Island Muslim Community to launch N5b fund for cemeteries, hospitals, orphanages

• Ebiti, Borodo, Oshodi, Others Canvass Support For Initiatives
Spurred by the need for more and improved social infrastructure to enhance the welfare of the people, the Island Muslim Community (IMC) is set to launch a N5 billion Social Infrastructure Fund involving the establishment of Muslim cemeteries, hospitals and orphanages.

With Muslim faithful and eminent Nigerians as members, IMC’s mission is to propagate Islam while offering social interventions in areas of healthcare, education and care for dead Muslims. The launch is to complement the government in provision of the necessary facilities.

Chairman, Board of Trustees, IMC, Alhaji Rafiu Adisa Ebiti, who disclosed this during a press conference in Lagos, said the IMC is about to launch a N5 billion mega social infrastructure fund holding at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos on Saturday, March 1, 2025.

The N5 billion Fund, according to Ebiti,is to accelerate and scale up various projects across Lagos State in line with the set goals of the Muslim community, which he described as another milestone in the existence of the association.

The IMC was established a few years back having realized that social amenities and infrastructure which are peculiar to the needs of Muslims and the dictates of Islam are either totally lacking or in short supply on the Island.

As a result of this, the Muslim communities on the Island came together to form what is now known as the Island Muslim Community (IMC), an umbrella body for all Muslim individuals, communities, mosques, and Muslim corporate entities on the Island. The body, which came to being on August 22, 2022, is a faith-based, not-for- profit, non-governmental organization, its membership straddles the length and breadth of Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lekki, Chevron, Ajah, Ibeju-Lekki among others.

When it kicked off, the mandate was clear in terms of vision and mission to be the centre for promoting Island Muslims’ common good through cooperation and collaboration, and mission to promote unity among the Island Muslims and build social infrastructure and capacity to enhance their welfare.

With its moto: ‘IMC intervening for the Ummah’s good’, the Island Muslim Community has had to work for the core objectives of promotion unity and welfare of the communities, provision of Muslim social projects and infrastructure, socio-economic and financial inclusion programmes and projects, protection of Islamic values and interests, youth empowerment and mobility and ensure media presence for strategic national engagement.

The association is led by a renowned accountant and business man, Alhaji Rafiu Adisa Ebiti who is also its Chairman, Board of Trustees, Vice-Chairman, Alhaji Tijani Borodo, a lawyer and President andChairman of Governing Council, Institute of Directors Nigeria (IoC), Alhaji Tijani Borodo while the Shurah Council is a standing committee composed of the leading Imams and Islamic scholars from the stakeholders communities.

It relates with the Board of Trustees in advisory capacity, guides the organization in its spiritual affairs and promotes the unity of members and communities. Its members include Coordinator, Finance and Admin, AlhajaKudirat Moyosore-Brimah; Chairman, Executive Council, Alhaji Adeniyi Akinlusi; Chairman Mega Launch Committee/member, Alhaji AriyoOlushekun; Chief Imam, Lekki Central Mosque, Dr Ridwan Jamiu; Member, BoT, Alhaji Sherifat Abiola Andu and Member, Executive Council, Dr Basheer Oshodi.

Some of the proposed projects are Shariah-compliant cemeteries, a 1- 10,000 sqm, Ikorodu Cemetery Land, currently being developed, Premium Cemetery at Akodo and Cemetery at Ibeju-Lekki; World Class Hospital for women and children: A gender sensitive hospital where the dignity of the Muslim woman is respected in service delivery and men are attended to by male doctors.

Also included in the project is a completed Muslim-Oriented Orphanage at Surulere, Lagos, which focus is to protect Deen and sanity of Muslim orphaned children.

Another project in the pipeline is Island Muslim Community (IMC) Centre, a revenue-generating edifice to house the following among others: Events halls, Office Space for Rent, Commercial activities, Digital Communications Hub (Radio, Studio, among others) amongst other line up porgrammes.

Unveiling the planned projects during a briefing in Lagos, Ebiti said: “We are here to give an insight to what the Island Muslim Community is about to achieve and for which it is launching a N5 billion social infrastructure fund at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos on March 1, 2025.”

He said since it not permissible to keep a dead Muslim in the morgue for a long time, something must be doneto his/herburial without delay just like social interventions are also vital.

“IMC is a not-for-profit organisation, and It’s the umbrella body for Muslims and Muslim organisations on Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki Scheme 1 and Ibeju-Lekki areas of Lagos State. The organisation was established as an interventionist body to ensure the provision of Islamic social infrastructure that are concomitant to the practice of Islam.

“It is rather pathetic to note that such essential facilities as cemeteries, orphanages, women and children hospital, Halal recreation centers, etc, are either totally non-existent or inadequate in our local jurisdiction. This explains why we are embarking on an arduous task of raising N5 billion for the provision of such essential Islamic social infrastructure for the teeming Muslim population in the aforementioned axis.

“It’s an open secret that the ancient cemeteries on the island, such as Oke-Sunnah, Abari, and Ikoyi are already bursting at the seams. Unfortunately too, the few highbrow cemeteries available hardly meet Islamic standards, quite apart from the fact that their charges are relatively exorbitant. In view of this ugly situation, we have made cemeteries our flagship project,” said Alhaji Ebiti.

Corroborating him, the Vice-Chairman of the association,Alhaji Tijani Borodo said. “Island Muslim Community is an umbrella body for all Muslim organisations, for the Muslim Ummah at this Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lekki, and Ibeju-Lekki axis. That is what the IMC is all about, for us to provide a conducive atmosphere for living, for business and all other activities of human beings that are incompliance with Sharia.
“In our own thought, just like the Chairman has said, we have three flagship approaches: Number one is the cemetery which he has mentioned, number two us the hospital where people will get befitting treatment.

In her own submission, AlhajaSherifat Abiola-Andu said: “This is being a major project. One is a cemetery, the second is an orphanage and third is to have a hospital for Muslims. It is inevitable that we are going to die but we don’t know where we are going to be buried. And right now, there is paucity of cemetery for Muslims and we thought we want to give a nice resting place and that is what is informing us to have this mega launch. We need a lot of money to make sure that we have enough resources to do that.”

Alhaji AriyoOlushekun said: “We have some vital projects that we thought as a community we should work on. The ones that we have identified now are the cemetery, the orphanage and the hospital. As for the cemetery, we are working on three cemeteries; one in Ikorodu, one in Ibeju-Lekki abd another one in Akodo.
“As for the orphanage, we have an orphanage that is about to start, everything is ready, we are only awaiting final inspection by government authority and then it will kick off”.

In his remarks, Dr. Bashir Oshodi, who gave a brief analysis about why the intervention in the healthcare delivery system is pivotal in the mega project of the IMC, spoke about the need for a concentrated effort on a Muslim hospital, said, “27 percent of Nigerian kids have stunted growth. Why? Because they don’t have proper nutrition,they are not eating proper food. 20 to 15 million children are out of school. That is the highest in the world.

“Now, if you look at the number of doctors we need, globally it is about one doctor to 600 people. In Nigeria we gave one doctor to 5,000 people. So, for every 5,000 people you have one doctor. How much can be do through that? If you raise N5 billion, N10 billion, N100 billion, it is not going to solve the problem.”