allAfrica.com: Nigeria: National Mosque - Slow Renovation Draws Worshippers Ire (Page 1 of 2)

Strategically located in the Abuja city centre, the Abuja National Mosque is an architectural masterpiece that hardly escapes the eyes of visitors to the city. Apart from being a prayer centre for the Muslims in Abuja and beyond, it also provides a beautiful picturesque of the sprawling city.

But following more than a decade of use, several parts of this awesome edifice have yielded to wear and tear. The ablution centres which can take dozens of persons at a time has virtually collapsed. The closets are an eyesore. The roof leaks water profusely such that plastic basins are now being used to collect water to avoid the simple comfortable rug carpets from being drenched.

The conference hall became a dark room as a result of complete breakdown of the electrical system. The mosque management, on top of that, was "neck deep in debt almost to the point of being dragged to court," says Proffessor Ibrahim Makoshy, the second and incumbent Executive Secretary of the mosque management committee.

As a result of this state of disrepair, the Muslim community cried out for help and as events that followed showed, their cry was heard by the government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, though controversially.

In 2006, Chief Obasanjo led a fund raising launch where prominent politicians took more than passive interest to restore the deteriorating condition of the mosque.

There were donations amounting to millions of naira, some in cash and others in pledges. Malam Jafaru Umoru, the Administrative Secretary of the mosque management, told Weekly Trust that, "over N2.1 billion was realised from the fund raising." Of this amount, over 650 million naira was in cash while the rest were pledges.

Due to bureaucratic bottleneck and delay in the redemption of the pledges, the money was not to be put to use until over a year after.

This, in brief, is the story of the on going rehabilitation works at the mosque which was awarded to A&K Construction Company last year.

The contract for the rehabilitation work was signed between the company and the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs on September 27, but was to take effect from November the same year. The contract sum is put at N752,191,094.

However, before the rehabilitation work started even when the facilities were in decay, the mosque could still favourably contest with the best structure around its environment. No wonder, the former president once described it as a national monument, though attracting some disapproval from Muslims.

Commissioned in 1993, its beginning can actually be traced back to 1981 when the late Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji (Sir) Abubakar Siddiq III, assisted by Alhaji Umar Mustapha El-Kanemi, the Shehu of Borno, launched an appeal at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos towards building a befitting national mosque in the new capital territory, Abuja.

At that launch, N1, 397,768 was realised and the highest individual donation came from Alhaji Aminu Dantata.

Another unique event at the launch was the pledge of 10,000,000 naira by the then Federal Government under the leadership of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. The same gesture was extended to the Christian community in the country towards the building of what is today the National Ecumenical Centre.

The invaluable contribution of late Major General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua is also worth mentioning here. He was the pioneer chairman of the executive committee which saw through the successful construction of the mosque. The main contractor was an Italian multinational construction company, Lodigiani (Nig) Ltd and was supervised by AIM Consulting. Real construction work started in 1982.

Weekly Trust's checks revealed that the mosque has a capacity to accommodate 10,000 worshippers on its main floor. The upper floor on the left and right hand side of the dome and the back which is meant for women, accommodates an additional 3,500 worshippers. The larger precincts surrounding the mosque's courtyard which worshippers use on Fridays, sits an additional 50,000.

On the slow pace of work, some regular devotees spoke to Weekly Trust on their impression of the work.

One worshpper called on the mosque management to make ad-hoc arrangements for a closet where ablution and other conveniences will be observed while the job last as, "it is not proper that a mosque as big as this where thousands come to pray does not have such arrangements for a long time because the job has not been finished and formally handed over by the contractor."

To AbdulHakeem, "the contractor is not known to anybody. They are not fast in the job. All I see them doing is painting, painting, and painting"

Abu Meriam, another regular worshipper in the mosque, observed that he does not have a full knowledge of the contract details; "I can't be categorical because I do not know the details of the contract. Like the duration the contract is supposed to last, how much money is released to them and the rest of them." He continued, "from what I have seen, they are doing their best. In fact, as it is now, they are very fast."

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