By Kemi Kasumu, General Editor
His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto and Leader of over 90 million Nigerian Muslims, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, has declared Wednesday 23rd August 2017 as 1st of Dhul Hijjah 1438AH.
By implication, the declaration by the Sariki Musulumi of Nigeria, who is the President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), is that Eidul-Adha 1438AH will fall on the 1st of September, 2017.
The Sultan’s declaration was the outcome of rigorous consultations that he held Tuesday night with mosques leaders all over the country after the Dr. Hafiz Wali-led National Moon Sighting Committee (NMSC) transmitted a letter to him informing the Amirul Mumineen that his committee’s search for the new moon of Dhul-Hijjah across the country Tuesday night of 22nd August 2017 equivalent of 29th Dhul-Qada, 1438AH returned negative.
The NMSC letter jointly signed by Hafiz Wali, chairman, and Qamardeen Muhammad, assistant secretary of NMSC, stated that the search for the new moon was observed in Abuja in Federal Capital Territory, Ibadan in Oyo State, Zaria, Kaduna in Kaduna State, Azare, Bauchi in Bauchi State and Kano in Kano State.
Other places of search it said included Ilorin in Kwara State, Anthony in Lagos State, Gombe in Gombe State and Sokoto in Sokoto State.
It said the negative result of the search by his committee, individuals and other active moon sighting societies “throughout the federation was negative as a result of cloudy weather overcast due to the rainy season.”
Noting that the new moon search attempts by International Crescent Observation Project (ICOP) www.icoproject.org and National Moon Sighting Committee (NMSC) www.nationalmoonsighting.com indicated predominantly negative reports for the new crescent of Dhul-Hijjah 1438AH, the NMSC letter explained to Sultan that the situation “might not unconnected with predominantly cloudy sky reported by various observers across the globe.”
“His Eminence may however wish to note that the cloudy and rainy weather across the country might have hampered sighting the crescent because Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is to east of Nigeria and Morrocco to the west of Nigeria have both announced the commencement of Dhul-Hijjah” to be Wednesday “23rd August as first Dhul-Hijjah, 1438AH.”
The moon sighting committee however recommended that Sultan approved and declared Wednesday 23rd August as 1st Dhul-Hijjah on the ground of scholars’ agreement that if due to situation of haze new crescent is not sighted in Nigeria, that confirmed naked-eye moon sighting in other countries to the east of the country can be adopted.
It was as a result of this and further wide consultations with mosques leaders in the country that the Sultan declared Tuesday night that 1st Dhul-Hijjah 1438AH would be Wednesday 23rd August 2017.
Responding to further inquiry and inquisitiveness of The DEFENDER, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar told the online medium that the moon sighting committee did their usually good job but that nowhere the new moon was sighted Tuesday night.
He however said that he approved and made his declaration based on “recommendation of the National Moon Sighting Committee and further wide consultations with mosques leaders across Nigeria.”
