Muslim youths have been urged to think outside the box and be creative in order to make headway.

This was the submission of the guest lecturer,  Professor Ayo Hammed of the Department of Guidance and Counselling, University of Ibadan while speaking on the topic,” Muslim Youths in a Depressed Economy: How not to be Cognitively Deficient” at the 6th Annual Ramadan Lecture organised by The Criterion,  an Association of Muslim women in business and professions.
Professor Hammed said graduates should not rely only on white-collar jobs but be creative to diversify into other productive ventures.
He enjoined parents not to push their children into crime or other nefarious activities as such has been the trend in recent times.
In another lecture entitled  ” Islamic perspective on societal value system: Implications for livelihood and Governance” an Islamic scholar,  Ustaz Luqman Khoroshi decried the rate at which people no longer valued lives again compared to the past, stressing that “many youths of today want to walk without crawling”.
He emphasized that Islam placed importance on life as very sacred citing an example of how one of the companions of Prophet Muhammad,  Umar removed a leader of a whole community for his failure to repair a bridge which led to the death of a cat that fell through it.
” If Islam takes the lives of animals as serious how much more of the life of a human being? In Islam, if one mistakenly kills another fellow, he will pay the equivalent of 60 million Naira to the family of the victim as a fine. In fact,  Islam frowns at pouring hot water on grounds as such would lead to the death of many unseen living and non-living things. It’s expected that the water or the liquid should be put down to cool before throwing away”.
The Deputy Governor of Oyo State,  Engineer Rauf Olaniyan, represented by his wife, Professor Hamdalat, enjoined men to be responsible at home and give their wives rest of mind.
The international Amirah of The Criterion,  Alhaja Medinat Akanni decried the rate at which children were being exposed to social media all in the name of learning.

Earlier, the Amirah of The Criterion,  Oyo District,  Professor Morufat Balogun said the Ramadan Lecture was put in place to address the recent change that greeted societal values as a result of advanced Information and Communication Technology.
“Youths have come to visualise success as affluence, irrespective of the source of income. This has led to increasing in crime and inhumanity. I call on us all, especially women to rise up to the challenge of improving social peace by being the ‘home managers “, she added.
Ridwan Fasasi.