‘Are Muslims Ready?’

National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu

Muslims should be prepared to foot the bills of the man who would take up the position of National Chief Imam of the country when the current personality holding the top assignment is no more doing so.

Alhaji Baba Sheriff Abdullahi, an opinion leader in the Islamic community and Chief Executive Officer of an influential Hausa radio network with a large listenership in Accra and beyond Marhaba FM, was sharing his thoughts about the subject with Daily Guide last Tuesday.

‘In the Christian faith the various denominations have their internal arrangements for managing their office holders something which does not exist in the Islamic community. One day when another person takes over the position I wonder how the office is going to be operated considering the many sacrifices the current man does to keep the office going including taking care of himself’ he said.

Muslims should be prepared to contribute something towards the maintenance of the Office of the National Chief Imam because the standards Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu has set cannot be sustained in the future he  told Daily Guide.

In 1994 he recalled how the issue of holidays for Muslims cropped up at the governmental level and the role Sheikh Osman Sharubutu played in that direction. He said ‘the then acting Chief Imam Sheikh Osman Sharubutu was invited by the late Justice D.F. Annan for a discussion on the matter of which I was a part. The PNDC official said without a central authority for Muslims it was going to be difficult for the holiday issue to be resolved. The Chief Imam decided to rally round the regional chief imams for a meeting which took place in Accra at his expense, accommodation, transportation and meals. This is how much the man has sacrificed for Islam. Are we prepared to contribute towards the running of the office?’ The meeting was held at the Abossey Okai Central Mosque with the late Maulvi Wahab Adam of the Ahmaddiyya Muslim Movement in attendance he said. ‘It was the latter who mooted the  idea of a Hilal Committee to discuss and decide upon the sighting of the crescent and date for the commencement and ending of the annual Ramadan fast’ he recalled how the Chief Imam commenced the idea of bringing Muslims together to discuss common issues.

Muslims must be prepared to establish a Secretariat for the management of their affairs as have the other denominations of the Christian faith so as he put it ‘orderliness can give way to decent management of the varied issues confronting the Islamic faith.’

Currently he noted there are no structures for the management of the faith hence the occasional chaotic situations which arise within its fold.

During a Muslim Ummah National Stakeholders Consultative Forum on the 2020 Population and Housing Census in Accra, Alhaji M.B. Adam, a representative of the Upper West Regional Chief Imam called for a national dialogue on the succession plan for the seat of National Chief Imam to avert conflict when the seat eventually becomes vacant.

He painted a gloomy picture of the aftermath of the seat becoming vacant without a succession plan and added ‘we are already seeing it in the smaller groups where there are fights all over the place over district and regional chief imams, so if there are fights at these levels that are not even nationally recognized, they how much more the position of the National Chief Imam.

BY A.R. Gomda