The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, emerged as a leading voice for peace and dialogue during the Oxford Summit on Global Harmony, held on July 18, 2025, at the historic Oxford University.
Addressing an audience of over 300 international leaders, diplomats, and academics, the influential Nigerian monarch drew from his extensive experience mediating conflicts in Nigeria’s volatile northwest, advocating for a global shift from militarized responses to community-driven reconciliation. He highlighted the success of a recent Sokoto initiative, launched in March 2025, which reduced farmer-herder clashes by 10% through interfaith dialogues involving 50 local leaders, as a model for broader application.
The summit, themed “Global Harmony in Crisis,” provided a platform for the Sultan to propose a structured framework for peacebuilding, emphasizing the role of traditional rulers in bridging divides, a role he has held since ascending the throne in 2006. His speech referenced Nigeria’s challenges, including a 20% increase in communal violence in 2025 per police reports, and called for international support, including a $10 million fund from the UN to replicate his model.
Responses varied, with UN Secretary-General António Guterres praising the approach, while some Western delegates questioned its scalability amid ongoing insurgencies like Boko Haram. The Sultan’s participation, his third at Oxford, solidified his reputation as a global peace advocate, with plans for a follow-up conference in Abuja to institutionalize the strategy.