Muslims in South West ‘dump’ YCE, set up parallel group

The Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) has set up a parallel group in reaction to alleged failures of elders in the zone to defend and project the interests of Muslims in the South West. the new group is called the Muslim Elders’ Forum.

In a communique issued by MUSWEN president Prof. D. O. S. Noibi, and Secretary, Alhaji S. O. Babalola, at the end of its second General Assembly held at the University of Ibadan on Sunday, the organisation said it established the Muslim Elders’ Forum to address socio-economic and political issues affecting Muslims in the region “which were often overlooked by the existing Yoruba Council of Elders and similar bodies.”

The organization also condemned Boko Haram insurgency, saying all activities of its promoters are antithetical to Islam.

The six-point communique read:

1. “That the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria totally condemned the bloody and destructive activities of Boko Haram insurgents who are masquerading under the garb of Islam to perpetrate unprecedented atrocities in some parts of the country, insisting that Islam stands for peace in all ramifications. MUSWEN described such atrocities as grossly antithetical to the tenets of Islam and calls the renegades to surrender.
2. That the Federal Government should quickly devise a means not only of addressing the fundamental causes of insecurity in the land but also in rescuing the Chibok girls criminally abducted by Boko Haram insurgents and thereby bringing relief to the distressed parents of those children as well as all the internally displaced people in the Northeast region.
3. That Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) decides to establish Muslim Elders’ Forum for the southwest to address some socio-economic and political issues affecting Muslims in the region, which were often overlooked by an existing Yoruba Elders’ Council and similar bodies.
4. That in view of the current dwindling income from Nigeria’s mono economic standing represented by petroleum, existing agricultural policies should be quickly implemented by the federal and State
   governments to engage millions of Nigerian youth as a way of curbing unnecessary restiveness among those youths.
5. The General Assembly also resolved that the MUSWEN’s Zakat Committee should be strengthened so as to assist more indigent Muslims and solve some social problems confronting the Muslims.
6. That in its deliberations, the General Assembly of MUSWEN remembered and prayed for the souls of Muslim leaders who have departed this world including Professor Aliu Babatunde Fafunwa (the
   first President of MUSWEN), Alhaji Abdul Azeez Arisekola Alao (the Aare Musulumi of Yoruba land and Deputy President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and Sheikh Mustapah Ajisafe, the President of the League of Imams and Alfas in the Southwest region as well as a host of other demised prominent Muslim leaders.”