NSCIA mourns Shagari
The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) led by its President-General and the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, on Wednesday, commiserated with the Federal and Sokoto states’ governments over the death of Nigeria’s first elected President Shehu Shagari.
Shagari, the only Nigeria’s President of the Second Republic, was Turakin Sokoto and active member of Sultanate Council under the leadership of Sultan of Sokoto and Sarkin Musulumi of Nigeria, Alhaji Abubakar, until months before he breathed his last.
Chairman, NSCIA Media Committee, Alhaji Femi Abbas, in a statement urged the citizens to learn from the exemplary lifestyle of late Shagari and emulate it for the progress of Nigeria.
“The NSCIA particularly condoles with his family and chieftains of the Sultanate of Sokoto State among whom he was a front liner in his lifetime. We pray that the Almighty Allah repose his soul in eternal bliss and grant his immediate and extended families the fortitude to bear the agony that may arise from his demise,” Abbas said.
He said when the media announced the death of Shagari last Friday many Nigerians with rich experience in various aspects of life began to dust their diaries for a recount of the episodes that propelled the deceased to have made history as much as he was himself made by history.
He said the late Shagari’s life was like a huge elephant surrounded by blind men and women of letters and substance.
“To describe the features of that proverbial elephant, each of the persons that surrounded it would only be able to give an account of the area he/she is able to touch on the body of the mammoth animal and not the whole of it.
“Besides, Alhaji Shehu Shagari was such a household name and quintessential role model whose legacies many Nigerians cannot afford to discountenance. Nevertheless, the aspect that concerns the NSCIA most in his life’s odyssey is religion,” he said.
He recalled that it was Alhaji Shagari, as Nigeria’s first elected executive president that approved N10 million each for the commencement of building a National Mosque and a National Ecumenical Church in Abuja at a time when naira was really strong and the foundation of Abuja as a city was just being laid.
He said that the presidential gesture, which no religious group rejected, was a confirmation that Nigeria is indeed a multi-religious and not a secular country as being peddled in certain quarters for selfish reasons.
