Oritsejafor calls for Sovereign National Conference

By Obafemi Obadare

Saturday, 15 Oct 2011

The president of the Christian Association of Nigeria and Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria has called on the Federal Government to organise a national conference as a way of resolving the security and economic challenges facing the country.


In a wide-ranging interview with select reporters in Lagos last week, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor said moderate imams and the Northern elite had a crucial role to play in ending Boko Haram’s terror attacks in the country.


Projecting that the future of the country is bleak on account of the mismanagement of the economy by previous administrations, Oritsejafor, however, said it was a miracle that Nigeria’s 400 or so ethnic nationalities were still together, arguing that 51yrs of independence had not brought much returns in terms of development to the ordinary Nigerian.


“We must sit around a table and discuss,” said Oritsejafor, the founder and Senior Pastor of the World of Life Bible Church, Warri, Delta State, on whether the country could break up as a result of terror attacks and insecurity.


He said, “You see, the problem of Nigeria is that we want peace without justice; we want justice without truth.


“We’re experts at sweeping the truth under the carpet. Some governors are now calling for a sovereign national conference, unlike what the case used to be. People are beginning to reason that what do these people (Boko Haram) causing trouble really want?


“A national conference is a good place to ask them this question. I don’t pray Nigeria breaks up.”


He called on the elite in the North to come out and advise the Boko Haram insurgents on the need for peaceful coexistence among the federating nationalities and religions in the country.


He said, “When we had serious issues in the Niger Delta, some of us intervened. I went to the creeks and we discussed until we finally came to the point of amnesty. Some people are making an excuse that the issue of Boko Haram is political, but I can tell you that it is religious.


“Politicians may have taken an advantage of it but if you listen to the boys, you will find out that it has religion at its base. They believe their religion has to be supreme.


“I believe that moderate imams should find ways of teaching these boys the right things about Islam. They have been indoctrinated, they have to be deprogrammed and reprogrammed. And that has to be done by the imams.”


Calling for caution on President Goodluck Jonathan’s six-year single tenure proposal for the president and governors from 2015, the CAN president said the idea must be properly considered before it could become a law.


Oritsejafor said, “On the single term matter, I don’t see anything wrong with the idea. But the problem is still corruption among the political class.


“If a man has just six years and he knows he is not coming back, then we’re in trouble because he begins to grab all that his hands can find and destroys the nation. But the kind of money that goes into elections every four years now is enough to salvage the country.”


On the fuel subsidy controversy, he said, “Before making this (petroleum subsidy removal) public, they ought to sit down and agree with relevant stakeholders – the Nigeria Labour Congress and the other groups that represent the masses. I’m not aware that happened and it’s still not too late to do that.”


Projecting that the masses might soon react violently if the economy continued to be mismanaged, Oritsejafor reiterated that it was wrong of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, to use public funds to promote his “narrow” policy of Islamic or non-interest banking.


He said he was still waiting for Sanusi to discuss the issue, hinting that the CBN governor had been shying away from meeting Nigeria’s Christian leaders on the policy in spite of giving them an appointment to meet in Warri two months ago.


“I’m not against Islam or Islamic banking per se,” said Oritsejafor, who described Nigeria’s 51yrs of nationhood as disappointing.


He said, “This is not a fight between Christians and Muslims. But some of the things that I’m against are to give the world the impression that Islamic banking is synonymous with non-interest banking.


“Yes, it is, but there are other kinds of non-interest banking. The principles of non-interest banking existed before Islamic banking. It’s like Nigerians are being intentionally indoctrinated.


“He made the adjustment he made when he saw that the pressure was much from us (Christian leaders) and it meant that there would be one guideline for Islamic banking and another for the other forms of non-interest banking. Is that not discriminatory?


“There is a problem there. Why not have a uniform guideline for all forms of non-interest banking. If he truly has a genuine intention, he should provide a common guideline for all. This man has spent billions on this pursuit; can’t the Nationa l Assembly or executive ask him?


“If tomorrow, Christians start a bank, will he do the same? This is wrong of a regulator that the CBN is; it’s not supposed to promote a religious banking idea. He has taken so many steps that elicit suspicion: he sent 1,000 people to Sudan to get trained on Islamic banking; he appointed a special assistant on Islamic banking and planned to establish a Sharia Council of Experts – mainly Islamic scholars. Sanusi is trying to divide Nigeria along religious lines.”


Calling on Christians to continue to pray for Nigeria, the PFN president urged Nigerians to give Jonathan time to settle down before doing a proper assessment of his administration.


“I’ll be able to assess him properly by the end of this year,” he said.


However, Sanusi has denied that he is promoting Islamic banking in the country, saying that he was only fine-tuning what he met on the ground.


CBN spokeman, Mohammed Abdullahi, said a provision had been made for Islamic banking in the CBN Act since 1991 and some banks already had the Islamic banking window since then.


He said, “It is not true that the CBN has trained 1,000 personnel in Sudan on Islamic banking. This is not only outrageous, but a deliberate misinformation to score cheap points.


“The two units, in two departments (Financial Policy and Regulation and Banking Supervision) having anything to do with NIB, have a total of nine employees and these are the ones that have received training in various countries in the areas of regulation and supervision, which are legitimate functions of the CBN.


“The adviser appointed is on NIB, but he is not the only adviser that the governor or the bank has. The governor has advisers on economic development and risk management.


“The idea of establishing the so-called Shariah Council was a mere proposal on the draft guidelines presented as an exposure document for comments of all stakeholders. The CBN, having considered the comments of stakeholders and realising the need to respect the sensibility of Nigerians, changed the name to Committee of Experts consisting of persons versed in the subject matter.”


He said that anybody who knew Sanusi or his pedigree would be the last to ascribe to him the desire to divide Nigeria along religious lines.


http://punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201110158581620

Interesting

The below is particular insightful. Sanusi is such a shameless zealot.

Quote:

“If tomorrow, Christians start a bank, will he do the same? This is wrong of a regulator that the CBN is; it’s not supposed to promote a religious banking idea. He has taken so many steps that elicit suspicion: he sent 1,000 people to Sudan to get trained on Islamic banking; he appointed a special assistant on Islamic banking and planned to establish a Sharia Council of Experts – mainly Islamic scholars. Sanusi is trying to divide Nigeria along religious lines.”

ekt_bear:

Interesting

Thank You Sir!

I appreciate.

This makes a whole lot of sense.

Nice one!

Thank You Sir!

I appreciate.