The Minister of Communications, Hon. AbdulRaheem Adebayo Shittu, has enjoined Muslim youth and indeed all Nigerians, to support the anti-corruption crusade of the Buhari-led administration in order to have a greater country. Hon. Shittu gave the charge last Thursday (May 12, 2016), while delivering a lecture entitled "Islam, Muslims, Change: The Contending Issues" at the Annual National seminar of the National Association of Muslim Law Students(NAMLAS) held at the University of Ilorin.

The Minister lamented that despite the warnings of Islam against corruption, many Muslims were still caught in the web of corruption, citing the stealing and sharing of the billions of dollars meant for the procurement of arms to prosecute the war against the Boko-Haram insurgency. Pointing out that an ideal Muslim should need no Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) or police in order to work without committing crime, Hon. Shittu lamented that many Muslims failed the test of faith when the chips were down.

He, however, noted that Nigeria is in the right hands at the moment as attested to by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, Justin Wembley, who reacted to the description of Nigeria as a "fantastically corrupt" country by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron.

The Minister, who is also a former Amir president of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria, quoted copiously from the Quran and Hadith of the Prophet to drive home the point that a true Muslim should always act against wrong doing, preach against it or at least detest it with his or her heart.

Hon. Shittu noted that although a Quranic verse describes Muslims as the best of mankind for enjoining good and forbidding evil, many Nigerian Muslims have not done enough to show that Islamic value are worthy of emulation and noted that Nigeria once experienced a period of positive change after the civil war and then descended into a negative change.

According to the Minister, "The economic boom, the profligacy, the recklessness of the succeeding governments gradually made Nigeria to descend into another change: a negative change of economic depression, injustice, corruption, religious and ethnic cleansing, kidnapping, armed robbery, and a host of undesirable outcomes."

The Annual Seminar of NAMLAS also featured the presentation of Al-Maslaha, the biennial Journal of the University of Ilorin Chapter of NAMLAS, which is dedicated to Prof. D.O.S. Noibi (O.B.E.) in acknowledgement of his pioneering scholastic endeavours in the field of Islamic Studies. While speaking on the occasion, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali (OON), described the honouree as a role model to all Muslims all over the world.

Prof. Ambali also eulogised Prof. Noibi, as a founding fathers of the University of Ilorin who has contributed a lot to human capital development, having been teacher to several Ministers, Professors and Vice-Chancellors. The Vice-Chancellor noted that the honouree achieved that much because he paid little attention to material wealth and put a lot of premium on spiritual, moral and ethical values.

In his own speech, the National President of NAMLAS, Abdusalam Sulyman, who is a 400 Level student of the Lagos State University (LASU), expressed concern over the lack of freedom to practice Islam at the Nigerian Law School as Muslim ladies are being forced to drop the hijab at the Law School dinner night and on the day of the call to bar. He said this is in violation of extant laws on freedom of religion.

Other speakers at the event included the pioneer Grand Khadi of the Kwara State Shariah Court of Appeal, Justice AbdulKadri Orire and the immediate past Grand Khadi of the same Court, Justice Idris Haroon. In his response, the honouree, Prof. Noibi, appreciated the organisers of the seminar and award and also acknowledged the giant strides, which the University of Ilorin had made since its establishment in 1975.