What if Arabic is Inscribed on Naira?: A Response

By

Suleiman Dankano, Ph.D.

dan2kano@yahoo.com

I read with interest Mr. Isiaka Adam’s response to Dr. Reuben Abati’s response to Dr. Is-hag Akinola’s (please excuse my tautology here) article on the Arabic Inscription on the Naira in the electronic version Nigerian Guardian of August 7, 2009. Let me first and foremost state that all these right-ups are meant to stir the progressive-leaning new Central Bank Governor into a reversal of the Soludo policies. Let me also put on the record, that even though Dr. Sanusi Lamido, the current governor is well-learned in Islam and has a master’s in Shari’a law, I dare say that he is one of the most objective Muslims I have met in Nigeria and it too educated to be dragged into these primordial and parochial discussions. I read almost every articled. Dr. Sanusi Lamido posted on Gamji.com and have followed his presentations which indicate clearly those of an objective intellectual and philosopher that seeks the peace and good of all humankind. Having said this let me address the issues raised by Mr. Adams.

First, the Christian Association has no agenda and was the most docile organization during the Obasanjo era. I have chastised CAN for keeping quiet while Obasanjo ruined the nation because he was perceived as one of them. Unfortunately, Obasanjo has never been nor is he currently a Christian. If you know Obasanjo very well, he is an occultist that uses Christianity just like many religious bigots as a means to political power. Obasanjo claimed he became born-again in prison, which was a ploy to get him elected. A true Christian would not call “CAN my foot” simply to pander to a constituency the served. So please get this point right. Second, CAN did not influence Soludo to remove the Arabic inscription on the Naira, as Soludo himself has not openly claimed he was a Christian. You cannot presume that simply because someone comes from the south is necessarily a Christians and vice versa for those of us who come from the north. There are many Igbo Muslims and Animists as there are many northern Christians and we don’t know whether Soludo is a Christian or Animist. Just because Akinola surmised that the “Arabic on the Naira sybolises the existence of Muslims” (I don’t know here your quote ends) does not mean CAN influenced the removal of the Arabic inscription. Do you have data to support your claims? According to you, “To remove the Arabic unceremoniously is to tell the Muslims they do not belong.”  Your argument here is hollow because the inclusion of Arabic in the Naira does not represent Islam but Arabic culture that has nothing to do with Islam. You must draw a line between Arabization and Islamization. Islam and Arabic are two different cultures. While you are in Malaysia, a Muslim country, study hard the differences between Arabic and Islamic cultures.

Second, aligning the English Language with Christianity smacks of ignorance since English has never been the language of Christianity. Christianity was well established within the roots of the Hebrew and Greek cultures and later Latin, which was the first European language to see a translation of Christian literature.  Again, it should be stated here that a line needs to be drawn between westernization and Christianity as much as we should draw a line between Arabization and Islam! A little study on the origin of Islam would have helped you to understand that Islam was founded in protest of the Arabic pagan culture by the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). The Ka’aba that is now the holiest shrine in Islam was once the shrine to the Moon and Star god before Muhammad (SAW) conquered the political oligarchy in the Arabian Peninsula to establish Islam. May be a study would have help. Once more, I would like to state here that the Arabic inscription on the Naira was an act of Arabic cultural imperialism (we were never colonized politically by Arabs). I find that many of you are more comfortable with Arab imperialism and yet the Arabs depend on the West to defend them both economically and militarily.  Even though you are studying in Malaysia, which you were eager to tell the world, you were either economical with the truth, damn right dishonest or ignorant of the policies of the very country where you are studying. Malaysia, though a progressive nation in terms of modernization is a very intolerant nation of especially Christianity. Christians in Malaysia are seen as second class citizens and Malaysia is one country where it is against the law for Christians to even pronounce certain Muslims words such as “Allah-a-Khabr.” Please tell the truth. By using Malaysia as your spring board, you further demonstrated that even though Malaysia is a Muslim country, it has gone beyond the influence of Arabization to progress into one of the   modern and developed countries of the world. 

According to you, “A country’s legal tender is the most ubiquitous symbol that the people come across on a daily basis both for their routine transaction and storage of economic values…Until our society fully imbibes the cashless e-transaction evolution currently blowing across the world… our legal tender will continue to a constant denominator of sorts and therefore its character and identity should be easily recognized by all and sundry.” What point are you making here? You seem to be off point and arguing against your thesis. If the Naira symbolizes who we are as a people, then where does Arabic come in here? We are not Arabs; we are Nigerians and the Naira has the so-called WAZOBIA and English inscribed on it? It actually symbolizes us as a people so what point are you trying to make? Arabic is not one of the official languages in Nigeria. As it stands today, English is the Lingua Franca while Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa are the regional languages. The four are inscribed on the Naira, so what is your complaint? Should we also inscribe Hebrew or Greek to represent the Christians if your argument is that Arabic represents the Muslims?

I find your argument on the first Arabic Professors being Christians to be out of place. Arabic is a language and any one can study it much as we study English and French as foreign languages. So what is the point here? Arabic is not one of the native languages in Nigeria, so who cares whether a Christian is a professor of Arabic language? Christians are not opposed to teaching Arabic in Nigerian universities neither are they opposed to teaching Islam. Isn’t Shari’a Law taught at Universities of Ibadan, Maiduguri, Sokoto, Kano and ABU Zaria, and a host of other Nigerian universities? Have Christians insisted that Canon Law be taught in any Nigerian university? Again, I find your arguments here spurious.

“A careful decoding of the Arabic inscriptions that strangely offends the sensibilities of a section of the populace to warrant it being expunged from the face of the naira would show that only the alphabet was in actual fact Arabic; the wording were Hausa concepts.”  Great, so what is the problem inscribing the words in Hausa? So if 25 million people across Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Sudan, Chad and Central African Republic speak Hausa, so what? Again, I find you arguing strangely against yourself and supporting the argument for inscribing Hausa rather than Arabic on the Naira. To take you on your argument that Hausa predates English and Christianity, I find your ignorance difficult to swallow. While it true that the Hausa language predates Christianity in Nigeria, it is ignorant to think that Islam predates Christianity in Africa. I will get to this later, but just to argue for the population figures, Nigeria is currently about 52% Christian, what then is your justification for advocating Islam as the symbol of the country?

In arguing your case for Islam predating Christianity in Africa, let me educate you on the facts. A study on early Christianity would have helped you to understand that Christianity was already in Africa before the religion of Islam was even born in the Arabian Peninsula. Please check these early African Christians and Church Fathers. Tertullian, Born in North Africa (196-220 AD); Oriegen (185-250 AD); Lactantius (260-330 AD); he was tutor to Emperor Constantine’s son. Others include, Fulgentius of Ruspe, Bishop and theologian from Carthage (468-532 AD); Didymus the Blind (313-398 AD). His works though condemned in 553 but recently discovered in Tura near Cairo, Egypt in 1941 shed great light on early Christianity in Africa. The Desert Fathers: In Egypt there were three types of monasticism that more or less correspond to three geographical regions: Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt and Nitra and Scents. In the early literature of Egyptian Monasticism, five names appear quite frequently. These are Anthony (c. 254-356), Pachomius (c. 254-356 AD), Macarius the Egyprian (c. 290-347 AD) and Marcarius the Alexandrian (c. 300-393 AD). All these appear in the Apophthegmata Patrium (The Sayings of the Fathers) and considered the pioneers in monastic life.  Cyril of Alexadria (378-444 AD) born in Theodosiou, Lower Egypt; Cyprian of Carthage (200-258 AD); Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD); Athanasius of Alexandria (295-328 AD) and Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD). These are just a few among the early African Church Fathers who developed Christianity in Africa even before the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was born. It surprises me that many lazy scholars in Nigerian won’t even bother to check the literature and easily dismiss Christianity as a foreign religion to Africa. These lazy scholars in their myopic and embryonic view of things quickly state as facts that Islam was in African before Christianity.  The whole region of North African had come under Christian influence even before the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), howbeit, Islam. Islam arrived in Egypt in 637 AD, shortly after the death of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). It should be noted also that Muhammad’s (SAW) first Hijra was to Ethiopia where the King Axum of Ethiopia shielded him. Mr. Adams, a little study would have helped you with some of the basic facts. Here is a book I recommend to educate you and other ignorant Muslim scholars: How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity by Thomas C. Oden. You are bound to learn more from this book.

“In a culturally diverse country as Nigeria, mutual tolerance and respect, accommodation and concession are fundamental ethos that must be entrenched in our policy if we must live in peace and harmony.” I say Amen to this, but you are unfortunately fanning divisions, conflict and sectarian sentiments which are the very antithesis of what you have stated here. “While certain Judeo-Roman and Christian symbols and values, like the red crosses at our hospitals, academic robes and processions, as well as judicial regalia and procedures are but a few of the imitations of the Christian culture, many of which space would not permit me to list, they are now unquestionably enmeshed in our national life.” Well said, these symbols were founded and rested on western culture which both Nigeria and the Muslim world have accepted. I have however not seen any of the Khadis of the Shari`a Courts wearing these regalia.  Mr. Adams, what are the symbols on the ambulances and hospitals in Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and across the Muslim world? Should all symbols in Nigeria be Islamized to make you happy? Again, this is another presentation of very shallow arguments. To think that everything western is Christian, simply portrays you as an ignoramus. You come across as one of the Boko Haram sect members promoting this arrant nonsense about western education. In opposing western education and values, many of you use the very industrial products coming out of western inventions, the very product of western education! For example, the sect leaders were known to have collected all kinds of assorted and exotic cars and western type weapons, stuff that came from western inventions and values, the very culture they were condemning!

“Therefore, in the spirit if forging peaceful coexistence and unity and diversity, we must as a matter of reciprocity, tolerate some Islamo-Arabic identities that are valued and venerated by a sizeable proposition of our population.” Great summary, Mr. Adams, but it falls short of intellectual reasoning. I can’t seem to find where the integrity of Islam has been compromised by taking the Arabic inscription out of our currency. In what way would the Arabic inscription in our currency strengthen its value that is declining every day? In what way would the Arabic inscription serve the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians? In what way would the Arabic inscription help to bring about unity in Nigeria? Use of WAZOBIA inscription has already been imposed on and accepted by other Nigerian minorities who actually form the majority in the country, and we should be promoting this sort of unity rather than fanning religious sentiments. Haven’t we had enough bloodshed emanating from Islamism and Islamic fundamentalism? Can you see how these senseless killings, senseless crises and senseless fundamentalist attitude are taking down our country? We should be talking about development rather than senseless and uncivilized enteritis that are making Nigeria not only a pariah nation in the comity of nations but a failed state. You wouldn’t be in Malaysia if all was well with Nigeria, so think about it. In response to your question, there is everything wrong in inscribing Arabic on the Naira because it only helps to divide us which further affects the social, political and economic development of the country. Let’s move Nigeria forward and stop this nonsense of religious fundamentalism that is stopped Nigeria from developing. The country is regressing many of you want to take it back to the sixth century when even countries like Iran are modernizing. Enough of this nonsense!

Suleiman Dankano, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy and Peace Studies

He writes from Los Angeles, USA