By Abbas Yahaya.
The Just Foundation, a non governmental organization (NGO) under
Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Society has tasked Imams and scholars on the
significance of preaching against corruption on the pulpits in order to
encourage accountability and transparency through faith-based
intervention.
The Executive Director of the foundation, Imam Fuad Adeyemi, through
the chief Imam of Al-Habibiyya Kogi state, Imam Ibrahim Ghali in an
interview today at the seminar said; “the aim of the training was to
educate Islamic scholars on the need to remind people of the effect
and dangers of corruption at sermons, especially those held on
Fridays.
“Muslim clerics have been enrolled and trained into the foundation’s
anti corruption project so as to empower, strengthen and expose them
based on whom they are, saying; it is not as if they will be taught
something new.
“But we want to ensure they use their knowledge to achieve the fight on
corruption”.
He called on religious leaders to use their God given skills and
tools, which are the Quran, hadith and the shari’a to speak
authoritatively about corruption by reminding people so that the
community will comprehend better the ills of the menace.
Speaking at the event, Alhaji Baba Ashiru Mohammad, Director of
Education ICPC Headquarter Abuja, said many scholars have at least
followers ranging from a hundred to one thousand but that they fail to
speak on the dangers of corruption.
In his manuscript, he admonished: “let me begin by saying that corruption has no single clinical definition. If you ask 10 people what corruption is,
you are likely to arrive at 10 different definition. That is to say
some people and organizations view corruption from the pecuniary point
of view and some look at it from integrity view points.
“The religious leaders who have large gatherings especially
on fridays need to be reawakened from their silence on issues
regarding corruption. They are not involved in the issue mainly because most of them think nothing can be done about the menace.”
In attendance are Ambassador Usman Bello, chairman JNI Kogi state,
Alhaji Hamza Aliyu, Alhaji Isah Adeboye, Kogi state secretary JNI,
Alhaji Idris Babango and Imam Abubilat
