It falls into the category of the
supposed Malaysian ban of Christians
from using the name, “Allah” to refer
to God—which was actually a ban of a
single notorious paper and not at all
Christians—which makes the
Malaysian event trivial in comparison,
actually. It fits the category of Blacks
being banned from buses or told to sit
at the back of them in the USA.
How does the removal of the Arabic
script on the naira note relate to
these? They all are born not only out
of inappropriate sentiment and malice,
but more importantly out of ignorance.
Whites actually believed that Blacks
were inferior to them; and some
Muslims actually believe that they
have a monopoly to Arabic and God’s
name. The ignorance is what makes
these crimes more shameful and
deadly.
The question is- why was the Arabic
script on the naira removed? What did
those words have to do with Islam?
Unfortunately the text was removed
out of bigotry and sheer ignorance; not
just by the government of Nigeria, but
influenced by some among the
populace who were misinformed,
ignorant or malicious. What was
always written on Nigeria’s legal
tender had absolutely no more to do
with Islam than the translation of this
article into Arabic will render. Arabic
text but not Arabic language was
written on our notes. It was Hausa
language written in Arabic orthography; and not Arabic language
in Arabic. And even though had it been
Arabic language it should still not
warrant the ill-meant removal; it was
not. The words on the note included,
‘Naira Biyar,” “five naira” in Hausa,
“Naira Goma” which means “ten
naira” in Hausa and not Arabic.
Arabic is one of the world’s most
common writing systems and it
predates the birth of Prophet
Mohammed of Islam by hundreds of
years. Bibles are written in Arabic as
are many other books. Though Islam
brought Arabic to Nigeria it does not
own it. Arabic orthography known as
Ajami was the first common writing
script across Nigeria, utilized to write
and keep the records of early history
and for academic instruction and
teaching across the north and parts of
the southwest before the arrival of the
colonialist; Arabic however does not
mean, “Muslim.” Hundreds of books
were written in pre-colonial Nigeria in
Arabic and many of these were on all
types of topics from science to poetry
and not limited or defined by Islam.
Indeed when Lord Lugard visited
Nigeria he observed that the literacy
that prevailed was Arabic and that the
north of the nation was well literate
with over 25,000 Arabic literacy
schools. This script defines our
history and in addition remains the
most important second literacy
system widely used in Nigeria and
across its northern-region neighbor
nations. Many Nigerians, Chadians,
Malians are only literate in Arabic/
Ajami and for them, for the purpose of
trade, a Nigerian legal tender that has
Hausa Ajami has been valuable in
fostering trade and regional
acceptance and strength of the Naira.
Hausa, written on the notes in Ajami is
a popular language across West
Africa.
On Lugard’s problems with the Ajami,
According to John Edward Phillips: “…
Lord Luggard stated his real objective
forthrightly: “I hope that, in course of
time, this [policy] may result in the
formation of a class of people who can
read and write Hausa in the Roman
character, though unable to speak
English.” Of course this meant that a
new educational system would have to
be created to teach Romanized Hausa
to Africans.
By Lugard’s own admission there
were at this time about 25,000
Qur’anic schools with about 250,000
pupils, but from this time on the
education they offered would be
useless for those seeking employment
with the administration. Lugard’s
struggle against the Arabic script went
to absurd lengths. At one point he
actually wrote a letter to Khartoum, in
the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, asking
whether anyone had yet succeeded in
publishing Arabic books in Roman
script! There is no record of any
response in the files.
It would be easy, but unfair, to portray
Lugard as an idiot who had no
understanding of the issues and who
could not even tell the difference
between a language and the script it
was written in. Brigadier F. J. D.
Lugard was not a linguist sent out with
recording devices and a knowledge of
comparative phonetics to determine
the best method of writing African
languages. Neither was he an
educator sent out with slates and
textbooks on a civilizing mission to
bring western education and its
benefits to the benighted inhabitants of
the Dark Continent. He was a military
man sent out with maxim guns and
seven pound cannons to bring the
people of a territory under British
rule.”
Ignorance appears to have always
been at the center of the perceived
threat of one of the world’s oldest and
most established writing scripts. The
problem is, many who battled to
remove this Ajami do not realize that
the number system we use today is
Arabic as well. The 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9 and 0 are Arabic-Hindu text.

The Roman script adapted these
numerical and the text as we write it
today is simple Arabic. So for those
who dislike Ajami and fight to remove
it, they might wish to remove the
numbers we still have on the legal
tenders too recognizing that these are
Arabic numbers.
Ignorance has been proven deadly
most especially in the Nigerian
equation. Love and understanding will
really develop the world.

source http://m.news24.com/nigeria/MyNews24/The-illiteracy-and-ignorance-in-the-removal-of-Arabic-Naira-20141125

#lengthy trash.
If anybody feels that in the wake of These recent changes that he/she can no longer identify a hundred naira note, they can pack n go to saudi arabia.

Fûćk Islam!

Eliminate all Muslims from the surface of the earth.

Infidels!

I hope this make front page. Those ignorant Muslims and Christians need to be informed. The fact that MURIC correlate Arabic to Islam is highly embarrasing.

come to think of it, how do we identify money ?
When some1 give u money what do u do?
Do u look through it to find where an arabic scrawl is written before u know its value or do we identify a naira note simply by its colour n shape.
Moreover, i dont belive there is anybody who cannot identify the roman numeral for hundred naira (100).

OP, I'm very sorry to ask o, but why are you so irked about the removal of Arabic inscriptions on the new 100 Naira?
How many people in Nigeria speak, write and understand Arabic?

I wonder why a particular group of people will always want to monopolize everything in a country where there are so many others. It is simply unimaginable.

OP, I can see u r really pained by these changes....... I feel sorry for u cos it's gonna be a continuous process.

Next to go will be the arabic inscriptions on the Nigerian army flag.

Just to enlighten you guys, not every graduate is literate

I hope this make front page. Those ignorant Muslims and Christians need to be informed. The fact that MURIC correlate Arabic to Islam is highly embarrasing.

It should make the front page to educate our people

shortgun:
OP, I can see u r really pained by these changes....... I feel sorry for u cos it's gonna be a continuous process.

Next to go will be the arabic inscriptions on the Nigerian army flag.

pained 4 what?

I really don't understand what you are blabbing.

Is Arabic our official language? If it meant nothing significant, why then are you bothered? Why did you not post your comment in Arabic so we can all react to it?

Normal etiquette in civilized climes requires that when you are in the presence of people of varied languages, you use the most acceptable (if you speak it) and/or use an interpreter.

Guy, wake up, and stop being a bigot that you claim some of us are.