Ramadan: Buhari urges Muslims to fast, observing social distancing

President Muhammadu Buhari has enjoined all Muslems in Nigeria to endeavour to refrain from practices that encourage grouping and congregating as they observe this year’s holy month of Ramadan.

The President, in his Ramadan message to Muslims in the country and all over the world, wished them well as they began this year’s 30-day fast, following the sighting of the moon.

“I congratulate all Muslims as they commence this year’s Ramadan fast which is depicted by self-denial, universal brotherhood, austerity and helping relatives and needy people,” the President said in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu.

Buhari described Ramadan 2020 as a challenge, falling as it is in the period of a global pandemic, which had spread to more than 200 nations, with virtually all countries advising citizens to avoid large gatherings and have their prayers and meals (suhoor and iftar) individually or with family at home.

“In this Ramadan period, the kind of socializing you are used to now risks spreading the Coronavirus,” the President cautioned Muslims, while enjoining them to refrain from those Ramadan rituals and traditions such as group meals and congregational prayers that had been put on hold by Muslim religious authorities all over the world.

The President urged Muslims to endure and not to use the Coronavirus as an excuse not to participate in the Ramadan fast, unless such abstention was warranted by the excuses clearly outlined by health and religious authorities.

He wished Muslims in the country and the world over all the blessings of the holy month.