Nigerians must be wondering that power can act so swiftly in their country, given the alacrity with which the Chief Imam of Apo Legislative Quarters Mosque, Sheikh Nuru Khalid, was fired last week Monday, on a spurious allegation of not being remorseful over his comment during his April 1 sermon. The chief imam had asked Nigerians not to vote in next year’s general elections if the security situation did not improve. He was particularly irked by the bandits attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train on March 28. Khalid had earlier on April 1 been suspended over the sermon.
Imagine a chief imam being summarily sacked within 72 hours of committing the alleged offence in a country where someone (or some people) caused the whole country severe economic and personal deprivations by importing adulterated fuel without consequences.
Khalid deserves more than an applause in a country where several other clerics like him have sold out, wining and dining with the authorities and swimming with them in the ocean of iniquities!
But, what exactly did this man say to warrant his summary dismissal from a job he had been doing so meritoriously for about 15 years? True, he said a lot. But was he saying the truth? Moreover, what he said was still within his right of freedom of expression.
Hear Khalid: “I want to believe that we have all failed. I failed as an imam to teach you that life is sacred; you all failed as parents to teach your children that killing is bad. Our community leaders failed, governors failed, especially His Excellency, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, you have failed us.” Imam Khalid reminded us of the promises that Buhari made when seeking our votes: “We have your video telling Nigerians that the military is capable, it has all the requirements to tackle all the insurgency and if you are voted into power, you are going to make sure that happens in a short time.”
“You have been given four years and an addition, yet people are dying like fowls, killing is becoming the norm in Nigeria under your watch Mr President”, the fiery cleric lamented. He said “If there is no Nigerian to tell you, I will take responsibility of telling you and I will take the consequences because the lives and properties of Nigerians are above all.”
He is not done yet: “What you are telling us is that your concern is about the 2023 elections. And what I am telling the citizens is to send a message that we are going to vote under one condition. Nigerian masses should resort to only one term which is — protect our lives, we will come out to vote; let us be killed, we will not come out to vote, since it’s the only language you understand, we are going to speak it. We need prayers. We need supplication. This is very important at a time when Nigeria is facing a very serious challenge. Everything is not working well. People are dying. Our roads are not secured.
“Most part of the country is not secured. The government is always telling us that they are doing their best. But we deserve more than that best as citizens because we want a secured Nigeria.”
Imam Khalid said it all. As the legendary Fela Anikulapi-Kuti asked in one of his evergreens, wetin remain sef?
But Senator Saidu Muhammed Dansadau, chairman of the mosque steering committee, who signed Sheikh Khalid’s letter of disengagement and his colleagues on the committee gave the impression that he was fired not necessarily because of what he said but because he was neither remorseful nor showed any sign that he had reflected on the consequences of his utterances. “We regret to inform you that from today, 4th day of April, 2022, you have been disengaged from the services of the above-mentioned mosque. This action is occasioned by the non-remorseful attitude you exhibited following your suspension on 2nd April this year.
The sack letter, dated April 4 added: “Akamakallah, you know better than me by the teaching of Islam, the essence of administering punishment is to correct behaviour.
“Unfortunately, your media reaction to the suspension creates the impression that you are not remorseful, not to talk of humbly reflecting on the consequences of your utterances.” Not done, the senator continued his own homily “Leadership demands a great sense of responsibility. If our words do more harm than good to the larger interest of the country or the public. We have a responsibility to maximise restraint for the good of the public…” And, if I may ask, who determines that ‘larger interest of the country or the public’?
At any rate, how could anyone have been incited not to vote simply on account of a cleric’s admonition to that effect? Even if Imam Khalid had said what the committee members advised in their letter of suspension, to wit, that he “should have advised them to vote out those that transgress the Almighty and breach people’s social contract as well as the state”, they still would have accused him of inciting people against the sitting government. Come to think of it; if anyone thought Khalid’s followers were so gullible as to follow his admonition that they should not vote, without interrogating it, who is to blame for that gullibility? Is it not the same northern establishment that did’t give them education?
I know there is some gullibility of sort when it comes to advice from the pulpit, even down south, but it is limited. I was in the third service at Winners Chapel when the then President Goodluck Jonathan came to the church shortly before the 2015 election. Influential and respected as Bishop David Oyedepo was and still is, I knew many people in that auditorium did not agree with most of what ‘Papa’ as the man is popularly called said, especially when he asked the congregation to pray for Jonathan (or was it when he was praying for him). My eyes were wide open and I also saw a multitude that did not close their eyes as well. Many of us did not answer ‘Amen’ to the prayers. It was our own way of showing disapproval with the position of the man of God. Do not ask me now whether we were wrong and Bishop Oyedepo was right, with hindsight.
Since the mosque is located in an area where the high and mighty reside, such criticism of the government would quite naturally ruffle some feathers. It is not yet clear who influenced Sheikh Khalid’s sack. But we know that he said nothing new. What he merely parroted had been said by many prominent Nigerians, including religious and highly respected traditional rulers, former heads of state, not to talk of civil society organisations and the media. As a matter of fact, even National Assembly members have had cause to berate the government either individually or as a collective, over the issue of insecurity and other national challenges that the government has monumentally showed a lack of capacity to address. So, what sin has Sheikh Khalid committed? Any religious leader worth the appellation should be able to look anybody in the face and tell them the bitter truth. Unfortunately, many religious leaders today are more concerned about issues of bread and butter. The very reason why many Christians frown on the tendency of many pastors to exalt prosperity over salvation. Winning of souls, the very essence of Christianity, has taken the back seat while pecuniary gains are now the driving force in many churches and mosques. Indeed, the fat bank accounts of many religious leaders reek of filthy lucre. That is why they cannot look power in the face and tell it the truth.
But God is great. Allahu Akbar indeed. Almost as soon as the Apo Legislative Quarters Mosque removed their own mat, God spread His. Sheikh Khalid has got a new job offered by the management committee of a new jum’mat mosque behind the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Quarters, Abuja. His appointment took effect from Friday. An apparently elated Khalid said: “There’s a Jum’mat mosque we built behind the CBN Quarters, in Abuja; I will now be leading the congregation there.” He added: “By the Grace of Almighty Allah, I will be leading my new congregation this Friday, because as clerics we need a platform to operate.” Those who fired him knew this too well and it was their grand design to deny him that platform. But thank God they are not God. They would have ensured that he is cut off from the supply of oxygen. Neither would rain fall for his benefit.
Be that as it may, I decided to quote Imam Khalid extensively not for want of comments to make on the matter, but because I felt what the cleric said was for the record and should therefore be well documented. At any rate, what new thing would I or anyone be saying about the Buhari government’s ineptitude that is not already in the public domain? But we have to put Khalid’s words for the record so that when in the future the children of those who sacked him for saying the truth, and their masters start reaping the comeuppance of their fathers’ sins, they won’t have to look far for the reason. They will know their fathers had eaten sour grapes and that is why their (the children’s) teeth are set in edge. Consequences there always will be.
It is however heartwarming that Khalid’s sack has proved again that there is no wedge of religion among Nigerians. Most times, it is the political elite that erect such artificial wedge to protect their selfish interest. I say this because most of the comments condemning the chief imam’s sack online came from the southern part of the country, perhaps from predominantly Chrustians. If we are able to sustain this attitude, then it is a matter of time for the selfish political elite to know there is no hiding place for them.
Suffice it to say that the sack of Chief Imam Khalid is another public relations disaster for the Buhari administration, irrespective of whether it was party to it or it was purely the handiwork of some outsiders weeping louder than the bereaved. The impression out there is that the ‘digital imam’ (as Khalid is fondly called), cannot be liked by an analogue administration.
All said, we need the likes of Sheikh Khalid more in our mosques. People who understand and preach about the sanctity of human lives. The senseless killings, particularly in the north, would not have been this serious if many other clerics preach in like manner. Unfortunately, majority of the gullible youths in the region believe that the number of people they kill, ostensibly for Allah, qualifies them for paradise.
It pays us all if those in power realise that silencing credible critics can only give a semblance of peace of the graveyard. Implosion is the natural consequence of the bottled-up anger.