Kano, Nigeria – As the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei takes over as Iran’s supreme leader after the assassination of his father in a United States-Israeli attack, hundreds of mourners gathered in a mosque far away from the war in the Middle East to grieve the late leader.
The adherents in northern Nigeria’s Kano State solemnly chanted prayers. At one point during the recitations, the voice of the religious leader that carried over the microphone to all corners of the hall, cracked with grief. Among the crowd, one young man wiped his eyes.
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On Sunday, Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei as his father’s replacement. In Kano, the community sees it as a move ensuring the “continuation of his father’s resistance”. The assassination of the elder Khamenei last week in an air strike has stirred deep emotions among Nigeria’s minority Muslim Shia, a group that sees its faith and identity intertwined with that of the larger Shia community in Iran.
For 60-year-old academic Dauda Nalado, the elder Khamenei’s killing was not merely another event in foreign politics; it was the silencing of a revered spiritual teacher.
“Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is not only a leader of the Shiite community or even Muslims alone. He is regarded as a leader of oppressed people across the world,” the university professor told Al Jazeera. “If you look at Iran’s involvement in issues concerning Gaza and Palestine, you will understand why many people admire his leadership.”
Khamenei, who was 86 when he was killed, became Iran’s supreme leader in 1989. He shaped the country’s military and political apparatus, which became critical to Iran’s influence in the region; fostered self-reliance in the face of Western sanctions; and responded forcefully to criticism.
However, in January, Khamenei faced one of the most significant domestic challenges to his rule over the years when severe economic hardship turned into nationwide protests. Thousands of people were killed in the crackdown. The US has used it as one of the justifications for its current war; however, before his death, Khamenei accused “terrorists” linked to the US and Israel of being behind the violence.
Since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran on February 28, at least 1,255 people in Iran have been killed, including 160 girls in an attack on their school in the southern city of Minab. Hundreds of others were injured. Hospitals, residential buildings and historic heritage sites have been severely impacted by the bombings.
Across northern Nigeria, which is predominantly Muslim, Shias have taken to the streets to protest against the war, Besides Kano, demonstrators have gathered in Kaduna, Kebbi, Gombe, Bauchi, Katsina, and even in the mixed-faith commercial city of Lagos, in the country’s south.
Their demand is for the attacks on Iran to end.
“The United States and Israel jointly imposed this war. … Iran has a legitimate right to self-defence,” Nalado said.
A small but significant minority
Muslims make up about half of Nigeria’s 200 million people. Most in the country follow Sunni Islam, and the Shia are a small minority, numbering one million to five million, according to varying estimates.
Sunni and Shia Muslims are separated in their beliefs about the teaching and interpretations of the Quran and which of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad was meant to succeed him.
Of the various Shia groups in Nigeria, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) is the largest and most powerful. Its leader, Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, is an influential religious scholar credited with expanding a Shia community in a country that was almost completely Sunni Muslim. The 72-year-old is also controversial for perceived “radicalism”.
As a Muslim student unionist born to Sunni scholars, Zakzaky was said to have been moved by the success of Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979. That movement toppled the pro-Western monarchy, and Zakzaky reportedly resolved to lead a similar one in secular Nigeria, which was then scuppered by military coups.
He travelled to Iran in the 1980s for further Islamic studies and reportedly met then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini in person, an encounter that proved pivotal. Upon his return in the mid-1980s, he set up his Khomeinist movement and began preaching a version of Shia Islam in his hometown of Zaria in Kaduna State, which critics saw as “radical”. His organisation set up social welfare schemes in the impoverished north and sponsored students abroad. By the 2000s, he had millions of followers.
Zakzaky voiced disdain for successive governments in his sermons. He was criticised for not recognising the Nigerian state, and IMN members enforced strict dress codes in Zaria although they had no authority to do so.
Those activities and suspicions that Iran was backing the group put the IMN on the radar of Nigeria’s security forces even though the IMN has not operated as an armed group. Kabir Adamu, a security analyst based in Abuja, said that while Iran likely provides financial support, there’s no evidence Tehran has armed the IMN in the same way it has done with Hezbollah or Hamas, its proxies in the Middle East.
Still, altercations between members and the police became common, and Shia Muslims accused authorities of persecution.
Tensions escalated in 2015 when IMN members at a rally blocked road access in Zaria, preventing a convoy for Nigeria’s army chief from passing through. Authorities claimed the IMN tried to “assassinate” the army chief. Clashes erupted, and the military cracked down with brute force, killing at least 350 members, including three of Zakzaky’s sons, in what Amnesty International called a massacre.
Zakzaky and his wife were shot and wounded in a raid on his house, leading to the near-loss of sight for the IMN leader. The couple was placed under house arrest for several years despite a court order to free them.
In 2019, Nigeria proscribed the IMN as a “terror” group.
When he was finally freed in 2021, Zakzaky and his family travelled to Tehran for treatment. He met the late Khamenei, who hailed him as a “true” fighter for the cause of Islam.
Nigeria’s balancing act
Tensions between successive Nigerian security forces and Zakzaky’s movement have often forced Abuja into a balancing act of sorts as the country sought to keep friendly ties with Iran.
Ideological armed groups like Boko Haram, which emerged in 2009, have caused the state to be more suspicious of religious movements. Authorities in 2013 said they arrested three suspected Hezbollah members in Kano with the help of Israeli officials who claimed they’d embedded within the Shia community.
As the war broke out on February 28, the government in Abuja reacted cautiously, calling for dialogue and voicing “deep concern”. Nigeria also said it’s planning to evacuate about 1,000 of its citizens from Iran, many of them students.
Nigerian authorities have been silent but watchful as Shia demonstrators held candlelight processions in several cities. In Abuja, security forces flooded the streets last week, cordoning off major roads and preventing any gatherings there.
“Authorities are likely worried about possible riots that could be hijacked ahead of general elections in January,” Adamu said.
There’s also the fact, he added, that Nigeria has been working more closely with the US to combat armed groups at home with American soldiers arriving in the country last month.
Back in Kano, the Shia community, while angry about Khamenei’s killing, is pleased that his son is now taking his place.
An IMN member who gave his name as Mustapha KK told Al Jazeera that Mojtaba Khamenei’s succession is a “blessing” and “a shield against American arrogance and Israeli aggression”.
“Mojtaba embodies the spirit of defiance, ensuring the Islamic Republic of Iran remains strong in the face of enemies. For us in Nigeria’s Islamic Movement, his leadership is a source of pride and hope for the global struggle against tyranny,” he said.
Nalado, meanwhile, said the new supreme leader is “well suited and capable”.
“Khamenei has gone, and Khamenei has come,” he said. “Those who stand with Iran will feel relieved and put great hope while those who are against Iran will not feel comfortable. Certainly, the legacy of Khomeini and Khamenei lives on.”
At the Kano mosque, some mourners in the crowded hall held up photos of Khomeini, Ali Khamenei and the Iranian flag.
As their chanting voices rose, they hit their chests several times in tune with the rhythm, a symbolic ritual that conveys pain and solidarity.
Although most there were followers of Zakzaky, some were cautious to identify themselves as IMN members due to its current labelling and said they had gathered not for political reasons but for religious and moral ones.
But others were more vocal in sharing their anger over the US role in the Iran war and the fact that Nigeria’s government is now working with the US military.
Postgraduate student Salahuddeen Yahaya Alhasan, who also manages a farm in Kano, said the US-Israel strikes on schools and civilian locations in Iran were “reckless and barbaric” to him.
“I am a human, [and] fellow humans and Muslims were killed in cold blood,” Alhasan said. “Let them face the problems facing their citizens, but here, they are causing problems and destruction to the entire world.”