Imam removed after campaigning for Tinubu at Bauchi mosque

Imam Dahiru Abubakar of a mosque in Madina quarters of Bauchi metropolis has been removed from his position for campaigning for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election.

The imam was said to have been subtly campaigning for Tinubu’s reelection during preaching after every obligatory prayer.

He was, however, suspended after he repeated the act following the early morning prayer (Subhi) on Sunday.

“He would tell the congregation after prayer that Tinubu did not cause insecurity and he deserved to be reelected.

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A committee was set up after he did the same thing last weekend and he was subsequently removed,” a source said.

Abubakar told our correspondent that he had been telling the people in his preaching that President Tinubu was not the problem because the hardship and insecurity were caused by “end times phenomenon.”

He said, “I have been preaching to the people to stop castigating President Tinubu for the insecurity and economic challenges. They prepared to vote for him and give him another mandate in 2027 to continue his mandate.

“My preaching centred on telling people to embrace fear of God and stop blaming leaders for the insecurity, particularly President Tinubu, because only God’s intervention can stop the challenges with the power of prayers, and that didn’t go down well with the committee of the mosque.

“My preaching priorities are fear of God and our day-to-day activities. I cited examples of what is happening, especially insecurity in African countries like Sudan, Chad, Mali and others facing crisis. I asked whether President Tinubu was responsible for their insecurity.”

Confirming the incident, chairman of the mosque committee, Imam Abubakar Jibrin, said, “Our major challenge with him was not only his campaign for Tinubu but the way and manner he gathered many people in front of the mosque and sometimes entered the mosque purposely to discuss politics.”

He added, “The mosque committee sat down with him and cautioned him against turning the mosque to a political platform because of the Quranic verse which says the Mosque is solemnly for worship of Allah alone. We vehemently rejected the use of the mosque for political meetings. We have warned him not once or twice but many times, but he didn’t heed our pleas.

“Even though we believe that politics is the process of producing leaders in the country, there are laid down procedures, which are political parties, and the activities should take place in their political party offices and not in the mosque.”

Jibrin also said that, apart from campaigning for the president, he was also insisting on changing the name of the mosque from Abdullahi Bin Zubbair mosque to Masjid Imam Bola Ahmed Tinubu mosque.

“All the committee members said ‘no’ because the mosque belongs to the community. This mosque has a committee of which I am one of the members, and when he insisted, we rejected the idea and resolved that the mosque name would remain Masjid Abdullahi Bin Zubbair.” Jibrin said the committee had removed Abubakar from the position and would not reinstate him.

“He should go and build his personal mosque, or politicians should go buy a mosque for him; that is not our business. Let me clarify that we, members of the committee of the mosque, are not against the candidate of any political party. Our prayer is to Allah to choose the best for the country, be it President Tinubu or any candidate among the presidential candidates that would become a blessing  to the country,” Jibrin added.