By Haruna Aliyu, Birnin Kebbi

Descendants of great African cleric Abdullahi Fodio, younger brother to the late great cleric Usmanu bn Fodio, on Saturday formally launched the family foundation at Gwandu emirate palace Birnin Kebbi.

The formal launch was followed by launching of a family calendar to generate funds for the foundation to meet the purpose of creating it, part of which is to assist the entire family and the poor, signalling the philanthropic attitudes of the African cleric whose writings and researches benefitted many across Europe and Africa.

Speaking at the occasion, the emir of Gwandu, and chairman Council of chiefs Kebbi state, his royal highness, Muhammadu Illiyasu Bashar extolled the good virtues of the famous cleric Abdullahi Fodio, whose stand for truth, justice and equity founded the great Gwandu emirate which today stands as a role model to all traditional rulers particularly those who were given flags by the religious leader.

He noted that Sheik Abdullahi’s scholarly works is still being used in the the world of science as reference and as a research.

“I can go on and on if I continue to talk about Abdullahi Fodio but let me congratulate the extended family of the islamic scholar for their good thoughts of coming up of with a such foundation of this nature to bring the entire royal family together and the target beneficiaries of the foundation,” he said.

At the end the formal launch about at N12 million was realised aside pledges from co-luanchers

The occasion was attended by emirs, district heads, traditional rulers and top government officials.