus Chu, on jis part, said: “The Sultan I know does not insult or disrespect people in any way. In fact, he doesn’t give room for anything like that around him.
“I see this whole episode as people reading unnecessary meanings into the video clip and blowing things out of proportion for cheap publicity.

“The Sultan of Sokoto that I know, personally, is one of the most humble, approachable and sociable traditional rulers we have in this country today.
“If you look at the video, you will notice that he wasn’t going about looking for people rather people were approaching him on their own, because he is a very approachable, welcoming and hospitable person.
“His warm and hospitable nature is also why he has been able to successfully bring the people of the Northern region of the country – Christians and Muslims, politicians and non politicians – together to address issues affecting the North and Nigeria in general.”

(THISDAY)

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