Chief Missioner of the Nasrullahi Fathi Society (NASFAT), Imam Abdulaziz Onike on Sunday cautioned organisers of a protest against hunger, saying protest is not the way to go.
He spoke on the sidelines of the Annual General Meeting and distribution of Zakat to the less privileged by the NASFAT Agency for Zakat and Sadaqah (NAZAS) where N132.2m worth of items were distributed to the beneficiaries for the month of Muharram disbursement.
Onike who pointed out the hardship in the land said the Zakat has been institutionalised in Islam to tackle poverty in the society and called on the well-to-do to in the society to pay their Zakat regularly to ameliorate the hardship in the land.
He however stated that the planned protest against hunger was not the solution to the hardship in the land, saying in Islam the followers were enjoined to pray for the leaders.
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According to him, the protest even if it was meant to be peaceful could be hijacked by hoodlums. He observed that there are better avenues for people to vent their grievances, saying protest is not the way to go.
He stated that people should endeavour to advise the leaders, pray for them and try to correct them “mildly” because they are a part of the society.
He stated that people should endeavour to advise the leaders, pray for them and try to correct them “mildly” because they are a part of the society.
He said, “We’ve always said that it is not the responsibility of any follower to take up arms against the rulers. What you need to do is to pray for them.
“Engaging in a violent protest, which properties are you going to damage? You are damaging government properties, who own government properties? You are the one and they are going to use your tax to repair them.
“What our leaders need are prayers, prayers and prayers. And there are so many undertones to this planned protest. The last one they did, they damaged some of our properties in Lagos State, why didn’t they replicate in other parts of the country?
“There are avenues to go and lodge your complaint. You may go to the Assembly and the government of Lagos State is doing a lot to ensure that the hardship is ameliorated for people. Taking up arms, engaging in violent protest is never the solution.”
Interim Chairman of the agency, Alhaji Abdulwahab Abdurrahman disclosed that over N700m has so far been mobilised and disbursed since the inception of the agency in 2014.
He said over 60,000 indigents have benefitted including over 3000 direct beneficiaries through regular public disbursement on health and education.
According to him, the items distributed would go a long way in ameliorating the suffering of the masses.
He said, “As an agency we have been able to sustain the consolidation of accounts of zones as they evolve which has basically led to our crossing the 100m mark in Zakat and Sadaqat collections within a single year achieved in 2021 and has been maintained till date.
“We have continuously attended to the need of people with urgent health requests as well as provided educational scholarship grants to over 200 students annually while not relenting in organizing Health missions in communities which had benefitted over 3,500 indigents.
“The Train-to-Fund Scheme (TTFS) which is a platform to facilitate a combined offer of training/skills acquisition followed by financial empowerment of selected beneficiaries in different categories has continued to produce more alumni since the inauguration of the pioneer set of beneficiaries…”
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