UMA inaugurates Lagos Council

…Holds meeting on March 1

THE University of Lagos Muslim Alumni (UMA) has formally inaugurated a Lagos State branch to run its activities in the state. Up till now, the association only had a single national body and executives running its affairs nationwide. But with the inauguration of an Abuja branch last year, it became imperative to decentralize its operations even in Lagos. Other state branches are expected to follow.

  At their inaugural executive meeting held at the university mosque recently, UMA Lagos president, Dr. Khalid Adekoya charged his colleagues to give their best. “We have accepted a call to service and we must deliver on that trust,” he admonished. “We must always remember that our motto is ‘To serve Allah till death.’”

  Dr. Adekoya announced that one of the key objectives of the new Lagos UMA is to increase the number of beneficiaries of the association’s annual scholarship scheme for indigent students. During the past decade, UMA has given out about 100 scholarships to indigent University of Lagos Muslim graduate and post-graduate students up to PhD level pursuing careers in the academics.

  Other cardinal programmes of the UMA are entrepreneurship training for graduating students of Unilag irrespective of their religion, economic empowerment for its members as well as social and spiritual development of the society at large.

  Meanwhile, the second General Meeting of the Lagos Chapter will hold on Sunday, March 1, 2015 at the UNILAG Mosque, Akoka, Lagos beginning from 11 a.m. Expected as participants are Muslim graduates of the University of Lagos, Akoka and College of Medicine, Idi Araba as membership of UMA is automatic to all Muslim graduates of the institution from inception till date.

  In a statement by the council’s head, Dr. Adekoya, the general meeting has become a platform “where Executives outline programmes and activities designed to aid the accomplishment of the aims and objectives in line with the mission statements. Thus, members listen and review the adopted strategies by the executives and various committees rendering their support by providing complementary ideas and strategies or proposing new thinking, ideas and strategies to accomplish them.”

  UMA is envisioned as “a frontline group of conscious and dynamic Muslims with a positive and effective impact on our alma mater and the society at large.” Its mission is “to promote brotherhood, scholarship, entrepreneurship and best Islamic practices.”