•As Al-Muminaat trains professional Muslim women
•Experienced women should guide young ones: LASU Don
A finance and taxation expert, Mr. Shefiu Olabanjo Olamiji, FCCA, has called for the institutionalisation of mentorship programmes by Muslim organisations in Nigeria.
He made the call as a guest lecturer at the June edition of the quarterly Al-Muminaat Professional Forum in Lagos.
Mr. Shefiu said mentorship will go a long way to assist young Muslims in professions and careers, noting a large chunk of them are not doing well.
“We have some Muslim professionals who are doing pretty well and are at the top, but unfortunately, a large chunk of us are not doing fine. When I did my research, I realised there are lots of factors responsible for that. We have discrimination/bias, lack of access to mentorship, lack of access to capacity building, religious bigotry, and lack of representation at the helms of affairs. These are some of the challenges we are facing.
“However, incompetence is also part of it. The truth of the matter is that you cannot give what you don’t have. In recent times, we have seen some Islamic banks facing difficulties in getting Muslims who will work for them. It’s not because of anything; it’s because the Muslims do not have the required experience. Many of us have not worked in conventional banks. That experience is not there,” he said.
“We need organisations to come together and institutionalise a kind of mentorship programme. It is very important. They can use one-on-one mentoring scheme or pair mentoring scheme or speed mentoring scheme or group mentoring scheme or digital mentoring scheme. However, while using any of these techniques, they must not forget the concept of PAUSE. If we are able to take care of this, definitely, the future will be ours.”
Speaking on the concept of PAUSE, Mr. Shefiu said it is a model he has been identified to mitigate the challenges in the way of mentorship.
“Mentorship is not without challenges. There are some challenges that would be encountered,” the forensic accountant explained.
“There is, however, a model that can be used to mitigate these challenges. I call the model PAUSE. P means prepare. They need to prepare for mentorship. Mentorship is not something to force on people, or do for doing sake. It needs to be properly planned, and prepared for.
“When we talk about preparing for mentorship, there are three things to be taken care of. The first one is expectation. The second one is outcome. The third one is barriers. I have come to realise over time that some mentees don’t know their barriers. For the fact that somebody is mentoring you does not mean that there is no barrier. You need to understand the barriers. Of course, there is a kind of relationship you can build over time and call your mentor at anytime. But if you are just starting, please agree on the time for calling. That’s on prepare.
“The second letter, A is for align. At times, the expectation of the mentor and mentee might not align. So, it is very important for any organization to ensure that when they are pairing mentors, there should be alignment in their expectations.
“Also, there is U which is understand. This is one of the core skills expected of an effective mentor. You need to be able to understand your mentees. You should have active listening skills. And you must be able to read between the lines.
“Also, we talk about S which is support. Support is not about money. In fact, mentoring does not involve giving money. But there are some resources that you can make available to support your mentees; things like books and others. The last one is E which is evaluate. You continuously evaluate the progress of your mentoring scheme.”
Mr. Shefiu added that mentorship in Islam is done for the sake of Allah, and mentors should not be fixated on mundane rewards.
“In Islam, when you mentor, you provide support and guidance in order to assist your mentees to achieve their personal and professional goals. You are doing it not because you need anything from that person, but because of Allah alone. It’s not also for boasting. In Islam, you are not expecting your mentees to pay back; you have only performed your obligation. We can see examples of this in the life of the Prophet (SAW),” he said.
Also speaking at the seminar, the second lecturer, Prof. Khadijah Idowu, encouraged experienced professional women to provide guidance for the upcoming ones.
The Professor of Accounting at Lagos State University (LASU) said the work-life balance of women is different from men’s, and they cannot afford to be underperforming both at home and at work.
“So, women have to realise that we have a different work-life balance from the men. The women also have to take care of the home which is their primary assignment. They must not because of work, leave the home behind. Despite that, we also have to measure up at work as we cannot be found slacking. We cannot be found wanting nor can we be second fiddle, even in the place of work. So, we have to balance it.
“The only way to do this is to support one another. Those who are more exposed, more experienced, have a larger network should be able to offer what they have to those coming behind,” she said.
The professor mentioned the need to leverage digital technology for mentorship in today’s evolving world.
“For us as mentors, we have the experience. That is what they cannot get easily and that is why we need to mentor them. But, in this day and time, everything cannot be physical, we need to do some e-mentoring. You know they like touching phones, send things to them on the phone. Send articles, send messages to them on their phones that will keep them engaged with the phone they like touching. We also have to talk to them in their own language.
“That means we also we have to up our own game. We cannot just do it the way we used to do it. Like yesterday, we were at the University, where the VC was talking to us about the lectures. Now we have many students making it difficult for all of them to stay together in the lecture theatre. So, we have to use modern techniques, we have to go digital even in our lectures. We have to do PowerPoint presentation, send out digital lesson notes and things like that, so that the students can get the quality even if they are not physically in the classroom.
“We also have to learn. You never stop learning. The Prophet (SAW) said you learn from the cradle to grave. Even if you say I am a Professor of Accounting, there are new things that are happening even in this 2024 that I must learn about. If I don’t learn about them, when it is being discussed I cannot say because I am a professor I will be able to discuss it effectively. So we need to continue to learn, relearn and unlearn,” she said.
Earlier in her welcome address, the State Amirah, Hajia Zaynab AbdulHameed Oyinlade said the programmes under the organisation’s professional forum seek to make members who are professionals better in their careers.
“Obviously, not all Al-Muminaat members are here today. We have a section of Al-Muminaat that we call “The Professional Women”. So, apart from our general lectures which is the normal tarbiyyah that we do have, we have lectures that are specified for professionals. We normally have that quarterly and this is one of the quarterly editions,” she said.
The State Amirah noted that mentorship is one of the key tools for success.
“In every sphere of life, you need somebody to be a guide and advisor, somebody like a helper. Even if you have gone to school, you are a graduate, you have learnt it, some people have already been there before you. So, you learn from those who have been in that field.”
In her goodwill message, the National Amirah of Al-Muminaat, Hajia Jalilah Abdussalam said many young people need mentorship and the programme was long overdue.
“We even need to mentor our children. We need to mentor the people at our place of work. We need to mentor people in our environment. So many people are lost. They want mentors but do not know how to go about it.”
According to the National Amirah, the seminar will have follow-up programmes and extend to other branches of the organisation.
“This programme is not supposed to stop now. We need to have a follow up programme with it. But, this is just the starting point. In shaa Allah, we are going to have it all over our states. Apart from Lagos state, we will have it in Oyo, Osun, Abuja. Alhamdulilah, Al-Muminaat is now in Benin Republic. We have moved outside Nigeria.
“We also have states in the North. We have Kaduna, Nassarawa. We now have people in Benue State. We have moved from the southwestern to the northern states and even to the east. We have presence in Edo. We have in Port Harcourt and the rest. We are going to have this programme all over there, in shaa Allah.”
She welcome the idea of collaboration with other Muslim organisations to empower Muslim women through mentoring.
“We need to learn more from each other because during collaboration we exchange ideas. From exchanging ideas, we will be able to work together in unity so that the Muslim Ummah will be able to move forward.”
