ABEOKUTA, Nigeria, Dec. 31 (IslamOnline) -
Concerned Muslim elites in Nigeria have established a non-governmental
organization called 'The Islamic Trust Fund' to redeem Nigerian Muslims from
poverty, disease, squalor and backwardness.
Coordinator of the Trust Fund and the Chief Imam of Nigeria's Premier University
at Ibadan, Dr. Tijani Adekilekun, told IslamOnline that the organization was
long overdue to provide sound education, good health facilities, credit
facilities for business set-up among others for the Muslims.
Muslims form 80 percent of the over 120 million
population of Africa's most populous nation.
The University head said the Trust Fund was for all Muslims as "all comers
and all joiners". He explained that the redemption of Muslims from all
forms of backwardness was in their own hands through self-help.
He noted that if all Muslims in Nigeria could contribute a minimum of One Naira
(N1.00) per head, it would fetch not less than Eighty Million naira (N80
million) or Eight million dollars.
According to Adekilekun, the trustees of the Fund -- responsible and credible
Nigerian citizens -- will manage it to provide standard schools, scholarship
awards, hospitals, houses, beautiful mosques and other facilities that will
improve the condition of the Muslims in the country.
Dr. Adekilekun -- a professor of Islamic studies -- disclosed that all the
necessary papers had been put in place with the registration of the Trust Fund
by the Nigerian government.
He pointed out that necessary steps had been put in place to create awareness
for the Trust Fund throughout the country through the Nigerian Supreme Council
for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), the League of Imams and Alfas in the South West of
Nigeria, the Jama'tu-Nasrul Islam (JNI), the Grand Council of Muslim
Organization of Nigeria and others.
The Muslim leader assured that the basic objectives of the Trust Fund was to
also embark on investment projects to make the fund sustainable.
He revealed that the trend of poverty among Nigerian Muslims should be redressed
through solidarity, proper planning and management, as well as conscious
funding.
Of the 100 percent students that enter primary schools in Nigeria, Dr.
Adekilekun said, only 30 per cent were Muslims, only about 15 per cent enter
secondary schools and only about 6 percent enter tertiary institutions.
He said the Trust Fund was meant to correct such anomalies within a span of ten
to twenty years.
