Coronavirus: UCH Ibadan Central Mosque Remain Closed Despite Government Plans And Guidelines.

By Ibrahim Agunbiade 

 22 July 2020 

The Chairman UCH Ibadan Muslim Community has advised both it members and communities not to open the masjid until they can hold congregational prayers safely without the fear of transmitting covid-19 virus, despite government plans for places of worship.

The government has earlier announced that churches, mosques and synagogues in Nigeria can open their doors for worship. But as mosques are primarily for congregational prayers, Muslim leaders have warned the plans lack clarity.

Dr Abbas Abdus-Salam chairman UCH IBADAN MUSLIM COMMUNITY & Senior Consultant in the hospital, said opening the Mosque would "cause flouting the guidelines."

Dr Abdus-Salam called on it members not to reopen until it is safe to do so and they are able to hold congregational prayers.

He said, "we will continue to monitor the situation. I understand some mosques in town have opened and they are flouting all the COVID-19 guidelines. While they may be able to get away with that, I don't think those of us in UCH can do that. We will certainly be in the news if we are caught flouting the guidelines."

He added, "UCH is an epicentre of the disease. Many of us who were diagnosed were diagnosed days or possibly weeks after they have become infective. And from my experience, the fever we will be searching for comes after infection and possible infectivity. I know some of us recently tested positive. If such persons had come to pray Jummah in the mosque, that might have turned out to be a mini calamity. Not only will the entire mosque shutdown, we will be required to fumigate and we will need to do contact tracing. How do you do contact tracing for a typical congregation of our Friday prayers?"

And how do we control crowd in the mosque without causing a mini riot? How do we prevent people from filling whatever social distancing gaps we created? Are we going to have people roaming round during prayers to stop such practices that are very common in our Jummah? Even when we stand shoulder to shoulder, people still trying to squeeze in between us.

And how do we stop the spill-over crowd prevented from coming in from congregating outside?

As leaders we are always looking out for the best interest of those we are supposed to be leading. That sometimes drives us to make pragmatic, non-emotional decisions.

As promised, we will continue to monitor the situation and provide further information as necessary.