Murshid now to oversee National Mosque

THE Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has announced new changes to the administration and management of the Abuja National Mosque with Professor Shehu Ahmad Said Galadanci confirmed as the Murshid (general administrator) to oversee the affairs of the complex.

The Secretary-General of the NSCIA, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, briefed newsmen in Abuja, said: “Since the demise of the late Chief Imam, Sheikh Musa Muhammad, on the 2nd May, 2015, the council undertook a number of restructuring. In line with the best practices in national mosques all over the world, the Abuja National Mosque would now have a Murshid rather than a Chief Imam.

“Similarly, the three Deputy Chief Imams of the mosque had recently been elevated to the position of Imams of the Mosque and one other vacancy had been declared (to be occupied by a qualified person from either the South-South or South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria), thereby bringing the total number of Imams to four.”

Oloyede said the Murshid would be supported by the three Imams of the mosque and a Director of Finance and Administration.

“His duty, among other things, is to see to the uplift of the Muslim community spiritually and intellectually,” he said.

Oloyede added that rather than the three Khutbah (the special Friday sermon) in different local languages, the mosque would introduce a technology where only the Arabic khutbah would be delivered and worshipers could come with their mobile phones and tune to a frequency to listen to the interpretation of the sermon in Nigeria’s major languages.