The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has unveiled five additional new imams for the Abuja National Mosque, saying more may soon be added.
The imams were unveiled on Tuesday in Abuja after their consideration by the General Purpose Committee (GPC) and endorsed by the National Fatwa Committee (NFC).
The five new Imams are Prof. Ilyasu Usman (Enugu State – visiting), Prof. Luqman Zakariyah (Osun State -resident), Dr Abdulkadir Salman (Kwara State – visiting), Barrister Haroun Muhammad Eze (Enugu State – resident), and Prof. Khalid Aliyu Abubakar (Plateau State – visiting).
The Secretary-General of NSCIA, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, at the event said the additional new imams were appointed as part of measures to strengthen the Religious Affairs Unit of the National Mosque and to further harness its vast potential as a centre for worship, training, learning and scholarship.
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He also said that additional imams may soon be appointed, including from the South-South part of the country, which is yet to have an appointee.
“Definitely, there will be at least one imam that will come from the South-South. We will continue to have more imams then, but I cannot give you the specific number of imams we have now,” Oloyede said.
He, however, said the appointments were not based on geo-political consideration alone, but on merit and competency, and the ‘resident’ are those living in Abuja, while the ‘visiting’ are those who would be coming to observe their roles from outside Abuja.
He also said that the management of the mosque is planning to give more time to the khutbah (Friday weekly sermon) presentation, such that people can come to the mosque with their headsets or earpieces to tune to their preferred languages while the khutbah is delivered in Arabic, thus eliminating the allocation of different periods to translations.
“During a similar press conference held on Thursday, 16th November 2017, where the changes in the administrative and management of the Abuja National Mosque with the appointment of Prof. Shehu Ahmad Sa’id Galadanci as the Murshid was announced, I informed you of the intention of the council to appoint more imam, particularly from the South-South/South-East geopolitical zones. Today’s press conference, therefore, is a further fulfilment of that promise.
“The NSCIA, since the establishment of the National Mosque in 1984, has been appointing, in succession, qualified Muslims who are worthy in character and scholarship to oversee the spiritual activities of the faithful.
“The establishment of the Abuja National Mosque Management Board (ANMMB) is a further step to create a structure for the management of the National Mosque on behalf of the NSCIA.
He said the development was simply acting Islam as what Islam is: to be accommodating, and ensure that you have everybody on board. Thus the reason why the Abuja National Mosque translates the weekly khutbah (sermon) in the four major languages – Hausa, English, Igbo and Yoruba.
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