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When politics visits national mosque
BY KAKALE BN MOHAMMED
The decision
by President Olusegun Obasanjo to head the committee on the renovation of the
National Mosque, Abuja, has now dragged Muslims into unavoidable controversy. In
fact, the President’s continued leadership of the committee has ruffled many
feathers. Muslim opinion over the leadership of the committee by a non-Muslim
President is bitterly divided between ultra-conservative and radical Islamic
groups. Whatever may be the motive of the President in such decision, his action
is subject to varying interpretations by Muslim groups.
At the centre of the controversy are
Muslim traditional rulers who, by their status, are the de facto mouthpiece of
Muslim interest in Nigeria. While the traditional rulers do not appear to make a
fuss about Obasanjo’s controversial role over a purely Muslim affair, the
radical adherents of the faith have distanced themselves from the tacit consent
of the traditional rulers to such bizarre arrangement, in which a non-Muslim
heads a committee for the rehabilitation of the National Mosque.
No issue in recent memory has badly
divided Muslim opinion like President Obasanjo’s unopposed decision to lead the
effort in the renovation of the national Mosque. Although many Muslims praised
the President’s efforts to help Muslims to improve the condition of their place
of worship, they are nonetheless amazed at the sheer absurdity of Obasanjo’s
over-zealousness on the matter. In fact, many dissident Muslim groups perceive
the President’s leadership of a Mosque renovation committee like a cuckoo in the
nest. President Obasanjo’s kind gesture, though a welcome relief, has left
Muslims in a dilemma.
The division among Muslims over Obasanjo’s
leadership of the Mosque rehabilitation committee runs so deep that some radical
elements have decided to vote with their feet because traditional rulers are
reluctant to see reason over the queer arrangement, making Obasanjo the chairman
of the committee. Despite the donation he made to the Mosque rehabilitation
project, President Obasanjo’s motives for heading the renovation committee are
subject to widespread suspicions. By ignoring likely Muslim sensibility to such
issue, the President does not help matters by allowing the controversy to rage
on.
Opposing Muslim opinions have continued to
question the wisdom of the President heading the committee. Dissident Muslim
elements have continued to wonder whether Christians could have rationalized the
idea of a Muslim heading the committee on the completion of the National
Ecumenical Centre. Because of its sensitivity within the context of our everyday
reality, it is highly unlikely if Christians could have welcomed the idea of a
Muslim heading the completion of their place of worship.
Consequently, the sincerity of those who
rationalized Obasanjo’s leadership of a Mosque rehabilitation committee is being
openly questioned by dominant Muslim opinion. The most dangerous dimension to
this controversy is the fact that political motives are being attributed to the
President’s insistence to head the national Mosque rehabilitation project.
For example, many Islamic adherents wonder
why the most senior Muslim in Obasanjo’s government, Vice-President Atiku
Abubakar, was not considered fit to chair the committee on the rehabilitation of
the national Mosque. Since the President did not tell Muslims that he lost
confidence in the Vice-President’s ability to supervise the Mosque renovation
project, observers are at liberty to question the motives of Obasanjo over his
excessive zeal to lead the effort instead.
By all accounts, Atiku Abubakar is widely
acknowledged for his amazing acumen in fund raising activities. The successful
fund-raising of the national headquarters of the Muslim Students Society is a
living testimony of Atiku’s proven competence in fund raising activities. Given
Atiku’s antecedents in handling the successful execution of major projects, even
within incredibly short deadlines, such as the All Africa Games, the
Commonwealth Summit and the construction of the Yar’Adua Centre, many Muslims
wonder why he was not saddled with the leadership of the national Mosque
rehabilitation project.
Muslim leaders, who strenuously defend
President Obasanjo’s leadership of the Mosque rehabilitation committee such as
Justice Bashir Sambo, are clearly disingenuous in their rationalization of such
absurd arrangement in which Obasanjo heads the committee. Does Obasanjo doubt
the integrity of Muslim leaders to efficiently manage funds being channelled
into the national Mosque rehabilitation project? His decision to head the
rehabilitation committee shocks the imagination of any rational Muslim.
Does Obasanjo truly intend to assist
Muslim to give their place of worship a befitting outlook through the donation
of federal funds for the Mosque rehabilitation project? Behind the veneer of
that kind gesture, many Muslims suspect dark motives to Obasanjo’s offer of
assistance to Islamic followers. If Nigerians are notoriously cynical, the
insincerity of their leaders largely feeds such cynicism. There are suspicious
that the President is hiding behind the Mosque renovation project as a trick to
divert federal funds to the National Ecumenical Centre project where his
dominant interest actually lies.
Playing politics with the religious
sentiments of Muslims is unwise. If, indeed there are pure motives to the
President’s offer to assist the rehabilitation of the Mosque project, there is
absolutely no need for him to chair the committee for the purpose, even if he
was persuaded by Muslim leaders to do so. There would have been no controversy
if President Obasanjo had limited his ambition to lead religious project
rehabilitation to the National Ecumenical Centre.
Sidelining the Vice-President and choosing
Obasanjo to lead the Muslim committee on the national Mosque rehabilitation
smacks of na�ve miscalculation by Muslim leaders, mainly traditional rulers who
didn’t have the nerve to let the President know the implication of his
leadership of a purely Muslim committee. It seems politics has crept into this
matter. There is no convincing reason, as yet, why Atiku Abubakar as the most
senior Muslim member of the Obasanjo administration should not head the
committee on the national Mosque rehabilitation.
The President is not fair to Muslims by
seeking to throw the apple of discord among them. If the gesture to fund the
rehabilitation is genuine, the President’s business should not go beyond
releasing the promised funds and monitoring progress. But taking over the
chairmanship of the Mosque rehabilitation committee, the President is going a
bit too far. If it is not wrong for the President to actively involve himself in
the resumption of construction on the stalled National Ecumenical Centre, common
sense would demand that Atiku too should head the committee on the national
Mosque rehabilitation project.
While the Christians are silently
continuing with the construction of their Ecumenical Centre, the rehabilitation
of the Abuja national Mosque is being threatened by serious division among
Muslims, who resent the incomprehensible decision of the President to head the
committee. The feeling of traditional rulers towards this controversial role of
the President is in conflict with the dominant Muslim sentiment.
The ridiculous and contradictory role that
the President has imposed on himself over the execution of the national Mosque
project leaves Muslims agape at exactly what Obasanjo is up to.
KAKALE BN MOHAMMED
No. 10C Bwari Area Council Bwari
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