Island Muslim Community to Spend N5bn on Cemeteries, Hospitals, Orphanages

Bennett Oghifo

Support for Muslim facilities, such as hospitals, care for orphanages and cemeteries have propelled the Island Muslim Community (IMC) to plan an expenditure of N5 billion.

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.

A completed Muslim-Oriented Orphanage at Surulere, Lagos, which focus is to protect Muslim orphaned children. Another project in the pipeline is Island Muslim Community (IMC) Center, a revenue-generating edifice to house the following among others: Events halls, Office Space for Rent, Commercial activities, Digital Communications Hub (Radio, Studio, etc.) amongst other line up porgrammes.

Addressing a press conference held in Lagos, BoT Chairman, Adisa 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 done to his/her burial 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,” Ebiti added.

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 comply with Sharia.”

On her part, Alhaja Sherifat 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. We are inevitably 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 gave 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 Ariyo Olushekun 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.”

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.”