A wrangle has emerged in Muslim Women Organisation (MWO) over the money which they received from President Joyce Banda, Malawi Muslims Official Website understands.
On Saturday, President Joyce Banda donated K2 million to MWO as she was presiding over the official opening of the 2012 women’s ijtmah in Mzuzu.
National Chairlady Fatima Ndaila received the money on behalf of the organisation and later handed it over to the Regional Coordinator of Mzuzu Lukaya Mambo.
However, reports reaching this website indicate that other women especially from the central and southern regions are accusing their northern region counterparts of clinging to the money.
Ndaila said she is not aware who is keeping the money but suspects that the money has been grabbed by Muslim men who connived with their northern region counterparts not to send it to the MWO headquarters.
“As a National Chairlady I don’t know where the money is. I don’t understand what is going on because if the money was donated to MWO it would have been better to be sent it to the national headquarters so that we can discuss how we can use it,” said Ndaila.
However, Vice Secretary for Northern Region who is also Secretary General for the National Executive sister Mwamadi said the money is in the hands of the working committee of the 2012 Ijtmah.
“We borrowed a lot of money which we are supposed to pay back using that money. As I am talking to you now, the money is with the working committee but there is no any foul play,” said Mwamadi.
This year’s ijtmah, which started on Friday October 12, ended on Sunday October 14, was organised under theme “Empowering women in development and safe motherhood in Malawi.”
Speaking at the function, the Malawi leader emphasized on the importance of education, saying a Muslim’s first duty is to acquire knowledge before everything else.
“Education is Faradhi to every Muslim. This is what the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) was first commanded in the cave of Hira in Makah by the Angel Jibril to read,” explained Banda.
She said women have been at the forefront in acquiring and imparting knowledge, observing that the Prophet’s wife Aisha (RA) memorized many Hadith than men.
“Let emphasis be made on both what is considered religious and secular education since they complement each other. Learn Quran, Hadith, the citations of Prophet and Islam; so that you can know how to make, select and get deeper understanding of Islam,” said the President, adding that “the Prophet said learn from the cradle to the grave.”
On the sad note, about 25 women were injured in an accident at Salima turn off after the driver of the bus they were travelling in lost control due to the brake failure.
Three were admitted at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital while 15 were treated as outpatients.
My respected brothers in Islam It is hightime MWO went for leadership training course to especially
civic educate the members to learn how to run an organisation, Believe me this will help us to respect, understand each other in running our activities without doubting each other. This is my personal point
of view
Fatima Ndaila
If the article is true to its core,then is a sad development that immediately after the Ijitma,such scandal should surface. This to some extent,discourages the would be donors to donate something to the Islamic organisation. The President donated the money to Muslim Women Organisation and not to an individual. This is a more reason why the youth are advocating for proper organisation structures in all Islamic organisations.Because if these institutions had proper structures,this would not have been an issue.I believe this money would have been deposited into its bank account and proper procedures followed when disbursing such funds. But because we still believe that as long as someone is able to recite the Qur'an in Arabic then he/she can manage an organisation single handedly. Let organs of this institutions be run by people qualified to do the job. I believe in Malawi, we have qualified Muslim female accountants,managers,etc. Why not give them an opportunity to contribute to the well being of this well intended organisations? Sister/Mother Fatima Ndaila is right for calling the leadership to go for leadership trainings. The simple and cheaper way is to blend the leadership with both the youth who most of them have already acquired these skills and the old who got somehow the experience with these institutions.Then you can organise an in-house training workshops where the much needed skills can be acquired even by using your own members as tutors.This is how we can develop our human capital in these organisations cheaply.
For this to be accomplished,there is need on that part of the leaders in these organisation to be down to earth humble,dedicated,humility and transparent so that the majority muslims trust them that they mean well in what they are doing. Otherwise,muslims in most countries will continue to be a laughing stock because of the cumbersome way of their leadership.i.e. lack of leadership in their institutions.
May Allah help us through such trying times when people start fighting for leadership positions not to serve but for personal reasons.Allahuma ameen
@Rafeek and Fatima. Your articles are quite good, if only whatever you have said can be followed and implemented, we will have Islamic organizations that are run professionally. Unfortunately, the Muslim community still has a long way to go in order to understand the importance of balancing education, both religiously and secularly. Most of our organizations are run by those that have degrees or masters on the religious side, but secularly they are form 2 or std 8 dropouts. This is a very big challenge to our community. Another challenge is that as long as someone has money, we vote them into positions that they cannot hold or even understand what they are supposed to do in those positions.
Back to MWO, those that are stinging to the money are only showing their foolishness but at the same time it is high time for the whole Fatima, Lipenga, Zainab and Tepani executive to step down and let the young blood with new ideas run the show. I think they have overstayed in their positions. They are also the cause of some of these problems because they are clinging to these positions with nothing new to offer. People are tired of them.
Yaa Yaa,Revamp all Islamic organisations.There is no interdomocracy no vision no direction.Sad