Nat. Amirah's Report for Aug 2010

NATIONAL AMIRAH’S ADDRESS AT THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING 16TH – 19TH DHUL-HIJJA 1430 (DECEMBER 3RD -- 6TH 2009) HELD AT THE FOMWAN NATIONAL SECRETARIAT UTAKO ABUJA
Indeed all praise is for Allah, We praise Him, we implore Him for help, and we seek for His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the wrong of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah has guided aright none can lead astray, and whosoever He allowed astray none can guide. I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah alone, He has no partner; and I Bear witness that our Prophet Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
O you who believe! Fear Allah (by doing all that He has ordered and by abstaining from all that He has forbidden) as He should be feared. (Obey Him, be thankful to Him, and remember Him always,) and die not except in the state of Islam (as Muslims with complete submission to Allah.)
O mankind be dutiful to your Lord, who created you from a single person [Adam], and from him [Adam] He created his wife [Hauwa], and from them both He created many men and women and fear Allah through Whom you demand your mutual [rights], and [do not cut  relations of] the wombs [kinship]. Surely, Allah is Ever Watchful over you.
O you, who believe, Keep your duty to Allah and fear Him, and speak [always] the truth. He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and will forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger [SAW] he has indeed achieved a great achievement [i.e. he will be saved from the Hellfire and made to enter Paradise]. 
Indeed the best speech is Allah’s speech, the best guidance is Muhammad’s guidance and the worst matters (in creed or worship) are those innovated (by people), for e-very innovated matter is a bid’ah and every bid’ah is an act of misguidance and every misguidance resides in hell fire.
Alhamdu Lillah, Alhamdu Lillah, Alhamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alamin for bringing us all safely to this meeting despite all odds.  May Allah in His infinite mercy accept all our efforts as acts of Ibadah, forgive us our sins and make all of us among those who will be in His shade on the day that there will be no shade except His.
The December NEC meeting which was also the first NEC meeting after our election, was a perfect take off for the new EXCO. We raised over eight hundred and fifty thousand naira from this meeting for the National headquarters development. This proved the wonderful support we will receive and are still receiving from our dear sisters. Donations have continued to pour in from all quarters since then. May Allah continue to enrich all our purses with what is Halal and give us the will to continue to donate to His cause. Insha Allah, we are working hard to ensure that we finish the construction of the hostel and the Masjid. Always remember FOMWAN in your prayers. In our continuous effort to achieve our dream of finishing the National projects, we wrote letters of appeal to philanthropists and made courtesy calls on some dignitaries we felt are key to our goal.
COURTSEY VISITS:  As part of series of courtesy calls, some of the newly elected members of the National Executive Council visited The Minister of Women Affairs and the Chief Servant of Niger State and his wife. These visits were aimed at creating awareness and support for FOMWAN’s activities. It is hoped that this will translate into tremendous goodwill, moral and financial support towards the achievement of set objectives. 
The choice of Niger State Governor was due to the fact that he is the chairman of the Northern Governor’s Forum and luckily Niger State is the ‘root’ of FOMWAN. This meeting was graciously facilitated by the First lady herself through Sister Dije Bala. 
The Governor was asked in his capacity as Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) to deliver letters of solicitation for financial assistance to the Muslim members of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) on behalf of FOMWAN. The Governor accepted the task of distributing the letters to his colleagues and promised to invite FOMWAN to a meeting of the Governor’s forum.
Another visit was paid to the Governor’s wife to appreciate her role. She made a donation of N100,000 to FOMWAN projects and promised to follow up on her husband’s promise.
MEETINGS: Two very important meetings were held since we took over, one with Zonal Coordinators and the other with State Amirahs. This meeting gave us an insight to what FOMWAN is all about and we learnt a lot. The two meetings discussed the issues of unity, response to requests, sharing, good ambassadorship, knowledge of FOMWAN’s constitution, possibility of a retreat/leadership training for all state Amirahs, reporting format, relationship with affiliates, working with other Muslim groups and importance of basic computer knowledge.
CURRENT PROJECTS The organization has been trying to pull together state projects for its records without much success. We are still trying to figure out why such a simple request is proving very difficult for FOMWAN state chapters. We hoped the meeting with the state Amirahs in June will provide some answers to the poor response of states to requests from the headquarters, but it did not. All States should please endeavour to provide the National Headquarters with information on all projects, donor sponsored and otherwise. Other requests still not met include:

1. A detailed work plan and budget for the year 2010/2011 showing all intended activities and timelines for each activity.
2. The Monitoring and Evaluation form.
3. Need for all states to have functional offices with a computer literate Administrative officer.
4. Functional email addresses for effective communication.
5. Affiliate forms collected still not returned.

STATE VISITS:  In an attempt to visit all state chapters of FOMWAN, we have visited thirteen states so far in four zones. These visits were made possible by the Zonal Coordinators, may Allah continue to protect them and reward them. The visits are hoped, will give firsthand knowledge of what is in the states. As I pointed out earlier, it is very difficult when one stands in front of people and talks about FOMWAN basing facts on reports. I hoped that these visits will not only improve state and the National Headquarters relationship, but it will also enhance our knowledge of what FOMWAN has. I will like to once again use this opportunity to show our sincere appreciation to all the states that we visited, the hospitality shown us was overwhelming!! We are also happy that the support given to FOMWAN in the states is awesome,   The visits were a real eye opener. The state visits gave an opportunity to meet on one to one basis with other state officials, LGA branch Amirahs and Heads of Affiliate groups.  We were also privileged to meet other stakeholders both in Government and the private sector. We continue to hope that these visits will pave a way for a better future for FOMWAN. Observations we made included:

• Support of former Amirahs to the incumbent Amirah is encouraging.
• FOMWAN is held in high esteem by all those we visited including non Muslims.
• State Chapters of FOMWAN need to follow up on promises made by some of the Leaders to assist them in whatever way they can.
• Some FOMWAN schools are definitely not up to standard
• Some FOMWAN members connive with outsiders to bring disharmony into the association.
• The clear lack of understanding of the FOMWAN constitution by members. There is need for states to improve on their understanding of the FOMWAN constitution.
• The need for states to keep the zonal coordinator’s informed of all their activities.
• The need to improve the quality of FOMWAN schools.
• Lack of awareness of FOMWAN and its activities by other Muslims. There is need to do more on enlightening our communities and involving them in programs.

I hope that the Zonal Coordinators in the remaining zones we have not visited will please facilitate and make arrangements to enable us visit the states under them.
NETWORKING: A peaceful procession of representatives of all Muslim women’s organizations under the umbrella of FOMWAN was led by the National Amirah to the National House of Assembly to deliver a letter of protest on the Jos crisis and its devastating effect on women and children to both the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
FOMWAN also led a delegation of different NGOs to Katsina to condole the family of the late president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
FOMWAN’S VEHICLES: COMPASS donated two vehicles to FOMWAN along with some other items. Following a decision at the NEC meeting to sell off the vehicles, the two vehicles were sold. There were so many bidders but the offers were getting lower and the maintenance was getting more expensive. The Ford was sold to Mr. Sulaiman Ogunjimi of FOMWAN/NECAIN project for the sum of six hundred and fifty thousand Naira only (N650,000), which he has paid. The second vehicle was sold for five hundred thousand Naira only (N500,000), he still has not paid.
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS: Alhamdu Lillah the first floor of the hostel has been habitable for some time. Commercial use of the hostel has started and as agreed the charges are lower then what is available in Utako area, while rates for FOMWAN members are cheaper than what is given to others.
The employment of a full time cleaner and a caretaker who will serve as a marketing officer for the hostel is still pending. We already have applications for these two posts and will look into it after the National conference.
We pray that the proceeds of the book to be launched at the opening ceremony will go hundred per cent to the National headquarters development to enable us finish the other floors remaining.
RESTRUCTURING OF NATIONAL COMMITTEES AND QUARTERLY REPORTS:  Alhamdu Lillah after I made this request National Committee Chairpersons responded by giving the different committees a national outlook both in its activities and membership.  The committees were restructured by co-opting members from all the six geo-political zones of the country. Thank you very much for the response.
The committees were also requested to present quarterly reports at each NEC meeting. Such reports are to reflect all related activities carried out nationally within the reporting period. This has really helped a long way in keeping complete records of all activities.

WEBSITE RECONSTRUCTION:  The FOMWAN website has undergone complete restructuring under a new webmaster Code Synergy in Nigeria. The website can now be visited at www.fomwan.org. Update is still ongoing, if any state or committee wants to enrich its page please send materials you want to see and it will be posted immediately. All NEC members will be given an email address to communicate with. For state Amirahs it is: . All others should please indicate the name they want used as their address. The rebuilding cost one hundred and sixty eight thousand Naira (N168,000).Hajiya Larai Ahmad donated the sum of fifty thousand Naira.
NIGERIAN SUPREME COUNCIL FOR ISLAMIC AFFAIRS NEC MEETING: For the first time the Nigerian Supreme council for Islamic affairs invited Other Islamic NGOs to attend its NEC meeting. FOMWAN, Muslim Student’s Society (MSS), MUSWEN and others attended the NEC meeting which held in Kaduna from 30th May to 1st June 2010. There is an electronic copy of the report available for interested members.
Discussions centered on the welcome address by the President General, His Eminence, The Sultan of Sokoto and the report of the Secretary General, some of which, are:

• The importance of the unity of the Muslim Ummah and the need to close rank and leave aside unwarranted issues. Efforts to disunite the Ummah should be ignored.
• Making the Muslim’s voice to be heard.
• The need to make our votes count.
• Importance of interacting with non Muslims. For the first time the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was invited to the opening ceremony of the NEC meeting and a paper was presented by a member on Islam in the eyes of a Christian. 

Reports were taken from the moon sighting committee, the Abuja National Mosque committee and the National Hajj Commission. This was followed by an extensive discussion and responses.
The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Governor of Kaduna State, his deputy, some members of the National House of Assembly were all at the formal opening.
The communiqué and the report of the Secretary General are attached.
NATIONAL HAJJ COMMISSION WORKSHOP ON WOMEN ISSUES: This committee held its meeting on Tuesday March 30, 2010 at the NAHCON office. Decisions arrived at in this meeting included the organizing of a training of women on hajj awareness. The members leaving in Abuja were assigned with this task. The Hajj master trainer’s workshop on women related issues took place from May 17th to 21st 2010 at the FOMWAN National headquarters with thirty women in attendance.  A copy of the communiqué is attached to this report.

May Allah take us back to our destinations safe and may we meet our families in better health and situation than we left them. May Allah accept our sacrifices in leaving our families and homes to be here for His sake. May Allah take FOMWAN to  higher levels   .

Assalamu Alaikum,
SUbhana Kallahumma Wa bi hamdi ka, Ashhadu An laa ilaha illa Anta, Astagfiruka wa atubu Ilaika.
Our Lord! Grant us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and save us from the chastisement of the Fire! (02:201)

 

---

Our mission is to propagate the religion of Islam in Nigeria through da’awah, establishment of educational institutions and other outreach activities. And to improve the socio-economic status of the populace especially women, youth and children through training, provision of qualitative education, health and humanitarian services, micro enterprise scheme and advocacy.

The vision of FOMWAN is a world where women are totally empowered to be role models in making positive impacts in religious and secular matters.