FEC meetings and Friday prayers

Nigerian radio and television stations, social media, bloggers and newspaper websites were awash with the news last Friday that President Muhammadu Buhari had appeared at the State House mosque for congregational prayers. The news was so important to the government that the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) repeatedly showed a long film clip of Buhari walking slowly to the mosque surrounded by aides, exchanging greetings with dignitaries and participating in the Friday prayer, which lasts only a few minutes. Anyone who was just arriving in Nigeria will wonder if our news media so worships rulers that it expends so much time reporting what should be a private religious duty. It might remind him of the Ethiopian Herald newspaper in the days when Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam ruled Ethiopia; it reported him so much that citizens secretly called it ‘The Daily Mengistu.’ 

Actually, Buhari’s appearance at last Friday’s prayers generated so much interest only because he did not appear at the previous Friday’s prayers. That in turn was important to newsmen because Buhari always attended Friday prayers since he became president in 2015, in fact for many decades earlier. Initially he went to Abuja’s National Mosque on Fridays but he soon switched over to the State House Mosque, probably because his presence at the National Mosque always caused commotion, with folks stampeding to catch a glimpse of him.

Ten days ago newspapers and social media were awash with the story that Buhari did not attend Friday prayers, which they quickly attributed to ill health. Even though attending Friday prayers is compulsory for an adult male Muslim, there are many excuses under the Shari’a for a man not to go for Friday prayers, sickness being only one of them. In our primary school days, the Arabic/Islamic Studies teacher Anakallahu taught us that if you owe someone money and he is likely to accost and embarrass you at the mosque, you are permitted to stay away from Friday prayers. Incidentally, the Debt Management Office announced that week that Nigeria’s total foreign debt now stands at $11bn. I am just wondering; could it be that Paris Club loan collectors were lurking around the mosque and could grab Buhari’s flowing white robes and demand for payment? That is why we should not jump to conclusions when a man is not seen in the mosque.

The president’s absence from that week’s Friday prayers got further media impetus when he also failed to preside over last Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. Under Buhari FEC meets every week, which in my opinion is too frequent. Since he became president Buhari made it a duty to preside over every session, except when he was out of the country, which at one time was also frequent. After he returned to the country from a 49-day stay in London, Buhari presided over one FEC meeting. He then let Vice President Yemi Osinbajo chair one meeting. The next week the meeting was cancelled allegedly due to Easter break, and after that he failed to chair two more meetings. All of these sent the media into frenzy, that the president must be very ill. His appearance at last Friday’s prayers however threw a spanner in the works of the illness narrative. Either he was not very sick two days earlier or if he was, then he recovered a bit too quickly.

Trouble is, official explanations for the appearances and disappearances are rapidly becoming unbelievable. The first week that Buhari missed the FEC meeting, Information and Culture Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed said the president told ministers to allow him to rest. If he did send such a message, it must have confused the ministers because Buhari did not need their permission to do anything. In fact, some of them might have wondered if the president stayed away from the FEC meeting in order to put finishing touches to a cabinet reshuffle. In Nigeria, ministers often learn about their sack from reporters. That military-era tradition still subsists; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal first heard of his suspension from reporters. He even asked them who was the presidency that announced his suspension. Maybe the over-playful Babachir was only pretending.

Last Wednesday too, Alhaji Lai said the president did not come to FEC meeting because doctors told him to take a rest. That was messy because only a day earlier, State House announced with fanfare that the president had resumed duties and even met with the Attorney General and the NNPC GMD. These days, State House officials make a point of dragging every high official who meets with the president to go and address the State House Press Corps, apparently as a way of reassuring the public that the president is working. The wonder is that they did not drag the doctors to go and address reporters. If they did, one pesky reporter would have asked them why they kept telling the president to rest when the Presidential Villa is not a holiday resort.

Another trouble is that from now on, reporters are going to pay special interest every Wednesday and every Friday to see if the president chairs FEC meetings or attends Friday prayers. That is unfair; it will overshadow both the substance of FEC decisions and the sanctity of Friday prayers. If it is likely that Buhari will miss a few more of them in the weeks to come, then State House should move proactively to take the sting out of the two events. For example, it could make FEC meetings monthly. Government does not yet have the power to make Fridayprayers monthly but it could close the State House mosque to Fridayprayers.

It is not ideal for powerful men to say their Friday prayers in an exclusive mosque. The Attorney General, the Acting EFCC Chairman, the DG of DSS and all the bigwigs who want to pray on Friday should go to the National Mosque, Al Mannar, Lababidi or any other mosque in Abuja. I was even wondering if they satisfied the Shari’a’s conditions before they turned State House mosque into a Friday mosque. In 1960 when Sardauna wanted to stop going to Kaduna’s Kano Road mosque for Friday prayers and instead build the Sultan Bello Mosque at Unguwar Sarki, the Grand Khadi Sheikh Abubakar Gummi had to enter his car and drive slowly from Kano Road to Unguwar Sarki, looking closely at the car’s mileage, in order to determine whether the minimum distance prescribed by the Shari’a is met before a new mosque can be created. These days some Friday mosques are within shouting distance of each other.

Other people have suggested that President Buhari should return to London for more medical checks. That would help the information managers because no one will be looking out for him again at FEC meetings or at the Friday mosque. The only thing is that when he does go to London, State House and the Information Minister should stop saying that he is hale and hearty or that he is merely taking his vacation. I know it is not nice sometimes for people to know one’s ailment but in the long run it makes no difference to one’s prospects for recovery.

In my lifetime I remember three powerful rulers who were sick and their governments released daily medical bulletins on their health. These were Spain’s Francisco Franco in 1976; Algeria’s Hoari Boumedienne in 1978 and Yugoslavia’s Josef Broz Tito in 1980. All three did not survive but that was not because of disclosure; they were already advanced in age and each had been in power for decades already. I am not calling for daily medical bulletins on President Buhari’s health; only a slightly more coherent message from the government.

This article first appeared in Daily Trust