By Hussaina Yakubu
Kaduna – The Just Foundation, an NGO of Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Society has commenced sensitisation advocacy for religious leaders to involve them in the fight against corruption.
The Executive Director of the foundation, Imam Fuad Adeyemi, made the disclosure on Friday in Kaduna at the launch of the programme in the state.
He said the anti-corruption project of the foundation was recently launched in Abuja, with plans to take it across the country to fashion out holistic and practical ways of tackling corruption in the country.
Adeyemi said that Muslim clerics would be enrolled into the foundation’s anti-corruption project and be trained on how to monitor budgets and project locations.
He added that “after sensitising the clerics, we would empower them to speak on effects of corruption and what they need to disseminate to the public, so that when government is fighting corruption from above, the clerics will reach out to the grassroots”.
He explained that the project, which was being funded by grants from MacArthur Foundation, would focus on empowering religious leaders to speak about corruption and its ills.
He said “rather than constantly preaching prosperity which potentially creates despondency, triggers competition and desperation to get rich at all costs, we will rather encourage and support Imams, preachers and their followers to speak against those who use their positions and opportunities to cheat and loot our treasury.”
He called for all hands to be on deck to fight the menace, especially Islamic leaders.
The President, Muslim Council of Nigeria, Alhaji Olopade Sulaimon, said recruiting scholars and clerics into the foundation would go a long way in reaching out to Nigerians on whom to govern them.
“The reason corruption has found its place in our system is because the society condones it, many corrupt leaders are celebrated in Nigeria, hence the need to complement government’s efforts in the fight, he stressed”.
Sulaimon said the lack of law enforcement on citizens, irrespective of class in the society was also a cause of corruption.
Imam Muhammad Ashafa, the Co-Director, Interfaith Mediation Centre of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue in Kaduna, said the crusade of bringing religious leaders from the Mosque to speak to the public on the ills of corruption was a welcome idea.
He said “elements of corruption begin with the ordinary man who refuses to pay his bill, tampers with his electric meter, breaching trust and not obeying the rules, among others.”
The NGO is expected to visit the Muslim Council of Nigeria, JNI, Fityanul Islam, Muslim for Accountability and FOMWAN as part of the advocacy.