Forthright cleric Shiekh Nuru Khalid, who criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for failing to keep his promise to put a stop to banditry and insecurity in the country, was first suspended and has now been expelled as the Chief Imam of Apo Legislative Quarters Mosque in Abuja.

First his suspension and then his expulsion sparked tension, with hundreds of citizens expressing their views on social media.

Khalid reacted by saying: “Only God gives and takes power.”

In his sermon on Friday, April 1, he said leaders paid more attention to politics than to curbing insecurity that included violent and persistent attacks by insurgents and bandits.

The Islamic scholar was reacting to Buhari’s seeming lack of action over the Abuja-Kaduna train explosion on Monday, March 28.

In a widely circulated video, Khalid – speaking about the insurgency – said: “Is there nobody to take responsibility? I want to believe that we have all failed.

“I mean, I failed as an imam to teach you that life is sacred. You all failed as parents to teach your children that killing is bad. Our community leaders failed, our politicians failed, our governors failed, especially his Excellency, the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, you have failed us.”

He said Buhari had told Nigerians that if he was voted into power he would ensure that the military would be capable of putting an end to the insurgency, but he said “people are dying like fowls, killing is becoming the norm in Nigeria under your watch, Mr President”.

“We need prayers. We need supplication. This is very important at a time when Nigeria is facing a very serious challenge. Everything is not working well. People are dying. Our roads are not secured.

“Most parts of the country are not secured. The government is always telling us that they are doing their best. But we deserve more than that best as citizens because we want a secured Nigeria.”

He told ordinary citizens that if the growing insurgency persisted, they should be ready to stay away from the polling booths during the elections in February next year until the government demonstrated a real spirit to end the bloodshed.

However, Senator Saidu Muhammed Dansadua, the chairman of the mosque committee, said in a statement on Saturday to the BBC Hausa Service that Khalid was suspended over his sermon, accusing him of “inciting public outrage”.

The decision to suspend him was as a result of his “inciting Friday sermon” in which he advised people not to vote in the 2023 general elections unless politicians responded to some critical questions, he said.

“You should have advised them to vote out those who transgress the Almighty and breach people’s social contract, as well as the state.”

Dansadau said: “A mosque is a place of worship, not an arena to criticise government.”

In a letter issued to Khalid on Monday, signed by Dansadau, the committee stated that a decision was taken to finally relieve the imam of his duty [expel him] because he had not shown any remorse over the issue since his suspension.

Dansadau said the committee had spoken to the cleric before about his “radical approach”. He said the committee had “finally expelled Sheikh Nur Khalid for not being remorseful”.

This was not the first time Khalid had taken on Buhari. In a video in 2021 he told the president that Allah would deal with him if he did not return Nigeria “united and without bandits”.

Residents of Maiduguri told RNI reporter Aisha Jamal what the cleric had said was correct.

Sabiu Muhammad said: “If you look at the situation today, the cleric was right in what he said and what is happening has affected everyone. He told the truth because we voted in the leaders for safety and we did not get that. Nothing has changed. So, I think the cleric was right to say what he did.”

Maina Alhaji Maidoki said: “Regarding what the cleric said, he said the truth. The leaders are trying to shun away from what is really going on.”

Jidda Ibrahim, a lecturer in the department of public administration at the Ramat Polytechnic in Maiduguri, said: “Democracy is the ruling system in Nigeria with the 1999 constitution guiding the system. The committee perceives the cleric as a radical even though every cleric has a different method or approach. The government would have shown more justice if it had considered the constitution of Nigeria, section 39 (1), which guarantees the right of every Nigerian to freedom of speech and expression.

The administration judged Khalid too fast and, before doing so, they should have analysed his speech step by step.

Maidoki said the insecurity situation in Nigeria was “now very sensitive”. Social media gave everyone a platform to voice their opinions and feelings of the tension they were experiencing. But it could be a very easy platform used to mislead people.

“The cleric should have adopted a legal approach as to how and what he said about the elections and voting.”

Maidoki said: “Every citizen has the right to vote and to be voted for, the right to challenge and criticise but there are legal methods that should be followed that would avoid causing tension among the people.”

The cleric knew of and used his right to freedom of speech. By expelling the imam, the committee had curtailed his freedom of speech. This had increased tension in the country because there were those who agreed with what the committee did but also many others who vehemently opposed its actions.

“What has happened to the imam – first by being suspended and then expelled – has caused concern among the public. The committee was very quick to judge. And Khalid could have thought through what he wanted to say and maybe made his point without using politics. That he urged people not to vote in next year’s elections has infuriated the president and the government. But, more importantly, it has caused tension in a country where tension is already high.”

AISHA SD JAMAL