^^^^

You've got so much patience.

May God increase your iman.

Jude Ezeanokwasa PhD
1. Introduction
n the recent past I have read some articles
on the introduction of Islamic Banking in
Nigeria under the Sanusi's headship of
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). None
is as mischievous and provocative as the
efforts of Mr. Disu Kamor, the Director of
Media and Communications, Muslim Public
Affairs Centre, (MPAC), Nigeria, to malign
the Nigerian Christian Community as an
anti-Islam, intolerant and unpeaceful
people. His article"Kamor: CBN, Islamic
Banking and The Guardian"
was published on the June 13, 2011 online
edition of your newspaper. My writing is
partly to respond to some of the
defamatory statements, disingenious and
disingenuous rhetorics of Mr. Disu and
partly to bring out some deeper
constitutional and practical realities
connected with the introduction of Sharia
banking and their threat to the cooperate,
integral and harmonious existence of
Nigeria.
In his defence of Islamic Banking he
quickly reverted to the illogical rhetoric of
regarding opposition to Sharia banking as
opposition to Islam, Islamophobia and
bigotry, thus calling opponents of Sharia
banking opponents of Islam. This is an
unfortunate logic which is like saying that
opposition to a Muslim is an opposition to
Islam, implying therefore that if a Muslim
for instance does something wrong it is
Islam that did something wrong. This is
self-defeating reasoning and serves no
more than a media stunt.
The search for the unity of the country
has never been more expedient than now
with the sharp ascendancy of religion to
the center place of the country. The Sharia
in the north has drawn a big wedge into
the heart of the country cracking it up and
pushing it apart. With the same intent is
the issue of Sharia banking, which should
however, not be a surprise to anybody
that understand the aims, purposes and
operations of the OIC.
2. Sharia Banking and Right to Freedom
of Religion
One argument of Mr. Kamor in defence of
Sharia banking is built on the religious
rights of Muslims. He reasoned that "In
any secular country that respects citizen
rights, Muslims must have the right to
practice their faith totally, and it is a
constructional duty that the state does
not interfere with this right, but enable
it." This position is born out of an
unfortunate misunderstanding of the
most elementary nature of human rights
rooted in the nostalgic desire of some
Muslim elite to create the pre-state
Muslim community. (see An-Na'im, A. A.,
"Sharia Cannot Be Enforced as State
Law",http://blogs.law.emory.edu/
nigeriasharia/an-naim-article
) No human right is total or absolute.
Every human right including the right to
freedom of thought, conscience and
religion guaranteed by section 38 of the
1999 Constitution of Nigeria is in principle
derogable and is in actual fact limited by a
number of factors, particularly the
presence of people with other religions
who have equally the right to freedom of
religion and equality of their religions
with those of others, Section 45 of the
Constitution deals with the restriction and
derogations from fundamental rights and
it provides in paragraph 1 "Nothing in
sections 37, 38, 39, 40 and 41 of this
Constitution shall invalidate any law that
is reasonably justifiable in a democratic
society - (a) in the interest of defence,
public safety, public order, public morality
or public health; or (b) for the purpose of
protecting the rights and freedom of
other persons. That human rights of one
person are limited by the human rights of
others is captured by the saying that a
person's human rights begins where that
of others ends. This is an echo of the
saying of the French philosopher, Jean
Jacque Rousseau who said that man is
born free but everywhere in chains.
Rather than being a principle for a
capricious, selfish, fundamentalistic and
myopic interpretation of human rights as
Mr Kamor has done, it underlies the
principle of restraint and responsibility in
human rights. Any person claiming or
enjoying human rights has the obligation
of factoring into the equation the fact that
others have the right to enjoy similar
rights and so he must allow
corresponding space for them. This is the
inherent principles of tolerance and
restraint in a genuine, reasonable and
democratic understanding of human
rights. The totalitarian understanding of
human rights Mr Kamor is espousing is
already in place in places in Middle East,
North Africa and the Sharia states of
Nigeria and the consequences are clear in
the persecution of non-Muslims,
particularly Christians, with their civil,
social, cultural and economic rights
denied; their physical life is no less
compromised as it has no equal value with
that of Muslims under the law in those
places.
Moreover, the issue of Sharia is a
constitutional matter and any person who
seeks to have the constitution maintained
especially with regard to norms that are
fair is a patriot and should not be
calumniated or branded an enemy of Islam
or termed islamophobic or given any such
names.
He who wants equity must be ready to do
equity. The protagonists of Sharia
banking claim it is their religious right
under the Constitution. Any right
justifiably guaranteed by the Constitution
must be consistent with the Constitution;
it must respect the constitutionally
established institutions, procedure and
bodies. The right must be exercised under
the Constitution and not outside it or else
we would have a right rooted in the
Constitution but operating beyond the
constitution. This is anomalous and this is
the situation Sharia banking is creating.
The supreme executive, legislative and
judicial bodies under our constitution are
the Presidency, National Assembly and
the Supreme Court respectively and
according to Mr. Kamor, the Sharia bank
under the CBN, a federal statutory body
created or deemed to have been created
by National Assembly, will be regulated by
Muslim jurists or experts whose
interpretations and regulations are
guided by Islamic jurisprudence
(depending on which school of
jurisprudence one belongs), which is not
subject to the constitutionally established
governmental institutions. If the National
Assembly enacted the BOFIA (Banks &
Other Financial Institutions Act) providing
for interest-free banking, then that form
of banking must be run subject to the
Constitution, meaning it must be operated
according to the secular constitutional
principles, otherwise, it would be
unconstitutional. The idea of the
Constitution creating an interest-free
banking (Islamic Banking), through the
National Assembly, that will operate
outside of the Constitution is against the
doctrine of constitutional rule of law and
so a legal monstrosity and absurdity of no
small scale. Truly, the belief of the Sharia
banking advocates in the unity and
stability of the country should be
questioned seriously. The endgame of this
constitutional anomaly is the gradual
ousting and supplanting of the powers of
the President, the National Assembly and
Federal Judiciary in the regulation of the
economic and financial life of the Sharia
states that currently enjoy a great level of
legal independence from the center as
proved by the Ahmed Sani Yerima case. In
this artifice, the intolerant is neither the
Christian community as insinuated by Mr.
Kamor nor any other person raising his/
her voice for constitutional secularity and
against Sharia banking, but are the ilks of
Mr. Kamor who want to create exclusive
economic, financial, labour and political
channels for themselves from the public
coffers.
3. Islamic Banking or Interest-free
Banking?
The efforts of Mr. Kamor to prove that
interest-free banking is synonymous with
Islamic banking are most devious and
ludicrous. He had attacked the Guardian
Newspaper for pointing out that what the
BOFIA approved was interest-free
banking and not Sharia banking. This is a
matter of simple logic. Islamic banking
may offer interest-free banking like any
other system of banking but there is no
way interest-free banking is coterminous
with Islamic banking. This is analogous to
the case in Indonesia where some Muslims
argued that no religion apart from Islam
should use the Arabic word Allah for God
on the claim that it belongs exclusively to
Islam. The justices of the Indonesian
Supreme Court knew better and overruled
them stressing that Allah is the Arabic
word for God and is open to anybody and
not a property of Islam. As I already said,
if the National Assembly created the
possibility of interest-free banking, such a
banking system must operate according
to the secular principles of the
Constitution, the jurisprudence governing
it must be a secular one and nothing else.
Consequently, any attempt to foist Islamic
Banking into non-interest-banking is
illegal and unconstitutional. By doing this
Lamido Sanusi is coming clean of his
intentions and agenda at the CBN. We can
now understand the motivation for his
dictatorial sack of some Bank CEOs and
replacing them with people that would be
beholden to him. Some courts are already
condemning his actions. We can now
understand why he took energy and time
going around in the northern parts of the
country denigrating the conventional
banking system and campaigning for
Islamic banking as the new messiah to
save Nigeria from economic recession.
4. Christians and Muslims; who hates
whom?
It is as ironical as it is curious that Mr.
Kamor in his article accused members of
the Nigerian Christian Community of
hatred and intolerance towards Muslims.
According to him, "The Nigerian Christian
community has to re-assess how it deals
with the Muslim community in Nigeria as
regards legitimate yearnings, aspirations
and rights of the Muslims community.
Unbriddled hate and religious antagonism
of some within that community of
everything Islamic is only a bad reflection
of their own state and how much they
have moved away from the peaceful and
tolerant pristine gospel that Jesus Christ
(AS) preached and live by." This is the
height of intellectual dishonesty and insult
to the sensibilities of the sincere people
that know the hatred and intolerance
exuding from the Nigerian Muslim
Community. It is extant rule of evidence
that he who vouches his good behavior or
attacks the character of the other person
makes his own character an issue. The
northern part of Nigeria undeniably has
Muslim majority while the south is more
Christian. On who hates and resents the
other, the statistics given by Dr. Mu'azu
Babangida Aliyu, a Muslim, the governor
of Niger state and the Chairman of the
Northern States Governors Forum says it
all: "Statistics of religious crises across
the country show that at least 95 per cent
of them occurred in the northern part of
the country and that is a matter of
concern to the Northern States Governors
Forum", (Vanguard, Online newspaper,
Saturday, August 29, 2009,http://
odili.net/news/source/2009/
aug/29/307.html
). And it is always Muslims on Christians.
He made this remark in the context of the
first ever audience given by the Northern
Governors Forum to Christians in the
north for the decades the Forum has been
in existence. Even at this meeting some
governors dashed out form the venue in
rebellion to the idea of given audience to
Christians. It is in Oyo state that members
of the Muslim community are opposing
the return to their owners of mission
schools forcibly taken over by
government. Their reason for the
opposition is that public fund has been
used to maintain them since they were
taken over. This argument is like saying
that it has cost an armed robber money to
keep his loot and so it should now belong
to him. The hatred and malice behind this
argument is palpable. The statistics given
by Governor Aliyu has not improved
anyway as the killing of innocent
Christians by Muslims has not stopped. In
the past it was the Maitatsina and today
it is Boko Haram from the same Muslim
majority north letting blood and
disturbing the peace of the country. Do I
need to still go on to convince Mr. Kamor
that he is most insincere and perhaps part
of the problems by accusing Nigerian
Christians of hate and intolerance? With
influential people like Mr. Kamor turning
around to accuse Christians for the very
hate and intolerance they are victims of
on a regular basis, a fact even known
internationally, there does not appear to
be the hope that Christian peace and
tolerance will ever get reciprocation from
the Muslim community represented by Mr.
Kamor.
In any case, there is one truth I can vouch
that Mr. Kamor knows; it is that Jesus
Christ preached peace and tolerance and
live by them. Mr. Kamor affirmed this
from the bottom of his heart. May this
peace and tolerance of Jesus Christ be
found in Mr. Kamor's Muslim community.
However, a question that follows is, does
the introduction of Islamic banking by the
CBN that is jointly owned by Nigerians of
all religions and faiths promote the type
of peace and tolerance preached and lived
by Jesus Christ? The answer is a big no.
5. Legal and Constitutional Incongruities
with Sharia banking
The legal consequences of the
introduction of Islamic banking deal yet
another deadly blow to the constitutional
secularity, unity and sovereignty of the
country. Item 6 of the Exclusive Legislative
List of the 1999 Constitution reserves
legislative competence on banks, banking,
bills of exchange and promissory notes to
the competence of the National Assembly,
while section 10 of the same Constitution
prohibits both the federal and state
governments from making any religion the
state religion. The introduction of Islamic
banking, to be run according to Islamic
jurisprudence by the CBN, automatically
means the federal government ceding its
powers, legislative, executive and judicial,
for the regulation of banks and allied
matters to Islamic Mullahs and thus, to
Islam; an act that ipso facto turns Islam a
federal religion. The significance of the
secularity of the Constitution as embodied
in section 10 of the Constitution is that no
aspect of governance, federal or state,
should be run according to the exclusive
dogmas or jurisprudence of any religion.
This is exactly what the federal
government is doing through the CBN and
also by allowing the existence of Sharia
states.
This unconstitutionality still remains even
as the CBN has turned around to
acknowledge that non-interest-banking is
not synonymous with Islamic banking, but
only a variant of it. As long as Islamic
banking, by whatever name it is called, is
operated according to Sharia law or
Islamic jurisprudence, it is in breach of the
secularity of the Constitution as it is to
that extent an imposition of Islam on the
country.
Islamic banking is a lethal attack on the
sovereignty of Nigeria. The sovereignty of
Nigeria which resides in the citizens is
centered in the tripartite government
institutions of the executive, the
legislature and the judiciary. Sharia
banking, in so far as it is not regulated by
these institutions, creates a parallel
government in Nigeria. It creates its own
legislative body to enact the rules that will
regulate it, it enacts its own offences, its
own rules of evidence, trial, and
punishment; it constitutes its own
tribunals and courts and establishes its
own chief executives to implement its
rules and carry out its judicial
pronouncements. All these institutions will
exist independent of the ordinary
governmental institutions established by
the Constitution, thereby creating critical
rule of law issues. If Muslims must have
their Islamic experts to make rules and
regulations for the operation of Islamic
banks, would Muslim legislators at the
National Assembly participate also in
regulating non-Islamic banking or
interest-banking? Doing that would of
course amount to legislative double-
dipping, an obvious injustice and
dictatorship to all non-Muslims as Muslim
legislators would be making regulations
that would not, in principle, bind them.
Since Islamic banking has been presented
to be in opposition to the conventional
interest-banking, there is strong likelihood
of bias on the part of any Muslim
legislator participating in the regulation
of the conventional interest-banking.
Moreover the personnel to run these
Sharia institutions must be Muslims. This
would mean the Federal Government
introducing religious criterion for
employment and access to fund, all in
contravention to section 42 of the
Constitution and the UN conventions it
acceded to or ratified, especially the UN
charter, forbidding such discriminations.
In the end the supremacy of the
Constitution would have been tossed and
displaced. What Sharia banking does then
is to break up the country as it will foist
an Islamic state on the Constitution.
The introduction of Sharia banking for
Muslims creates serious confidence issues
in the administration of the CBN. Can a
Muslim whose faith forbids interest-
banking be at the headship of the CBN?
Or will the CBN be split for Muslims and
non-Muslims. Just as a non-Muslim will
not be accepted by Muslims to head and
regulate Sharia banking, it will be
abnormal to have a Muslim head non-
interest banking for the obvious reason of
conflict of interest and high probability of
bias.
A corollary to this is the security risk the
operation of Islamic banking poses to
Nigeria. As Islamic banking creates a
government outside of the federal
government, it creates its own
international relations and liaisons
independent of the ordinary institutions
of the government. Islamic banking is a
child of the OIC and article 34(1) of the
new (2008) charter of the OIC provides
that "The Organization shall enjoy in the
Member States, immunities and privileges
as necessary for the exercise of its
functions and fulfillment of its objectives".
Nigerian being a member of this
organization, the operations of Sharia
banks via the OIC is immune from security
checks. The sources of Sharia banking
funds and its ultimate destination in the
country will not in principle pass through
the President, and especially if the
president is non-Muslim.
6. On the merit of Islamic banking
It may not need a professor of banking to
see that the logic that zero-interest-
banking will alleviate poverty is suspect.
The common sense caution, 'when the
offer is too good to be true, beware' is
very relevant here. Countries claiming
great impact of Shariah banking on
development are Egypt, Senegal, Malaysia
and Turkey. Some observers and analyst
of the system like Aaron MacLean wrote:
"Islamic financial institutions, the
argument went, would boost the economic
development of Muslim societies. The
fraternal style of Islamic banking-with its
emphasis on equity financing rather than
lending-would enhance social
responsibility. In practice, however,
Islamic finance has had to bend to the
same pressures as any other kind of
finance. Social, religiously oriented
investment in the development of the
Islamic world is something people are
more interested in publicly championing
than personally doing (Aaron MacLean,
"Islamic Banking: Is It Really Kosher?",
The American, The Journal of the
American Enterprise Institute, Online,
http://www.american.com/archive/2007/
march-april-magazine-contents/islamic-
banking-is-it-really-kosher
). Khalid Ikram, who represented the
World Bank in Egypt where the first
modern experiment (1963-67) with
Islamic banking was undertaken (http://
www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/economics/
islamic_banking.html
), said of Islamic banking, "it hasn't had a
lot to do with development" (Aaron
MacLean, op. cit.). For Christopher Watts,
lack of transparency in the system is an
issue of concern. It is a theocratic system
where the precise guidelines or principles
are not open to logic but are determined
by people whose interests are only
theocratic orthodoxy. This leads to the big
problem he found in the system, which is
the fact that the precise guideline or
operational principles depends on one's
Shariah jurisprudential school. Various
Islamic schools have their own banking
rules (Christopher Watts, 'Is Islamic
finance at tipping point?'http://
www.economist.com/sponsor/qfc/
index.cfm?pageid=article104
.)
7. Conclusion
Sanusi has shown that he is rather an
Islamist politician rather than a financial
expert with the cooperate welfare of
every Nigerian at heart. It is better he is
shown the way out having lost the
confidence of the secular sector of the
economy, particularly for the conflict of
interest in him heading the interest-
banking that he has declared his religion
abhors. And it is time legal steps are
taken to challenge the constitutionality of
his actions, the BOFIA and the complicity
of the federal government in this effort at
islamizing the country. To be also
challenged are the constitutionality of
Nigeria's membership of the OIC, the
Sharia states in the north and Nigeria's
membership of the Islamic Development
Bank (IDB). The most unfortunate thing is
that the non-Muslim community of Nigeria
has had the tradition of talking more than
taking concrete steps towards redressing
the gradual islamization of the country.
Prominent among those who suffer the
most and will still suffer more the
islamization of Nigeria are Christians.
Therefore, the leadership of Christians,
the CAN (Christian Association of Nigeria)
, becomes a principal stakeholder on this
matter and should be all out with serious
plans to challenge this gradually but
steady assemblage of both the legal and
economic weapons that will be used more
dreadfully on her and her citizens-
members like in the Middle East and
North Africa. Efforts should go far
beyond the usual communiqué-responses
in the past. In actual fact, from the
perspective of Christians being the largest
in the non-islamist sector of the country,
they are, as a body, responsible for the
islamization of the country by their
inaction and many a time naïve
concessions and preachment for peace on
related matters with scarcely any
attention on justice. Real peace must be
based on justice.

Though I posed these questions to a particular poster, anyone who likes is free to answer.

In a nutshell, I think branding the current banking system popular in Nigeria and the rest of the world as "Judeo-Christian" is inaccurate.


Quote from: ekt_bear on Yesterday at 09:03:53 PM

Two questions:
1) What is Judeo-Christian banking
2) Where is it practiced? In particular, is it practiced in Nigeria, Japan, China, and India?

I read the posters initial post and am not so sure if he/she meant to say the present banking had judeo-christian roots. What I would say is just that a lot of what is conventional nowadays, do or did have some form of support from the Judeo/Christian authorities as at the term of their advent. for example some sources do associate the modern form of banking to the UK and as at the beginning the UK was a monarchy with strong ties to the church and of course the church and monarchy had to be in agreement on such matters for it to be accepted(those were the days before the cry for seperation of church and state). Another example is the present calendaring system which of course was perfected by the church more. Though the conventional banking system may not follow christian principles but am sure i will not be too wrong to say it definitely was encouraged by the Church(by that i mean the Church authority) as a financial system. Another thought is that there is a lot of Jewish influence in the present financial system in the world over as there are usually references of Jews being financial brokers and developing many of the global financial institutions we have in the world, that wont still mean they follow Jewish rules for financial transactions but their influence in the present financial system cannot be overlooked.

kq:

That position is further exacerbated by SLS pushing Islamic Banking beyond the confines of what is expected of a Central Bank Governor. If a man's beliefs, religious or otherwise, do not stand in the way of his performing his duties, then there shouldn't be a problem. But what if a man tries to make atonement for past actions and uses his office? For instance, what if SLS is pushing this Islamic Banking issue because he is trying to make up for working in Riba taking institutions? Is that idea too far-fetched considering Sanusi's antecedents? Perhaps, this is conjecture but there is a reason why SLS is pushing Islamic Banking despite its failings elsewhere and its likely vituperations in Nigeria. If we ignore religion, what else can we point to as being responsible for his actions (Islamic Banking)?

I am merely giving an opinion on this particular point.

@Katsumoto i think you are now trying to delve into SLS mind and find the motive for trying to push Islamic banking, that will be something only he can answer. But the most important is whatever is reason might be lets not forget that Non-Interest banking in particular Islamic banking had been in the works before SLS ever bacame CBN gov. JAIZ bank did get a license during Soludos time but their efforts got a setback due to the increase in bank recapitalisation. Besides whether he is using at a form of repentance or not i dont see all banks starting an islamic banking arm or new banks just springing up under the guise of islamic banking. It is obvious to everybody that it is a form of banking, the blame for all the noise on this issue lies with both SLS and we the public imagine the Methodist Prelate saying just because of the word Islamic it is wrong thats like saying just because their is a cross on the Red Cross then it infringes on a muslims right. Now i blame SLS for some his utterances which are ill timed more often than not and dont address the publics yearning for more info hence making him guilty of putting the public at the mercy of CAN and media of course both this sources will definitely not root for anything associated with Islam not because they hate Islam but due to sentimental reasons.

I think we should put more focus on his works as CBN gov than just trying to pin a conspiracy on trying to Islamize Nigeria on him. i dont see any possibility of just turning every nook and cranny of Nigeria over to any religion in particular happening.

I get your point but what I am simply doing is analysing his actions and not his thoughts. Thats why I stated it was just an opinion.

Let me state that I do not have an issue with Islamic Banking as far as its allowed to operate without interference and assistance from the government and as far as the Governor is neutral to its operations. So far Sanusi's actions have been anything but neutral.

Winston Churchill spoke to Prince Bismarck in 1930 about the rise of facism in Germany and Hitler's rearmament. Churchill was convinced that Germany would wage war at some point. That conversation was documented by the German Prince. It would take Hitler another 9 years to start the most devastating war in history.

Sometimes in life, there are ominious signs but people simple ignore or dismiss them. You are free to dismiss Sanusi's actions but others are watching. Perhaps you are a Muslim and see no wrong in a CBN Governor pushing Islamic Banking beyond the limits of his office. BTW, I never accused him of Islamizing Nigeria. I will leave it at the existence of an agenda.

Still waiting for anybody to show that Sanusi has a Msc in economics, not did some course work in masters. If you can't post an evidence about this, it's because he doesn't have Msc in econs. One of the issues that came up during his confirmation in the senate was that he failed to complete a course work in economics in ABU, but went to Sudan for Islamic studies.
How smart is a Kano price who couldn't complete a basic Msc in ABU of all places

kq:

That position is further exacerbated by SLS pushing Islamic Banking beyond the confines of what is expected of a Central Bank Governor. If a man's beliefs, religious or otherwise, do not stand in the way of his performing his duties, then there shouldn't be a problem. But what if a man tries to make atonement for past actions and uses his office? For instance, what if SLS is pushing this Islamic Banking issue because he is trying to make up for working in Riba taking institutions? Is that idea too far-fetched considering Sanusi's antecedents? Perhaps, this is conjecture but there is a reason why SLS is pushing Islamic Banking despite its failings elsewhere and its likely vituperations in Nigeria. If we ignore religion, what else can we point to as being responsible for his actions (Islamic Banking)?

I am merely giving an opinion on this particular point.

@Katsumoto i think you are now trying to delve into SLS mind and find the motive for trying to push Islamic banking, that will be something only he can answer. But the most important is whatever is reason might be lets not forget that Non-Interest banking in particular Islamic banking had been in the works before SLS ever bacame CBN gov. JAIZ bank did get a license during Soludos time but their efforts got a setback due to the increase in bank recapitalisation. Besides whether he is using at a form of repentance or not i dont see all banks starting an islamic banking arm or new banks just springing up under the guise of islamic banking. It is obvious to everybody that it is a form of banking, the blame for all the noise on this issue lies with both SLS and we the public imagine the Methodist Prelate saying just because of the word Islamic it is wrong thats like saying just because their is a cross on the Red Cross then it infringes on a muslims right. Now i blame SLS for some his utterances which are ill timed more often than not and dont address the publics yearning for more info hence making him guilty of putting the public at the mercy of CAN and media of course both this sources will definitely not root for anything associated with Islam not because they hate Islam but due to sentimental reasons.

I think we should put more focus on his works as CBN gov than just trying to pin a conspiracy on trying to Islamize Nigeria on him. i dont see any possibility of just turning every nook and cranny of Nigeria over to any religion in particular happening.

Why Kats is trying so hard to placate a lot of you muslims that wont see any opposing superior reasons to criticize your "TIN God" Sanusi is beyond me. As for me, I wont even indulge your sensibilities with all that uneccessary niceties as it is clear you lot do not want to respect that of others.
Before I even start with the constitutional incongruity of the attempt by Sanusi to usurp the superiority of the Nigerian constitution by  separating the existing laws that guide the running of Non-interest banking-of which his "darling islamic banking" is subsumed in it - from the one that will guide islamic banking practices here in Nigeria, it must be emphasize that muslims should stop seeing opposition to islamic banking or Sanusi as anti-islam or islamaphobia as that will help them look at issues objectively and critically without bias.
The notion of calling any argument with a muslim islamaphobia should be jettisoned.
    The possible bad scenerios that will take place once Islamic banking is introduced are glaring for all to see; I dont know if you have been following extremist statements credited to islamic radicals and fundamentalists in the north-Boko haram & co. They claim to have carried out attacks on Banks in the north and promise to do more as these banks according to them do not live by the principle of sharia financial laws & as such do not serve the people any good. Now imagine what will happen when islamic banking then comes on, my guess is, all the conventional banks in the north will be violently and forcfully sent packing from the north & we will have a situation where the northern part is dominated by these islamic banks and the south conventional banks. This will further divide the country along north-south lines & heighten the problem, if SLS was an honest man, he would care about that first before vehemently pursuing his beliefs as it relate to finance.

I don't think the issue of Sanusi's Islamic banking has been given due analysis on this thread especially as it relates to Nigeria's constitutional provisions for the existence of such.
Now according to the Organisation of Islamic conference (OIC) definition; an Islamic Bank is a financial institution whose statutes, rules and procedures expressly state its commitment to the principles of Islamic Shariah and to the banning of the receipt and payment of interest on any of its operations.
This definition alone shows why it is almost impossible to run islamic banking in Nigeria as it is being presently organized by the SLS managed CBN.
It is very important to emphasize here that In most countries the establishment of Islamic banking has been by private initiative and were confined to that bank. It was only in in Iran and Pakistan where it was by government initiative and covered all banks in these countries. It is worthy of note to affirm that the governments in both these countries took steps in 1981 to introduce Islamic Banking.
That is why today Iran accounts for the highest number of Islamic banks followed distantly by Pakistan whom unlike Iran only adjusted certain part of her countries constitution to accommodate it.
This is exactly where many Nigerians like myself have problems with Sanusi's Islamic banking; the attempt to overlook the secularity of our constitution and create rules different from what the Nigerian constitution stipulates for the operation of non-interest banking.
Nigeria is a secular state and its constitution is based on secular laws, it does not matter what an Imam, mullar or a fanatic CBN governor thinks, these laws are superior to any other laws in the land.
The totalitarian understanding of human rights by many a muslims is espoused already in places in Middle East, North Africa and the Sharia states of Nigeria and the consequences are clear in the persecution of non-Muslims, particularly Christians, with their civil, social, cultural and economic rights denied; their physical life is no less compromised as it has no equal value with that of Muslims under the law in those places.
The protagonists of Sharia banking claim it is their religious right under the Constitution. Any right justifiably guaranteed by the Constitution must be consistent with the Constitution; it must respect the constitutionally established institutions, procedure and bodies. The right must be exercised under the Constitution and not outside it or else we would have a right rooted in the Constitution but operating beyond the constitution. This is anomalous and this is the situation Sharia banking is creating.
The supreme executive, legislative and judicial bodies under our constitution are the Presidency, National Assembly and the Supreme Court respectively and from reports the Sharia bank under the CBN, a federal statutory body created or deemed to have been created by National Assembly, will be regulated by Muslim jurists or experts whose interpretations and regulations are guided by Islamic jurisprudence (depending on which school of jurisprudence one belongs), which is not subject to the constitutionally established governmental institutions. If the National Assembly enacted the BOFIA (Banks & Other Financial Institutions Act) providing for interest-free banking, then that form of banking must be run subject to the Constitution, meaning it must be operated according to the secular constitutional principles, otherwise, it would be unconstitutional. The idea of the Constitution creating an interest-free banking (Islamic Banking), through the National Assembly, that will operate outside of the Constitution is against the doctrine of constitutional rule of law and so a legal monstrosity and absurdity of no small scale. Truly, the belief of the Sharia banking advocates in the unity and stability of the country should be questioned seriously. The endgame of this constitutional anomaly is the gradual ousting and supplanting of the powers of the President, the National Assembly and Federal Judiciary in the regulation of the economic and financial life of the Sharia states that currently enjoy a great level of legal independence from the center as proved by the Ahmed Sani Yerima case.

naijaking1:

Still waiting for anybody to show that Sanusi has a Msc in economics, not did some course work in masters. If you can't post an evidence about this, it's because he doesn't have Msc in econs. One of the issues that came up during his confirmation in the senate was that he failed to complete a course work in economics in ABU, but went to Sudan for Islamic studies.
How smart is a Kano price who couldn't complete a basic Msc in ABU of all places

haha. . Guy u go wait tire o, all na degrees, afterall, I ve an aunty whose PHD thesis was on the Preparation of oha soup, she studied food tech. She used to be a bigshot in the financial industry until Uncle Sanusi chocked everyone with his abracadabra policies.

naijaking1:

Still waiting for anybody to show that Sanusi has a Msc in economics, not did some course work in masters. If you can't post an evidence about this, it's because he doesn't have Msc in econs. One of the issues that came up during his confirmation in the senate was that he failed to complete a course work in economics in ABU, but went to Sudan for Islamic studies.
How smart is a Kano price who couldn't complete a basic Msc in ABU of all places

haha. . Guy u go wait tire o, all na degrees, afterall, I ve an aunty whose PHD thesis was on the Preparation of oha soup, she studied food tech. She used to be a bigshot in the financial industry until Uncle Sanusi chocked everyone with his abracadabra policies.

The Igbos, The Yoruba and History
By
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
sanusis@ubaplc.com
WWW.GAMJI.COM

Every moment in life is a moment of history. Every present action immediately becomes past and roles played today will be remembered tomorrow with pride or shame, satisfaction or regret. Yet some moments are clearly more momentous than others, and represent far greater opportunities and dangers. These are often moments of crisis, a word which in its Japanese form is written with two characters, the one representing danger, the other opportunity.

The deaths of ‘Yar Adua, Abacha and Abiola plunged Nigeria into a crisis. That is, a period portending great danger for the corporate body called Nigeria as well as near limitless opportunities for progress, for a departure from the tension, the stagnation, the corruption and the injustices associated with the dark period known as the Abacha days. For the leaders of Southern Nigeria and, in particular, the two dominant tribes, the Igbo and Yoruba, it represented an opportunity once more to make a move for the presidency, and shift power (whatever that means) away from the North which has come to be portrayed as the source of all the problems of the nation. The desire to win over power is the natural goal of political activists. The use of propaganda, blackmail, lies, bribery, deception, even threats of secession has been the hallmark of many an astute political strategy aimed at attaining set goals. Yet the choice of which method is appropriate to a specific polity in a specific historical context is a difficult one, requiring a high sense of perception, a knowledge of history, a natural intelligence and political sophistication. In choosing the path of black-mail and ethnocentric diatribe, the leaders of the South have once more displayed to the world their political naivete, and set the stage for another defeat that may see them remaining in opposition for the next four years.

One marvels at the never-ending cycle which sees Southern Politicians play into the hands of their northern counterparts. For a people who take pride in the depth of their Western Education and who have often expressed contempt for the “backwardness” and “illiteracy” of their northern brothers, southern politicians have presented to the world the ever-present proof that “book – knowledge” and intelligence are not necessarily correlated. One recalls Chief Awolowo’s description of Shagari as a “glorified Grade Two Teacher”. It was missing on Awolowo’ that the more contemptible the adjectives he used to describe Shagari, the lower he sank in the eyes of perceptive watchers, as the man he was describing had clearly shown that he was better by defeating him in a race both participated in from start to finish.

Western Liberal Democracy is a product of the nation-state. It takes as given, the corporate existence of the state and establishes institutions and the rule of law such as to ensure that the system, rather than an individual, is relied upon for safeguarding individual rights and societal values. To the extent that Nigerians have decided to pursue the path of the Western Nations (or at least those in power have decided that this is the way to go) participants would do well to bear this fact in mind. A democratic system is primarily about Institutions and the rule of law. It is not about individuals. We need a system, based on laws and a constitution agreed upon by all, that guarantees each and every Nigerian wherever he is from the right to full political participation and unfettered expression. A system that protects each and every one of us from the tyranny of an individual. A system in which our dignity and liberty are not protected only when the president comes from our own part of the country.

Abacha was a corrupt, ruthless dictator – period. Where he was from is immaterial. All Nigerians, Northerners and Southerners, Muslim and Christians, suffered from the corruption and injustices of his regime with the exception of a small band of family members, sycophants and traitors who joined him in looting the coffers of our nation. Those who stood against his tyranny and spoke out for freedom and equity suffered: among them Obasanjo, Yar Adua, Abiola, Rimi, Ige, Lamido, Nwakwo and Ken Sarowiwa. A cursory look at the list of those detained, framed, murdered, lied against, pauperized and otherwise abused in the last five years will prove to honest persons that Abacha was no respecter of region or religion and that he represented the least form of humanity degenerating dangerously close to bestiality, which is why, like Pharaoh, he is remembered today for his evil rather than his good, for no good of his can obviate the memory, etched in the individual and collective consciousness of Nigerians, of what it is like to live in an environment of terror, not knowing who next will be struck with impunity.

In pretending that these are not the issues, in teaching their followers to oppose Abacha not for his corruption, greed and cruelty but for his ethnic origins, in portraying the annulment of the June, 1993 election as an act against the Yoruba, in pretending that Abiola’s death in prison was in some way different from ‘Yar Adua’s death in prison, in claiming that the solution to this country’s predicament lies in changing the ethnicity of the president and producing a “Southern” President: in all this, the political leaders of the South have displayed the highest degree of naivete, the lowest sense of responsibility and the crudest application of their intellectual faculties. Worse than all this, they have played straight into the hands of their political rivals, the Northern Politicians.

The history of Nigeria since independence is too recent, too many real-life participants are still alive, for it to be rewritten with impunity as a political strategy. It was only in the 1960’s that the Nigerian Army’s officer corps was predominated by officers of Igbo extraction. It was only in 1966 that a group of such officers decided to destroy the peace of this nation and wage a war against other tribal groups. That was when the five majors decided to eliminate the Premiers of the North and West while letting the Igbo Premier go scot-free, to assassinate the Prime Minister who was a northerner after having advised the Igbo president to flee and letting the Igbo Senate leader go scot-free. To execute the Minister of Finance who was from the Mid-West; to execute the most senior military officers from the North and the West while letting the most senior military officer and army commander who was Igbo go scot-free. Not one prominent Igbo leader, military or civilian was touched . All the prominent civilian and military leaders from other regions were executed. The Igbo senate leader, acting for the Igbo president in his absence was, by the constitution, mandated to swear - in the most senior NPC minister as Prime minister. He did not. Instead, having consulted his Igbo President, and the president alone, he handed over power to the Igbo GOC in flagrant disregard for the provisions of the constitution. The speech of Nzeogwu, the magazines and newspapers published in the six months of the Ironsi government, his declaration of a unitary state, the provocation of northerners by Igbo traders who laughed at them in Sabon Gari markets, all of these are too recent, too well-documented to be rewritten.

The Igbo people were responsible for the first military coup in this country; They were responsible for the first attempt at ethnic cleansing; They were responsible for the first violation of constitutionally laid down succession procedures; they were responsible for the destruction of the federation and the creation of the unitary system of which they are now victims (since the initial objective was for the Igbos to dominate the other groups); they were responsible for Nigeria’s first civil war.

It makes no sense, in the face of these facts, repeat facts, for the Igbos to shed tears today and claim to have always been an aggrieved party. It will convince no one. Granted, the Igbo people as a whole must not be punished for the action of some. Granted, there can never be full reconciliation without justice and equity. Granted, the Igbo people, like all Nigerians, have the right to fight against perceived injustices. The way to do this is by integration into the country, by joining broad-based parties and establishing a system that guarantees all individuals and groups their rights and liberty. It is not by crying Biafra again. It not by following the man who led them to defeat and ran away to come back later and enjoy his wealth. The Igbos have always had alliances with other parts of the country. The astute political strategy is to go into one now. Tribalism will lead to defeat, once more, and even more humiliation.

As for the Yoruba, they have not been known to call for secession or the break-up of the country until recently in the aftermath of the June 12 crisis and Abiola’s death. One may not agree entirely with their description of themselves as peaceful people, but they clearly are a peace –preferring people, consistent with their well-known nature of seeking maximum enjoyment from life at minimal personal cost. The Yoruba instinctively know that more can be gained in peacetime than in war. Being business people, they have an acute sense of the risks of war and its implication in terms of destruction of accumulated wealth and property.

[b]Yet in spite of this, the Yoruba have in their politics displayed two consistent streaks that have consistently kept them in opposition and cost them opportunities for coming to power. The first is vanity – a dangerous state of self-delusion borne of imagined intellectual and academic superiority over opponents and rivals alike. Thus, Yoruba politicians have consistently underestimated their northern opponents who thrive on wily intrigues and far-sighted manipulation of the political process. They have also assumed to their peril that other southern tribes would naturally acquiesce to their leadership and be lured into a southern alliance whose objective is to help secure supremacy and power for the south – west. Even the so-called Oduduwa republic assumes that the people of the former mid-west who had fought for an independent region in the sixties will willingly resubmit themselves to Yoruba domination. This is all in addition to the recent utterances of Afenifere calling for excision of the Yoruba of the north from Fulani domination, a call dismissed by a prominent northern Yoruba leader, Sunday Awoniyi, for its banality and presumptuousness.[/b]

[b]The second streak is self-centredness. Of all the tribes in Nigeria who sometimes fight for parochial reasons, the Yoruba are the only group who clearly believe they are Nigeria. When they have what they want, Nigeria is good. Otherwise it is bad. When a Yoruba candidate loses an election (like Awolowo did in 1979 and 1983) it is rigging. When he wins (like Abiola in 1993) it is a landslide victory in a free-and-fair election. [/b]When Buhari overthrew a democratically elected and sworn-in government headed by Shagari, he was hailed as a reformer who came to fight corruption. When his tribunals jailed ‘progressive’ Yoruba governors for theft he became unpopular. When Babangida dissolved the election of Adamu Chiroma and Shehu ‘Yar Adua as flag-bearers of NRC and SDP the decision was hailed as patriotic and courageous even though it led to an extension of military dictatorship. When the same man annulled Abiola’s election it was a travesty of democracy. The list is too long to go through.

A[b]s a result of these two characteristics, the Yoruba have tended to be received by all other groups in Nigeria with one sentiment: mistrust. The Igbo people believe to this day that the Yoruba led them into the war pretending to be with them and dumped them at the last moment.[/b] During the Second Republic, a grand alliance of four opposition parties capable of winning power from the NPN achieved nothing when it became clear that for the Yoruba the issue was not one of supplanting a conservative government and installing a progressive one, but of securing the presidency for a Yoruba candidate – Chief Awolowo.

NADECO, whose members had been strident opponents of Abiola branding him Babangida’s boy, suddenly look up June 12 and tribalised the cause. Subsequent to Abiola’s death, the memorandum NADECO submitted to the Government of Abdulsalam Abubakar was such a comical exercise in vain hallucination and naïve optimism that one wonders if those that drafted it were in complete possession of their mental faculties.

The Yoruba have become Nigeria’s wailing tribe, detaching themselves from the rest of the country and alienating the people they hope to rule; abusing other Nigerians through their vociferous media and hoping for votes from the same Nigerians on ballot day.

The lesson in all this is that the Igbo, Yoruba and all Nigerians must learn by now that no one can win a national election on a tribal platform. Those clamoring to join Ojukwu’s Igbo party, and those attempting to transform Afenifere/NADECO into a tribal party are heading for a resounding defeat at the polls.

The presidency can, and perhaps should, move to the south. But it will be to a southerner who contests on the platform of Nigeria, not of his tribe. A southerner committed to the system, to the rule of law and to the principles of peace, justice, equity and freedom, not of avenging real or imagined wrongs; a Southerner like Chief Abiola who stands the chance of winning.

This is an opportunity to make (or unmake) history. But, sadly, it is being thrown away once more in what may be the commencement of a new cycle of defeat, frustration and wailing.

You can read more about my article from my web page at http://www.gamji.com/sanusi.htm

Sanusi wrote that speech while he was at UBA, presumably before OBJ became president. How did anyone who was so openly biased against other ethnic Groups get to become CBN Governor? There is some truth in the article but Sanusi clearly ignored some truths about his ethnic group, the Hausa-Fulani. Are the Hausa-Fulani and other Ethnic Groups blameless in the mess Nigeria finds itself? Are the Yorubas and Igbos, the only Ethnic Groups that are responsible for Nigeria's mess?

In a country where due process is followed, the Senate or parliament will never confirm the appointment of someone who shares such sentiments and animosity towards other groups. What were the Yoruba and Igbo senators thinking? But of course, many of them are only concerned about their well-beings, their entitlements, etc. If religious bigotry is ignored by certain individuals, will ethnic bigotry also be ignored? Sanusi clearly suffers from selective amnesia and delusions of grandeur.

ola olabiy:

Good for you, Sir. And, what a great career you have there. Thanks for telling us something about your career.

Yeah! I like Katsumoto too. However, I have discovered that it is better to read as well; not just follow. If you know what I mean.

Because, in this case, I had a point. I mean examples, even in the Western/BRIC countries. I was not just too keen to take it further.

I hope we know that SECURENCY is NOW a joint venture part-owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia (Their Central Bank). The other owners are in London.

http://www.securency.com.au/

Take care.

Read here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_banknote

So from what I gather, it looks like RBA commissioned a university to develop technology for these notes, retained the patents, and then turned this over in exchange for equity in a company.

The initial way in which it got the technology was still related to its mandate, right?  It developed something for its own use and then found out later that their technology would be useful to others.

It doesn't seem to me as if the RBA developed this technology initially to make profit.

So I don't really see this example as being comparable to investing in a hotel.

kq:


Though I posed these questions to a particular poster, anyone who likes is free to answer.

In a nutshell, I think branding the current banking system popular in Nigeria and the rest of the world as "Judeo-Christian" is inaccurate.


Quote from: ekt_bear on Yesterday at 09:03:53 PM

Two questions:
1) What is Judeo-Christian banking
2) Where is it practiced? In particular, is it practiced in Nigeria, Japan, China, and India?

I read the posters initial post and am not so sure if he/she meant to say the present banking had judeo-christian roots. What I would say is just that a lot of what is conventional nowadays, do or did have some form of support from the Judeo/Christian authorities as at the term of their advent. for example some sources do associate the modern form of banking to the UK and as at the beginning the UK was a monarchy with strong ties to the church and of course the church and monarchy had to be in agreement on such matters for it to be accepted(those were the days before the cry for seperation of church and state). Another example is the present calendaring system which of course was perfected by the church more. Though the conventional banking system may not follow christian principles but am sure i will not be too wrong to say it definitely was encouraged by the Church(by that i mean the Church authority) as a financial system. Another thought is that there is a lot of Jewish influence in the present financial system in the world over as there are usually references of Jews being financial brokers and developing many of the global financial institutions we have in the world, that wont still mean they follow Jewish rules for financial transactions but their influence in the present financial system cannot be overlooked.

The banking system used in the Western world, Japan (a nation of what we would call pagans), China (pagans, atheists, non-religious), India (primary Hinduism), Singapore, Nigeria has nothing to do with Christianity or Judaism, in a nutshell.

You'll have to provide evidence of it being "encouraged by the Church", or that there is any following of "Jewish rules for financial transactions."

I suspect that in both cases you are just making up stories, and will have a very difficult time backing up either insinuation.

Sanusi wrote that speech while he was at UBA, presumably before OBJ became president. How did anyone who was so openly biased against other ethnic Groups get to become CBN Governor? There is some truth in the article but Sanusi clearly ignored some truths about his ethnic group, the Hausa-Fulani. Are the Hausa-Fulani and other Ethnic Groups blameless in the mess Nigeria finds itself? Are the Yorubas and Igbos, the only Ethnic Groups that are responsible for Nigeria's mess?

I read the article in one of the threads here on NL, and that further opened my eyes to what SLS represents.He seems to be on a revenge mission.He gave a bigoted account of the Nigerian civil war and situations surrounding Nigeria's underdevelopment. He systematically exonerated northern leaders from all blames of our currently economic chaos.Any body with minimal knowledge of Nigerian political development and leadership trends will disregard sanusi's submission in the article above.This goes a long way to show that SLS is pursuing a northern agenda.

@Kat,
I was burning with anger when I was going through the article. I erroneously thought that you wrote it.
I was getting ready to unleash tirade on u.


Never mind, I hope that Sanusi's defenders gets to read this. At this juncture, who is doubting the man's intention? This is the closest we can get to th real SLS. I'm beginning to reconsider my stand of opposing some of his ill-conceived policies to opposing him in person.



This article does not look like an article written by a public office holder. It looks like an article written by a fringe element of a radical party.

I can't believe that a CBN governor designate could pass through the senate confirmation panel with this article credited to him. If someone tells me that this article was written by the late Muhammed Yusuf of Boko Haram; I wont raise an eyebrow. This shows that this country is rotten. The whole information in the article was so twisted that I became infuriated reading it.

I saw this article title on the internet titled "Yoruba is the problem with Nigeria" by SLS, but I didn't bother to read it because I couldn't make out time from my busy schedule.

I'm plain speechless, I can't help but exclaim 'what a bigot!'.

We are in trouble because when a sensitive position gets into the hand of a bigot. He tends to promote an extremist partisan agenda. Remember Hitler, Milosevic, the Pope that encouraged crusade, even Bush etc@Kat,
I was burning with anger when I was going through the article. I erroneously thought that you wrote it.
I was getting ready to unleash tirade on u.


Never mind, I hope that Sanusi's defenders gets to read this. At this juncture, who is doubting the man's intention? This is the closest we can get to th real SLS. I'm beginning to reconsider my stand of opposing some of his ill-conceived policies to opposing him in person.


This article does not look like an article written by a public office holder. It looks like an article written by a fringe element of a radical party.

I can't believe that a CBN governor designate could pass through the senate confirmation panel with this article credited to him. If someone tells me that this article was written by the late Muhammed Yusuf of Boko Haram; I wont raise an eyebrow. This shows that this country is rotten. The whole information in the article was so twisted that I became infuriated reading it.

I saw this article title on the internet titled "Yoruba is the problem with Nigeria" by SLS, but I didn't bother to read it because I couldn't make out time from my busy schedule.

I'm plain speechless, I can't help but exclaim 'what a bigot!'.

We are in trouble because when a sensitive position gets into the hand of a bigot. He tends to promote an extremist partisan agenda. Remember Hitler, Milosevic, the Pope that encouraged crusade, even Bush etc.
















.

chamber2:

I read the article in one of the threads here on NL, and that further opened my eyes to what SLS represents.He seems to be on a revenge mission.He gave a bigoted account of the Nigerian civil war and situations surrounding Nigeria's underdevelopment. He systematically exonerated northern leaders from all blames of our currently economic chaos.Any body with minimal knowledge of Nigerian political development and leadership trends will disregard sanusi's submission in the article above.This goes a long way to show that SLS is pursuing a northern agenda.

I read that article on NL too and had been looking for it to reference it here. Thanks Daddy katz .

freepeople:

@Kat,
I was burning with anger when I was going throught the article. I erroneously thought then that you wrote it.
I was getting ready to unleash an angry tirade on u.

Never mind,, I hope that Sanusi's defenders gets to read this. At this juncture, who is doubting the man's intention? This is the closest we can get to th real SLS. I'm beginning to reconsider my stand of opposing some of his ill-conceived policies to opposing him in person.

I saw the article title on the internet titled "Yoruba is the problem with Nigeria" by SLS, but I didn't bother to read it because I couldn't make out time from my busy schedule.

I'm plain speechless, I can't help but exclaim 'what a bigot!'.

We are in trouble because when a sensitive position gets into the hand of a bigot. He tends to promote an extremist partisan agenda. Remember Hitler, Milosevic, the Pope that encouraged crusade, even Bush etc.

Aside from Sanusi's horrid policies which killed confidence in the banking sector and simultaneously rendered thousands unemployed, his current actions clearly does not bode well for Nigeria as a nation. For a country tottering towards a civil/religious war, isn't his special interest and campaign for an Islamic bank not ill-timed especially when you consider how quick our northern brothers are when comes to taking up arms in defence of their faith?!

We can ill afford a CBN governor whose utterances and actions does nothing more than polarise us further than we already are.

I read that article on NL too and had been looking for it to reference it here. Thanks Daddy katz

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-714434.32.html#msg8727781

SLS is obviously a bigot.

chamber2:

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-714434.32.html#msg8727781

SLS is obviously a bigot.

And we all know what happens when power is in the hand of a bigot.

naijababe:

And we all know what happens when power is in the hand of a bigot.

chamber2:

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-714434.32.html#msg8727781

SLS is obviously a bigot.

naijababe:

I read that article on NL too and had been looking for it to reference it here. Thanks Daddy katz .

Aside from Sanusi's horrid policies which killed confidence in the banking sector and simultaneously rendered thousands unemployed, his current actions clearly does not bode well for Nigeria as a nation. For a country tottering towards a civil/religious war, isn't his special interest and campaign for an Islamic bank not ill-timed especially when you consider how quick our northern brothers are when comes to taking up arms in defence of their faith?!

We can ill afford a CBN governor whose utterances and actions does nothing more than polarise us further than we already are.

Yep. Good point. Good point.

This is what I'm talking about.

Yep. Good point. Good point.

This is what I'm talking about.

You mean it? I thought you were defending SLS or did i get you wrong?

chamber2:

You mean it? I thought you were defending SLS or did i get you wrong?

Nope; not defending SLS but inaccurate info, subjectivity.

Neutral bro.

Before I laughed at Fstranger putting Sanusi in the same sentence as Paul Krugman, but now this just makes me angry.

Let me never ever ever hear anyone claim some sort of intelligence or competency for Sanusi again in their lives. Any such folk who claim Sanusi got his positions through anything but nepotism is imo either a m0ron, a fifth columnist, or a sectarian agent.

Top three if the CBN position had been zoned to the SW was what Jarus said. Is this some sort of sick joke?

ekt_bear:

Before I laughed at Fstranger putting Sanusi in the same sentence as Paul Krugman, but now this just makes me angry.

Let me never ever ever hear anyone claim some sort of intelligence or competency for Sanusi again in their lives. Any such folk who claim Sanusi got his positions through anything but nepotism is imo either a m0ron, a fifth columnist, or a sectarian agent.

Top three if the CBN position had been zoned to the SW was what Jarus said. Is this some sort of sick joke?

Honestly, is decorum too much to ask for? Why do NLders resort so quickly to this

Nope; not defending SLS but inaccurate info, subjectivity.

Neutral bro.

Ok.Now i get your point

Let me never ever ever hear anyone claim some sort of intelligence or competency for Sanusi again in their lives. Any such folk who claim Sanusi got his positions through anything but nepotism is imo either a m0ron, a fifth columnist, or a sectarian agent.

I think this should be the conclusion.

naijababe:

Honestly, is decorum too much to ask for? Why do NLders resort so quickly to this

Heh. Read through the thread. I think I was patient earlier. But at this point, it is time to call a spade a spade.

^ Your earlier patience now fully nullified. Make a decision and stick with it man

Katsumoto:

[b]What were the Yoruba and Igbo senators thinking? [/b]But of course, many of them are only concerned about their well-beings, their entitlements, etc. If religious bigotry is ignored by certain individuals, will ethnic bigotry also be ignored? Sanusi clearly suffers from selective amnesia and delusions of grandeur.

They are cowards, fools, or were asleep at the wheel. That a man like this was confirmed as CBN head boggles my mind. Shame on them all.

What would be the equivalent in the US. . . a ku klux klansman being confirmed for national public office? It is hard for me to imagine because people who are known to be openly bigoted don't succeed in politics where I live.

They are cowards, fools, or were asleep at the wheel. That a man like this was confirmed as CBN head boggles my mind. Shame on them all.

Take it easy man.You are obviously enraged. I am pained too, but what can we do?The deed is done already and the poverty of the people SLS claimed he came to salvage has continued unabated. I started questioning SLS's ability to manage the CBN back in 2009, (not on NL though) and today, i feel more pain and frustration than in 2009, because my fear has become reality.It is painful my bro.

^-- I'll get over it in a few days. But I swear, if I hear Fstranger or Jarus come up with another weak defense of SLS, I'll tear them new ones. My patience for foolishness has run out. Especially for people who should at least in theory know better.

^ Clearly on fire . I'm keeping shtum henceforth.

[b]Perhaps there will still be some non emotional reasoning left in Nairaland;

Pasting Adamu's article on the Islamic Banking palava.[/b]

Share
When Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, announced approval for the take-off of interest-free banks in the country last month, the reaction generated was only possible in religiously-polarized Nigeria. From Abia to Kaduna to Plateau, notables of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, rose up, up in arms, with the usual threat of fire and brimstone.

While one spoke of the ugly effect of introducing interest-free banking, another saw grave danger in doing so, and they all ended up calling on Sanusi to resign or be removed from office. They believed that the move was a subtle attempt to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state, betraying their crass ignorance of the meaning or import of interest-free banking and the nature of an Islamic state.

Not to be outdone, JB Daudu, chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, provided the necessary legal muscle for what is now beginning to look like a new crusade. And it was not immediately clear how much of it all was due posturing, deliberate hype, cultural illiteracy or honest ignorance. But if some could escape with all this sanctimonious posturing—telling a lie knowing it to be such—and dancing to the gallery—to impress the flock that they are up to the wiles of the Other—one wouldn’t have expected true religious leaders to be among them.

With such an inauspicious display by the Christian clergy of sectarian narrow-mindedness and abysmal ignorance for the new growth area in international finance, whose theory, as a field of study, is cultivated more by European scholars than by Middle Eastern Muslims; a display aided and amplified by local journalists, themselves armed with nothing besides their own special ignorance, the nation was being unnecessarily being heated up again before it had had time to sufficiently cool down from the last inferno. Much as the majority of Muslims would wish to respect the Christian clergy, it being a religious duty, this type of attitude would certainly make it ever so difficult for them to genuinely respect the leadership of CAN or take their pronouncements with any measure of seriousness. What they say flies against all informed opinion the world over.

Though Islamic banks have been operational since the 1960’s, it was only in March 1986, that the International Monetary Fund, IMF, issued a pioneering paper on Islamic banking—Islamic Interest-Free Banking Staff Paper Vol. 33 highlighting the principle behind Islamic banking. On page 19, it had this to say: “Islamic banks offer savers risky open-ended mutual fund certificates instead of fixed-interest deposits. (This is not unlike cooperative banks and mutual funds in the west, where depositors earn variable interest and double as equity.) Difficulties arise on the lending side. Arrangements to share profits and losses lead to considerable problems of monitoring and control, especially in lending to small business.”

But it was the World Development Report issued by the World Bank three years later that recognized the efficacy of Islamic banking and signalled its acceptance by the international financial system and everyone else except some officers of Christian Association of Nigeria and some of the leaders of the Nigerian Bar Association in Nigeria. The 1989 World Bank report said, “Indeed it is really apparent that the Islamic model of banking based on the principle of equity participation bears striking resemblance to proposals made in the literature on the reform of banking system in many countries. The Islamic system may well be better suited to adjusting to shocks that result in banking crises and disruption on the payment mechanism of the country. In an equity-based system that excludes predetermined interest rates and does not guarantee the nominal value of deposits, shocks to asset position are immediately absorbed by changes in the values of share deposit held by the public in the banks. Therefore, the real value of assets and liabilities of banks in such a system will be equal at all points in time. In the more traditional banking system since the nominal value of deposits is fixed, such shocks can cause a diversion between real assets and liabilities. It is not clear if this would be correct and how long the process would take.”


According to the International Journal of Islamic Financial Services, “The introduction of Islamic banking principles by various western bankers have shown a [sic] positive results which indicates that Islamic banking systems can work effectively in both developed as well as developing nations regardless of religious boundary. Regarding the positive result of the application of Islamic banking principles by western banks, Parker (1993, p28 (i) n227), observes: ‘Morabaha or cost-plus financing transactions have earned Kleinwort Benson $ 4 billion in 1992, while ANZ Grindlays earned $400 million. [Vol. 1 No.4]

If there is a problem with Islamic banking, it is not that of acceptance by the world. The biggest problem of Islamic banking theory and practice is perhaps the issue of murabahah, the so-called cost-plus financing intervention, the products of which have now come to constitute the bulk of Islamic banks’ financial intermediation, effectively displacing the traditional musharakah and mudarabah. In addition, there is the ubiquitous question of the time-value of money, or indexing for inflation, which is still being treated as if the international financial system is on gold standard like the economy of early Islam was. While the goal is to escape riba in all its ramifications, it is still a problem determining an ethically-acceptable level of compensation for business risk-taking.

On a fundamental level, there is a seemingly unbridgeable disconnect between those with theological erudition at the level of superior ijtihad and those with the required competence in financial and economic analysis and a thorough understanding of paper money and the workings of a modern economy and the intricacies of the international financial system. And unless this gulf is closed by the effective pooling of intellectual resources; or, better still, by combining all the competencies in the same individual, pioneering intellectuals, it will be difficult to make interest-free banking sustainable and truly Shariah-compliant.

But these are internal problems the existence of which the critics cannot possibly have been aware. Meanwhile, the march of Islamic banking appears unstoppable and in the end it will probably be to the benefit of the international system. Today, London, Paris, Zurich, Singapore and Hong Kong are recognized worldwide as hubs of Islamic banking. In India, a nation in which Muslims are a minority and with Shiv-Shena anti-Muslim animus topping anything gruesome that Nigeria’s farmer-nomad clashes can boast of, introduced interest-free banking specifically to cater for Muslims and other minorities excluded by their abhorrence of riba.

Islamic banking was introduced on the recommendation of the Financial Sector Reform Committee of India’s Planning Commission headed at that time by Dr. Raghuram Rajan, a former IMF chief economist. So, it is really difficult to see the point of those who are up against this, unless they happen to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. And, in any case, in almost all the non-Muslim countries in which Islamic banking was introduced, a large percentage of its clientele had been non-Muslim: in Malaysia, the customers are 40 per cent non-Muslim; in Britain, 20.

And despite some temporary frosty moments following the demise of His Holiness Saint John Paul II, the current Pontiff and the Vatican appeared well disposed towards the principles of Islamic banking, and urged for their adoption as panacea for the grave ills of the international financial system, especially after the meltdown. In the circumstance, it will be in order to ask why the Christian Association of Nigeria is trying to be more Catholic than the Pope. Literally.

If there is a hidden Islamic agenda in Islamic banking, will the Pope be one to promote it? And could we really have Dow Jones Islamic Funds? But even if Sanusi came to CBN governorship with this so-called Islamic agenda, which led him to put into effect a provision that existed before his arrival at the bank, what could possibly be wrong with that? If indeed, interest-free banking was a favour to Muslims, why should that be a problem for non-Muslims? What right of theirs would Islamic banking have infringed? And if none, so what exactly is the problem?

One can see that the SLS Stalker is desperate in his craving to see that the courageous CBN governor  Sanusi is removed from office. In desperation he is digging into past SLS writings to incite and invite emotional support for his project. I am convinced that there is something personal not just the traditional southern hatred  for Mallams, Abokis and almajiris. If the stalker's real name is IBRU then I will understand as s/he will have 200billion reasons to have such desperation.

We are all aware that Awolowo was convicted of treason by court of law and rightly Inprisoned. He was freed and made the Nigerias commissioner of finance. ( you know by who)
OBJ was an unsuccessful coupist against a fellow military tyrant and was imprisoned according to linient military rules  which he knows very well. He was freed cleaned up ( you know by who) and sold to nigerians for the disastrous 8 years and the aftermath  still going on in form of GEJ.
If Ojukwu was made the CBN governor these tribal bigots will cheer him up and give him more titles and he will append the prefix " professor" before his name.

Of course the trouble with Nigeria started with the ethnic cleansing agenda of the Ndigbo majors, ifejuna, Nzegwu and their cohorts. We are trying to put all these behind us and be one. Guys like you are so deluded.

ekt_bear:

^-- I'll get over it in a few days. But I swear, if I hear Fstranger or Jarus come up with another weak defense of SLS, I'll tear them new ones. My patience for foolishness has run out. Especially for people who should at least in theory know better.

Firestorm!

My lil bro, Ekt-bear, is on fire. First time I'm seeing this.

Eku used to be easy-going.

What happened? Nairaland has changed him.