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| Sheikh Muhammad Nura Khalid |
Following his sermon of Friday, April 1, 2022, the Chief Imam of the National Assembly Quarters’ Jum’mat Mosque, Abuja, Sheikh Muhammad Nura Khalid, was first suspended.
However, in a letter dated Monday, April 4, 2022, and titled, ‘Letter of Disengagement from the Services of the National Assembly Mosque’, the management committee of the mosque parted ways with the cleric.
In the letter signed by the committee chairman, Senator Saidu Dansadau, the Imam was accused of not showing remorse following his suspension. Since then, Sheikh Nura Khalid has got another job in Abuja as Chief Imam.
Nonetheless, the issue has generated so much controversy and interest among many Nigerians, especially on social media.
In an interview with Vanguard, the Sheikh says no one wrote a letter to him condemning his criticism against Goodluck Jonathan instead they were happy and hailing him.
He also accused the management of the mosque for not conducting financial audit for the past 15 years, saying that even the allowance he was receiving from the mosque was not tangible.
Below is the excerpt of the interview:
One of the issues the mosque committee raised in your sack letter is that they think you were not remorseful after you were suspended, because the suspension was supposed to help you reflect and double-check some of the things you said in the Jum’mat sermon. What exactly is there between you and the mosque committee, because Nigerians want to know?
They are the ones calling their actions punishment. They intended to punish me, but they rewarded me, because Nigerians now know about me more than before.
I am more popular now than ever and more people have listened to my sermon in the video. Even if they are really punishing me, I can absorb it. I can’t change. I will never feel free and happy that Nigerians are dying or support incompetence and lack of political will to deal with bandits and crime. It is not me who is saying ‘No’ to killings who is supposed to change, but the bandits.
It is government that will deal with them to change. If you have the power to punish anyone, go and punish the bandits. You can’t flex your power in the mosque. I have been in the service of the mosque for 15 years and I have criticized previous governments.
Under Jonathan regime, I said ‘No’ to killings till the extent that I asked the President to resign. It is there in the records. At that time, they were happy and congratulating me. Were they silent? I don’t have any record of them writing to me at that time to condemn my action.
How much is even my allowance from the mosque? I will like them to answer if in the last 15 years, there has been any internal or external audit of the mosque.