The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, has directed the Muslim Ummah to look out for the new moon of Muharram 1443 AH on Sunday.
Abubakar, who is also the President-General of Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), gave the directive in a statement issued on Saturday by the Chairman, Advisory Committee on Religious Affairs, Sultanate Council, Sokoto, Prof. Sambo Junaidu.
The statement read: “This is to inform the Muslim Ummah that Sunday, August 8, which is equivalent to the 29th day of Dhul-Hijja 1442AH shall be the day to look out for the new moon of Muharram 1443AH.
Muslims are, therefore, requested to start looking out for the new moon on Sunday and report its sighting to the nearest District or Village Head for onward communication to the Sultan.”
The sighting of the new moon of Muharram will usher in the New Year 1443 AH in Islam.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, has warned Corp members posted to Sokoto for their National Youth Service Programme that the state is not safe.
The spiritual leader who spoke while hosting some NYSC Batch A stream 2 Corp members posted to Sokoto in his palace on Monday, also described Nigerians calling for the scrapping of the scheme as enemies of the nation.
I urge you to be security conscious while staying in Sokoto. You know there are security challenges now all over the world. We have our own share also.
”You should not keep late nights, and if you have any challenges contact your district head because they are like your father and guardian.
I heard there are efforts for the scrapping of the NYSC scheme. I assure you that those behind that struggle do not mean well for this country,” he said.
According to him, the NYSC scheme is the most needed programme given the present situation with Nigeria almost divided along ethnic and religious lines.
Abubakar urged the corp members to consider the state their second home and explore the opportunities therein.
The paramount ruler, who advised them to respect the customs and traditions of their host communities, urged them to be security-conscious as there are security challenges in parts of the state.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, on Friday met with the leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) on the challenges confronting herdsmen in the country
In his address at the meeting held in Abuja, the Sultan expressed concern that many Nigerians have continued to associate Fulani herdsmen with crimes in the country.
He added that not all the crimes committed in the country were perpetrated by the herdsmen.
He urged the leadership of MACBAN to find a workable solution to security and socio-economic challenges faced by members of the association and urged them to shun any act that would tarnish their reputations.
The National Secretary of the association, Baba Ngelzarma, urged the Federal Government to come up with social support programmes for herdsmen and train them in other skills in addition to cattle rearing.
He said: “Even the cattle rearing are they getting money? Their cattle are not competing with the ones you have in other parts of the world that weigh 700 to 800 kilograms.
“The milk output is also not competing with the ones we have in other parts of the world where one single cow gives an output of 50 litres per day.
“We still hold the outdated species of cow that are weighing between 100 and 120 kilograms and given out an output of milk that is not more than three to five litres per day.”
The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, on Wednesday called on Nigerians to ask questions about COVID-19 vaccines before the government brings them into the country.
According to the Sultan, who spoke at a sensitisation programme on COVID-19 vaccines for Muslim scholars and Imams in Abuja, such questions would help authorities provide answers.
He said: “What we will take away from this interactive session is so important, because it will help us convince the people of the need to take the COVID-19 vaccine or not. I believe we cannot force people to take vaccines.
“For us as Muslims, we know that knowledge is very important, and we know that Islam was founded on knowledge. The vaccines are not yet in Nigeria but it is an opportunity to bring up questions and fears about the vaccines so that the authorities will offer answers and solutions.”
The Sultan, who noted that the coordination and partnership of northern traditional and religious leaders helped to overcome polio, noted that the same partnership would also help with COVID-19.
He said further: “When the Almighty Allah brought me to this position in 2006, we had very serious cases of polio in Nigeria.
“The then Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, approached me that he wants to use traditional rulers to sensitise the people. I said, ‘It’s okay… we want to see healthy communities.
“That was how we picked a senior traditional ruler from each of the 19 Northern states and the FCT, and set up the Northern Traditional Rulers Committee on Polio. It was the work of that committee that was able to give us the polio-free certification after 13 years.
“Such is the importance of traditional leaders. But traditional rulers cannot do much without religious leaders. Any monarch who is not close to religious leaders is not a good leader. A collaboration between the traditional and religious institutions gave us the victory over polio not coercion.”
According to him, the emergence of COVID-19 vaccine was trailed by negative conspiracy theories, stressing that truth and adequate knowledge were necessary to dispel the lies and half-truths.
“People talk of conspiracy theories such as that the COVID-19 vaccine is meant to kill us. But my take is that if a vaccine was meant to kill us, will anybody wait for the COVID-19 vaccine before killing us? We have been consuming soft drinks and other medicines that are imported into the country. If any foreigner wants to kill us, there are more than a million ways to do so.
“The vaccines are free. You are not going to pay for it. But to take it is your choice. How? You have to find out the truth about the vaccine yourself. How do you find out the truth? By seeking knowledge. How? By communicating with the right people”, he said.
In his own contribution at the event, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, revealed that any COVID-19 vaccine that would be brought into the country must be certified by the National Agency for Food Administration and Control (NAFDAC) before administration.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
