Mr. Chairman, amiable Rt. Hon Gabriel Suswam a two-time winner of our awards, a trusted friend and patron of the Sardauna Magazine, Mr. Vice President, Arc. Namadi Sambo GCON ably represented, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. Good evening.

Please permit me to stand on existing protocol respectfully!

When I look back at what we go through on yearly basis in the last 4 years to bring together this very important gathering; when I look at the rare mix of distinguished ladies and gentlemen that I get the humbling privilege to address on a yearly basis, I cannot but give thanks to Allah as we can confidently say that the end obviously justifies the means.

We are here tonight as always to celebrate leadership inspired by the character, ideology, personality and, perspectives of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the first Sardauna of Sokoto, a great visionary and a foremost nationalist. I believe that it is now safe to conclude that the Sardauna Magazine Awards has over the years found its rightful place in our national calendar.

I will like to emphasise that all the Lifetime Achievers were awarded for their selfless life of service. However, for other categories, they were awarded for their achievements in the year under review. I urge them to please desist from any action that will bring disrepute to the Late Premier, other awardees and the general public. You should be great ambassadors of true and selfless leadership.

I will also like to use this opportunity to address some highly controversial issues surrounding our magazine with the hope of putting the issues to rest. Some people insinuate that we are using the name for selfish gains. This assertion is quite unfortunate considering what we go through as an organisation to publish the magazine every month and to put this award together. We are not using the name Sardauna, we are in fact working for Sardauna.

Alfred Nobel was a great chemist, inventor and industrialist, but today he is more remembered through the Nobel Prizes, 114 years after his death, than for his riches or discoveries. Some day Insha Allah, Sardauna Awards will do to Sir Ahmadu Bello what the Noble Prize does to Alfred Nobel as we will continue to perfect the integrity of the awards so that only the best get it.

Every copy of Sardauna Magazine that exists in any part of this world is carrying the message of change and good leadership as exemplified by the late Premier. It is our dream that someday, the magazine and the awards will become one of the most important institutions of keeping the legacies of the late Premier alive.

During the last Award, we showed you a model of a school and hostel which we intend to build in each local government of Northern Nigeria. By the special grace of Allah, we have fully completed the one in Zaria. It is rather unfortunate that, same time last year, on this same podium, prominent Nigerians pledged millions of Naira to the magazine to help us in our course. As I speak tonight, not a kobo of that amount has been redeemed.

Aside from a few exceptional Nigerians, each time we meet people in places of authority, they shower praises on our effort and promise heaven and earth in assistance. They most times, turn out to be empty promises. If we were to rely on such empty promises, we would still be holding a model instead of a house and would not even have the resources to be gathered here tonight.

This lack of empathy explains why child destitute fill the streets of our cities. Rather than being in school, thousands of our children beg for food the highway while our prominent men and women, their noses pressed to the window of exotic cars pretend to busily read the newspapers as they pass them.

We avert our eyes and we do nothing, condemning a large proportion of our fellow citizens to poverty. I will like to plead with the Governors seated here tonight, other federal government officials and most especially individuals to please take another look at this issue. We must solve it. For us at Sardauna Magazine, we assure you that, for every magazine you buy, a percentage of your patronage is taking a child out of the street.

Let me assure our teeming readers that the magazine is getting better by the day, our editorial focus has been seriously enriched by our decision to focus on issues rather than personalities. We have chosen to analyze issues rather than merely report them. By this effort we hope to broaden public understanding and perception of issues that are shaping our collective destiny as a nation. The downside of this policy shift manifested recently from our current edition concerning President Jonathan and 2011.

We have come under serious attack, intense pressure, name calling and even threat to our lives. To start with, we at Sardauna Magazine have no political affiliation. We are a brand proudly from the north for the benefit of the whole nation. We are not paid to take sides, we are only doing our job of analysing issues and giving you all the information you need to make your own decisions. As corporate citizens of Nigeria, we also have the right to our opinion which is not ill intended. We are not averse to superior arguments and we are not fixed in our ways.

Without mincing words and without an iota of doubt, President Jonathan is eminently qualified and has every right to run for election as President. He has so far led our country with a high level of comportment and maturity besides his various experiences of public service. However, in our opinion, what is at stake is far beyond qualification or right to contest. He has a more serious national assignment to do in fulfilment of his destiny. We believe that President Jonathan's destiny is to be the change agent.

He is in a vintage position to change the meaning of electioneering in Nigeria. The question now is: considering our historical past, can he deliver a free and fair election in an environment where he is an interested party? Even if he wants to, will his supporters be able to resist the temptation of rigging on his behalf? We need a departure from the past; that departure can be achieved if he does not contest for now and remains the unbiased umpire who will make our vote count henceforth.

This is a huge personal sacrifice we are suggesting he makes, a sacrifice I am not sure I can make if I were in his shoes but that is why he is my leader! We have on our continent the awe-inspiring example of Nelson Mandela, the very personification of a self sacrificial leader, who, at his moment of triumph, decided that wisdom was just as important as righteousness, and that his own time on the national stage should be brief. He is 92 years old today and a living legend. What will President Goodluck Jonathan decide?

This position is not necessarily an endorsement of the ruling party's zoning system. Since ordinary Nigerians were not privy to the meeting where the zoning arrangement decided at a time when it was expediently necessary, the onus now lies on the PDP elders who were party to the meeting to tell us the truth as to whether in their consideration, zoning was designed to have a life span or if it was designed to live forever.

Zoning might have been necessary in the past but it cannot last forever, we have to evolve our nation in a way that only the best get there regardless of the ethnic identity of the big man in Aso Rock. If our leaders are sincere, selfless and patriotic, we would soon discover that the masses would benefit uniformly regardless of who is President and all these considerations would be a thing of the past.

With several political parties in this country, if Nigerians are sure that the person so voted for can win, people of different ethnic background can pick up presidential tickets from any of the parties and give Nigerians a wide spectrum of leaders to choose from, if we get INEC right under Prof Jega, if we institute internal democracy in the political parties then, we stand a chance of organising our political institutions in a way that bad and incompetent rulers can be prevented from office. And even if they do get there, they can be prevented from doing too much damage.

Greater countries look at the past with nostalgia knowing that the present is an improvement of the past, but we in Nigeria hear the story of the past in despair knowing that the days of our fathers were better than what we have today. I hope our award can inspire a new approach to leadership, a leadership the late Premier would have been proud of.

Thank you all for coming and for giving me your kind attention. Good evening.

Speech of the publisher of Sardauna Magazine, Hassan Rilwan at the 4th Sardauna Excellence And Leadership awards July 18, 2010 at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.