By Muhammad Ibrahim,Sokoto
Muslim Ummah the world over were obligated to visit Saudi Arabia to perform one of the five pillars of Islam.
Lesser Hajj is also performed to cleanse wrong doings by individuals males or females.
It was against this backdrop governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has passionately appealed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to lift its curtailment of the performance of Umrah (lesser Hajj) by Nigerian Muslims to the Kingdom this year before the Ramadan fasting period.
Gov. Tambuwal, who made the appeal through Dr. Hasan bin Abdul-Hamid bin Abdul-Hakim Bukhari, Dean of the Institute of Arabic Language for Non-Native Speakers, of Umm Al-Qura University (UQU), who led a team to conduct the fifth edition of dawrah (refresher course in the reading of the Holy Qur’an), also aimed at training Sharia Court judges (Alkalai), university lecturers and secondary school teachers, also urged the Kingdom to bring in investment to Nigeria that will help empower the people of the country.
“We need more investment from Saudi Arabia because we know that the Kingdom and its nationals invest heavily in even countries where the number of Muslims is not as much as we have here in Nigeria.
“We need more of these interventions. I don’t know why we have been seeing less investments by Saudi Arabia in Nigeria. I am, therefore, appealing to you to use your good contact and influence in the business and government of Saudi Arabia for it to commence investment in Nigeria.
We need it for our development and mutual benefit of the two countries- in agriculture, animal health, mining… We have a lot of things that we can do,” the Governor emphasized.
Turning to the significance of the dawrah, the Governor said education is a continuum. “We must continue to educate our people, especially in the ways of our religion and as prescribed by Allah (SWT) and delivered by the Prophet Muhammad (SAW); and his own practices in Sunnah and sayings. We must contact to learn every day
“We must continue to thank you for having the courage to come all the way fro Saudi Arabia to Sokoto despite the negative news that are going out there about the insecurity situation in the country and in Sokoto in particular.
“We cannot be tired of asking for more. We kindly request, just as did the Commissioner for Basic Education, that you do more of this training for us and also, possibly, give us some slots for admission of some of our students into your university just the way we enjoy such from the University of Madina,” he appealed.
In his remarks, Sheikh Abdul-Hamid, expressed gratitude to Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, for collaborating with his institution to make the conduct of the dawrah a success
He said Saudi Arabia is not unaware of the historic contributions of the Sokoto Caliphate to the development of islam in Nigeria and Africa.
The 5th edition of the dawrah, bankrolled by UQU, which closed in Sokoto yesterday, was also intended to also strengthen historic ties between Saudi Arabia and Nigeria/Sokoto state; as well as the Ummi-Qura University.
The next edition will be hosted by Ibadan, Oyo state at a later date.
