By Muhammad Ibrahim,Sokoto
Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar 111 has announced the end Ramadan and beginning of Shawwal.
He said the new moon has been sighted in Katsina,Adamawa,Yobe and many other places in Nigeria.
“Considering the calibre of Ulamas and traditional rulers who reported the moon sighting, the Sultanate Council is hereby satisfied with their status and confirmed tomorrow Friday as Eid-fitr”,the Sultan announced.
The Shawwal crescent has been sighted in Tamir, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday.
With the development, Muslims in Nigeria and across the World would celebrate Eid el-Fitr on Friday.
Morocco, Turkey, and Bahrain have fixed Friday for Eid el-Fitr.
Earlier, the Federal Government of Nigeria had declared April 21st and 24th public holidays.
The Federal Government has declared Friday, April 21 and Monday, April 24, 2023, as public holidays to mark this year’s Eid el-Fitr celebration.
The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, made the declaration on behalf of the Federal Government, according to a statement by the Permanent Secretary, Dr Shuaib Belgore, obtained on Wednesday.
He congratulated all Muslims for the successful completion of the holy month of Ramadan.
Aregbesola called on all Muslims to imbibe and practice the virtues of kindness, love, tolerance, peace, self-denial, sacrifice and good neighbourliness, as exemplified by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him).
“The self-restraint, self-denial, sacrifice and deep spiritual consciousness that accompanied the fasting period should not end but be maintained and improved upon, in order to be a better person and true worshipper,” the minister advised all Muslims.
Aregbesola assured that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), was fully committed to a peaceful transition of government following successful elections. He assured of the government’s commitment to the provision of security for the life and property of every citizen and foreigner in the country.
The minister commended all security agencies for the successes recorded in the fight against criminals across the country.
He urged Nigerians to be part of the nation’s security architecture by being vigilant and reporting suspicious individuals and activities to law enforcement agencies nearest to them, noting that security was everybody’s responsibility. He admonished Nigerians also to report suspicious activities and persons to security agencies.
Aregbesola wished all Muslims a happy Eid el-Fitr celebration and prayed “that the peace, blessings and favour of Allah be with you all. Ameen.”
On behalf of the Nigeria Basketball Federation NBBF, I want to wish all Muslims across the globe, especially those in the Basketball Family, Happy Eid el-Fitr.
The holy month of Ramadan avails us the opportunity to make supplications; and also draw closer to Almighty Allah SWT.
As we enter the month of Shawwal today, may Almighty Allah accepts our act of ibada and grant us our desired blessings.
As we mark this year’s Eid el-Fitr, we are reminded of the great task ahead in developing the game, which the New Face of Basketball is determined to revive.
Once again, on behalf of the NBBF Board, I say Eid Mubarak to our Muslim brothers and sisters.
Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano has granted freedom to 123 prison inmates across the state.
Ganduje, who witnessed the release of the inmates from Goron Dutse Prison on Thursday, said the gesture was in the spirit of the Eid-El Fitr celebration.
He said the beneficiaries were selected based on the gravity of offences and signs of reformation while in prison.
The governor said that the decision to visit the prison was to show the inmates that the state government was aware of their existence and that they were also regarded as citizens of the state.
Ganduje said that the gesture was to complement the Federal Government’s efforts to further reduce congestion in the nation’s prisons.
He advised the ex-inmates to change their attitudes to life and pray for peace and stability in Nigeria.
The governor also gave each of the freed inmates N5,000 as transport fare to their various destination.
Earlier, the Comptroller of Prisons in Kano, Suleiman Suleiman, thanked the governor for freeing thousands of inmates since his coming into office.
Suleiman advised the freed inmates to stay off crime to avoid going back to prison.
Ganduje also visited remand homes and Kano children’s home in the metropolis as part Sallah celebration.
Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano has granted freedom to 123 prison inmates across the state.
Ganduje, who witnessed the release of the inmates from Goron Dutse Prison on Thursday, said the gesture was in the spirit of the Eid-El Fitr celebration.
He said the beneficiaries were selected based on the gravity of offences and signs of reformation while in prison.
The governor said that the decision to visit the prison was to show the inmates that the state government was aware of their existence and that they were also regarded as citizens of the state.
Ganduje said that the gesture was to complement the Federal Government’s efforts to further reduce congestion in the nation’s prisons.
He advised the ex-inmates to change their attitudes to life and pray for peace and stability in Nigeria.
The governor also gave each of the freed inmates N5,000 as transport fare to their various destination.
Earlier, the Comptroller of Prisons in Kano, Suleiman Suleiman, thanked the governor for freeing thousands of inmates since his coming into office.
Suleiman advised the freed inmates to stay off crime to avoid going back to prison.
Ganduje also visited remand homes and Kano children’s home in the metropolis as part Sallah celebration.
By Abel Leonard/ Lafia
As Muslims set to celebrate this year’s Eid-el- Fitr, tomorrow Thursday, Speaker, Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Alh. Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi, has urged Muslims to sustain the spirit of the holy month of Ramadan as they bid it farewell and continue to pray for God’s intervention in order to overcome the security challenges facing the country.
This was contained in a statement issued by his Press Secretary, Jibrin Gwamna and made available to newsmen in Lafia.
The statement quotes the Speaker as calling on Muslims and other Nigerians to have faith and trust in God as well as believe in Nigeria greatness.
Balarabe Abdullahi has called on the people to continue to pray and strive for the nation’s unity, peace, progress and development as well as insecurity and other challenges.
The Nasarawa State Number Three Citizen has also urged wealthy individuals in the society to extend hands of love to the less privileged ones in order to improve on their standard of living and to give them a sense of belonging in the society.
He enjoined Muslims to sustain the spirit of sacrifice, perseverance , commitment to God’s activities and enhancement of prayers among other good deeds associated with the month of Ramadan.
He enjoined political, religion, traditional and community leaders to continue to preach peace and love among their followers.
Speaker Balarabe further urged Muslims and other Nigerians to support President Muhammadu Bahari and Gov. Abdullahi Sule’s administrations and other leaders at all Levels to succeed.
The speaker urged Nigerians to unite, embrace peace, tolerate one another irrespective of their differences and remain committed to constituted authorities for development to thrive and have an egalitarian society.
By Joyce Remi- Babayeju
The FCT Administration has directed that Muslim faithful should offer their Eid prayers only at Juma’at mosques premises.
FCT Minister Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello gave this directive yesterday when la delegation from the FCT League of Imams Initiative led by its Chairman, Imam Tajudeen Adigun met with the minister to discuss the modalities for the Eid prayers for the upcoming Eid el-Fitr celebrations amid the COVID- 19 pandemic.
Bello said the directive was based on battle against the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic experienced in the FCT which resulted in increased number of fatalities and positive cases adding that it was imperative to prevent a possible third wave as is being witnessed in some countries across the world.
Meanwhile the Health and Human Services Secretariat of the FCTA has issued guideline that here will be no Eid prayers at the National Eid prayer ground along the Umaru Musa Yar’adua Expressway (Airport Road) and enjoined all worshippers to hold Eid prayers outdoors within the premises of the neighborhood Juma’at mosques.
Indoor worship are to be limited to less than 50% of installed capacity. Religious authorities are advised to regulate the flow of people entering and exiting places of worship.
All non-pharmaceutical intervention protocols of facial coverings, physical distancing and hand washing are to be observed.
All other Eid celebrations and activities should be confined to homes as all public parks, recreation and entertainment centers are to be closed.
Dr Tajudeen Mohammed Bello Adigun, speaking on behalf of the League, said “In Islam, you listen to experts, those who are specialists and those who have actually discussed with us are experts in the field of medical sciences. In Islam, you also abide with the commands of leadership.”
He also urged Muslim Ummah to also respect the FCT Administration by observing Eid prayers within people’s localities.
Ahead of Eid-El-Fitr celebrations, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Kaduna State command has assured residents of the state and its environs of adequate protection of lives and properties during and after the festive period.
This was contained in a statement on Tuesday by the State Public Relations Officer of the Command, ASC
According to the statement, the State Commandant, Nuraddeen Abdullahi urged all residents and members of the Public to ensure surveillance and report any criminal activity to the command for urgent attention.
He said, “the present security threats are surmountable, especially with the support of the citizenry.”
“Challenges of banditry and kidnapping among others bedevilling the state and nation, in general, are worrisome and efforts are being intensified to end it.” The statement further added
He expressed the determination of the command to protect critical national assets and infrastructure like railway, ports authority, pipeline and other national facilitates.
The statement further said the command is committed to ending all forms of criminality including the arrest of vandals and therefore called on members of the public to always provide useful information that will lead to the arrest of suspected criminals.
Commandant Abdullahi appealed to residents not to lose confidence in the response of security agencies saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and property.
This year’s eid-al-fitr, the Muslim festival marking the end of the month of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast for 29 or 30 days, in observance of one of the Five Pillars of Islam, was celebrated on Saturday and Sunday May 23/24, but it was a different kind of eid. It was sombre, low key, and completely over-shadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In close to 100 years, there has been no eid like that: the world’s nearly 2 billion Muslims observed the Ramadan under imposed conditions. People were advised to avoid congregational prayers and stay in their homes. On Sunday, many could not observe the traditions of the eid either: the sharing of gifts, visits to family and friends to share goodwill, hugs and handshakes. In countries around the world, persons were advised to shun large gatherings for their own safety. Eid prayers could not be held publicly in Mecca and Medina. The Grand Mosque was noticeably scanty. Earlier, the Saudi Grand Mufti had advised against large congregations.
In Egypt, the usually busy Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo was empty. In the United Kingdom, the Muslim Council, ahead of the Eid-al-Fitri, advised Muslims to pray at home. In Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand and Malaysia, congregational prayers were allowed but there was very strict adherence to precautions. In Thailand for example, worshippers who showed up for the Hari Raya, as the eid-al-fitri is otherwise known in that country, Malaysia and in Indonesia had to pass through health officials who checked their temperatures, gave them sanitizing gels, recorded their names and addresses so they can be traced and contacted in the event of a report of community spread of the virus. The people prayed but they kept away from one another. The main thing about COVID-19 is how it has imposed a regimen of observances on human behavior and relationships.
The fact that people are expected to comply or gamble with their lives for failing to do so, is what makes it all so surreal. The mode of compliance varied from one country to the other. The only uniting factor, however, is how on Sunday, the Muslim global community and indeed the entire world was reminded of how so much COVID-19 has disrupted our lives. This sub-text was driven home more poignantly when the New York Times on May 24, decided on a dramatic, all-type concept front page, listing the names and brief descriptions of about 1,000 Americans who had died from COVID-19 related complications. It was the first time in more than 40 years that the New York Times will not have an image on its front page. The published names were compiled from obituary notices in newspapers across the United States by a researcher – Alan Delaqueriere – and put together by a team led by Ms. Simone Landon, Assistant Editor, Graphics. There was also an inside-page essay by columnist, Dan Barry. For me, this was journalism at another level.
The New York Times went beyond the raw data that is quoted daily by Johns Hopkins University which tracks the incidence of COVID-19 in the United States (over 1.6 million confirmed cases, and over 98, 000 deaths – the highest COVID-19 figures in the world!). The newspaper gave names to the statistics and conveyed a sense of the uniqueness of those that died. Whoever reads that list is bound to realize how it is so easy to be alive at one moment, only to end up on a list of corpses in a short moment. The unpredictability of human transitions is what therefore makes it alarming that certain persons knowing how the grim reaper is on rampage, riding the vehicle of a virus, would engage in suicidal and risky behavior.
These were my thoughts as I read the New York Times on the day of the eid-al-fitr, and reflected on the sharp variations in how the eid was celebrated especially in sub-Saharan Africa where religion is a virus of sorts. Whereas North African countries (Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria) where there are high figures of COVID-19 enforced rules of physical distancing, many worshippers South of the Sahara threw caution to the winds, with perhaps the notable exceptions of Ghana and Senegal. In Sudan, before and after the eid, neither the leaders nor the people seemed to have heard of physical distancing. Sudan has the highest number of cases in East Africa with over 100 deaths but nobody seems to care. The people and their leaders certainly did not care during this year’s eid-al-fitri. Inflation is over 100% in Sudan. Health workers have no access to Personal Protective Equipment. The World Health Organization (WHO) should watch that country closely.
In Tanzania, a country that has been “Magufulifized” to paraphrase the eminent Kenyan Professor, PLO Lumumba, the leaders pretended to be aware of the need for physical distancing but the worshippers who trooped to mosques in Dodoma and elsewhere in the country could not be bothered. As in Sudan, the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic could be traced to the failure of leadership. President John Magufuli of Tanzania held much promise when he assumed office five years ago, but he has since derailed confirming indeed that his reform agenda is a double-edged sword of progressivism and dictatorship/primitivism. He insists that there has been a reduction in the number of COVID-19 cases in Tanzania, but this is not based on data. Tanzania stopped releasing COVID-19 figures and suspended daily briefings on April 21 because Magufuli is convinced that such briefings cause panic among the populace. He also insists that testing cannot be trusted, having discovered that even fruits and goats have tested positive due to faulty test kits. The Africa Centre for Disease Control and the US Embassy in the country have warned about the extremely high risk that Tanzania constitutes, especially to the neighbouring countries of Kenya, Zambia and Uganda. Healthcare workers in Tanzania cannot even express an opinion because under Magufuli, it is a crime to have independent thoughts. On eid-el-fitri day, Muslims in Tanzania simply followed his lead and ignored the reality of COVID-19.
In not too far away Burundi, the management of COVID-19 is not any better. Burundi is officially a secular state. Muslims constitute a minority, previously thought to be only 1% of the population but now considered to be about 5-8% after the last post-civil war census. The big problem with Burundi in the face of COVID-19 is the total refusal of President Pierre Nkurunziza to come to terms with the fact that the pandemic is real. Last week, the country held a Presidential election, a stage-managed election which was rigged to produce the candidate of the ruling party, the CNDD-FDD as winner with 68.72%. The CNDD-FDD’s candidate, Evariste Ndayishimiye was once Chief of Staff to Nkurunziza who wants to retire from office and retain the pompous title of “Supreme Guide to Patriotism”. The new President will be required to consult the “Supreme Guide” on matters of national security and unity. Nkurunziza has apparently forgotten what happened to former Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos whose delusion of indispensability eventually led to his humiliation.
But in reality, what Nigeria and many other countries in sub-Saharan Africa are faced with is the threat of an exponential rise in COVID-19 cases post eid-al-fitri. In Kano state which is second on the Nigerian COVID-19 League Table, the guidelines were observed more in the breach. The Kano elite at the prayer grounds hypocritically tried to maintain social distancing but nobody provided minimum care for the ordinary people who risked their lives in the name of religion. In Minna, Niger state, there was reportedly a heavy downpour. People abandoned their masks and rushed into the mosque where they huddled together. The Nation newspaper (Nigeria, May 25) reports that Southern Muslims in Nigeria observed the eid in their homes. In the Northern part of the country, where the Northern Governors Forum most recently announced that the region accounts for 54% of reported cases, and 70% of fresh infections, the prayer grounds were unlocked from Kano to Borno, by the same leaders who had only a few days earlier acknowledged a brewing crisis in their region. Does that make sense?
I have tried to paint the picture above simply to revisit the commendation that Africa has received for beating the world’s expectations with regard to COVID-19 sero-prevalence. The eid celebration is merely a peg. At a recent Africa.Com Webinar Series 6 with the theme: “What’s the real story behind Africa’s COVID-19 figures?”, the WHO Regional Director Ms Rebecca Moeti expressed enthusiasm about the fact that whereas WHO expected higher COVID-19 cases in Africa, the numbers have been lower than expected. She praised African countries. Both the WHO DG and the UN Secretary General have also had cause to commend Nigeria. The praise for Africa may be premature. It is not justified by the attitude of many of the leaders and the behaviour of the people. Could the real story in Africa be – that not enough testing is being done resulting in gross undercount or that corruption has further mutated COVID-19 into a strain that is yet unknown to the world? Or is the virus un-African? These are the key questions.
…Abati is former Presidential spokesman
Police authorities have called on Nigerians to be mindful of the measures put in place by the government to curb the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) as they celebrate Eid-el-Fitr.
The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammad Adamu, made the call in a statement on Friday by the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba.
He urged them to continue to comply with the government’s prevention regulation orders against COVID-19.
According to the police boss, these include the interstate movement restriction orders, nationwide curfew, the prohibition of mass socio-religious gatherings by the Federal Government in Lagos, Ogun, Kano States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as well as restriction orders by governments in some states.
The statement said, “Citizens should observe the Eid celebrations bearing in mind the unusual times occasioned by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Force will leave no stone unturned towards the due enforcement of the orders.”
While congratulating Nigerians on the occasion, the IGP assured the people of adequate security during and after the Eid-el-Fitr celebrations.
He noted that proactive and robust anti-crime measures, including the deployments of tactical and intelligence assets of the Force, were already in place to prevent any untoward incidents in the country.
The IGP commended the Muslims for the successful conclusion of the Ramadan which he described as a period of self-denial geared towards attaining wholesomeness.
He said the period has reinforced his belief that with the citizens’ collective perseverance and voluntary compliance with the prevention regulations emplaced by governments at all levels, the nation would surely overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.