The Zongo Chiefs in a meeting with the Vice President
The Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has promptly waded into a brewing national security challenge in Zongo communities across the country.
A rift in the ranks of the Tijjaniya Sect in Islam, although not new, took a dangerous turn last week when Sheikh Khalifah Abdul Faidi Abdullahi Ahmed Maikano, the son of the late clergy Malam Maikano of Prang, reportedly uttered unsavoury remarks about the National Chief Imam.
In the sermon, he reportedly challenged the authority of the Chief Imam and incurred the wrath of sympathizers of Sheikh Osman Sharubutu, who are said to be preparing for a physical response.
The sermons of the Prang cleric went virile in the Islamic community across the country and beyond, courtesy social media including the accompanying polemics.
The social media attacks have been going on for some time now.
A sympathizer of the National Chief Imam resident in the US fired back at the Prang cleric, a successor of his father and rebuked the National Council of Zongo Chiefs for not showing concern, as the cleric came all the way from Prang to challenge the authority of the Chief Imam.
Both Abdul Faidi Maikano and the National Chief Imam belong to the Tijjaniya Sect of Islam, but the former is continuing his father’s disapproval of the position of the Chief Imam as the spiritual head of Muslims in Ghana and Tijjaniya.
There have been clashes between supporters of the two groups in some parts of the country over the years.
In Nima last year, the Nima Divisional Police Commander ACP Abraham Acquaye had to invite two ‘warring’ youth groups with allegiance to the two clergies after they inflicted injuries on themselves.
Following the rising tension, the Vice President hosted the Council of Zongo Chiefs, whose members turned up from across the country to discuss the subject and seek solution.
In attendance was the National Security Coordinator, among others.
The Vice President demanded that there should be nothing that would disturb the peace of the country as he charged the chiefs to address the brewing trouble.
The chiefs turned to Kawokudi, and after deliberating on the issue, they resolved that Zongo chiefs across the country should liaise with the clergy and security agents to ensure that scathing sermons are not undertaken, as these are the sources of tension in the Islamic community in the country.
The clerics, the chiefs added, should draw the attention of the law enforcement agents to contentious issues which could trigger violence.
A few years ago one such social media polemics attracted the attention of many elders in the Zongos, as they wondered what could happen if there is no closure to the nagging subject.
The largely youthful supporters of the Prang cleric are called the Jallos; his annual Quranic recitation in Prang attracts a lot of his admirers to the town in Brong Ahafo Region.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the National Council of Zongo Chiefs Alhaji Imoro Baba Issa expressed gratitude to the Vice President for timely defusing the tension in the Zongo communities.
By A.R. Gomda