How Not To Antagonize Islamic Banking

How Not To Antagonize Islamic Banking

Suraj Oyewale

That Nigeria is a nation of mob debaters has been emphasized by top writers in recent time. Three events that happened in quick succession – soap al-Mustapha, the BPE drama and Obasanjo Vs IBB comedy – seem to have relegated Islamic Banking from the front burner in national debates. Still, a number of outright misrepresentations and bending of truth that passed for criticisms in the period need to be set straight, for a lie, when told repeatedly, becomes truth – to the gullible at least.

The biggest of such falsehood is the claim, started by Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and now widely quoted, that the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has re-introduced the Arabic lettering (ajami) on Naira notes. As is characteristic of Nigerians, this lie spread so fast that one would think confirming it will cost the carriers millions of Naira and a great deal of hours. If one pardons the uninformed Joe on the street and beer parlour analysts for swallowing this, it will be difficult to ignore informed and highly regarded columnists like Opeyemi Agbaje (Businessday on Wednesday) and Dr Douglas Anele (Sunday Punch) who have also quoted this in their columns.

The truth, which can be easily verified, is, no single letter, Arabic or English, has been added to or removed from the Naira since Sanusi took over as apex bank boss. What Soludo did was to remove the Arabic inscriptions on denominations less than N100. He never did for N100 and above. This is still the situation. It is therefore a great pity that this lie from the pit of hell can be made up by Sanusi’s critics. When people resort to lies to nail a leader, and the populace do not border to cross check before spreading it, one wonders what kind of nation ours is.

Enter Godson Offoaro. Offoaro is a regular contributor to The Sun newspaper, whose writings I do come across from time to time as a regular reader of, and sometimes contributor to, the tabloid. In his recent article published by the newspaper in its Monday, August 08, 2011 edition, titled ‘Islamic Banking in the United States’, he displayed what can be best described as wuruwuru to the answer. Wuruwuru-to-the-answer is a process where arguments, logical and illogical mixed together, are stringed together to arrive at a predetermined conclusion(compare Maurice Iwu’s wuruwuru’s elections where results were already written before election).

In that article, Offoaro told us that what existed in UK and USA were not fully fledged Islamic banks, but Islamic banking as a service/window offered by financial institutions like Citibank Group, Goldman sachs, BNP Paribas etc. This is another misinformation. Perhaps one may ask him what Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) is, if not a full Islamic bank. This is the same situation in Nigeria here. As far as I know, the CBN leadership never said Islamic banking must be operated as an independent institution. This is why a bank like StanbicIBTC can have Islamic banking window (like HSBC) or a Jaiz bank to operate as a full Islamic bank(like IBB).

Offoaro wrote: “But, the big BUT is that these are equally notable institutions which on a daily basis do not take direct restricted dictations from their host nation’s central banks or their equivalents. Such banks as Bank of America, Barclays PLC; BNP Paribas Group; Citibank, N.A; Credit Agricole; S.A. Deutsche Bank AG; Dow Jones & Company Inc; Equity Insurance Group Limited, Goldman Sachs Group, to mention just a few have departments that cater for the interest of Sharia.” I ask him: where does Islamic Bank for Britain, which he skillfully left out, take regulation from? He mentioned international financial institutions that operate Islamic banking as a window but cleverly ignored a bank fully domiciled in Britain. Call that being clever by half.

“These are institutions that have their eyes set on the huge, soft oil monies of the Middle East”, he wrote further, but what is wrong in Nigeria also setting its eyes on the ‘huge soft oil monies’ is what he refused to tell us.

Fiery Pan-African writer, Naiwu Osahon, was even more caustic in his antagonism of Sanusi and Islamic Banking. Osahon has never failed to fault every step the CBN boss takes, but he went beyond the boundary of logic in his latest tirade against the CBN boss, titled ‘Even Arabs are rejecting Islamic Banking’. Osahon made it look as if Islamic banking is for the Arabs only, but even if we agree with him that the Arabs are rejecting the system, what is incontrovertible is the west is fast accepting it. Nigeria wants to take example from the west, so let Osahon tell us another story.

With a false sense of triumph, Osahon concluded his article by calling readers’ attention to past write-ups of Sanusi to buttress his argument that the man is out to Islamize Nigeria. He claimed that Sanusi came to the job prepared to achieve his agenda, citing his studying in Sudan as a training ground. Now I ask him, what is wrong in Sanusi, with a degree in Islamic studies, intervening in Islamic debates? Of what use is his Islamic knowledge if he did not write on Islamic issues? Are being an Islamic scholar and banker/economist mutually exclusive? And does that make his other actions traceable to his Islamic writings? Is it not the same sharia knowledge he used to flay even full time Islamic scholars whom he called ‘Islamic demagogues’ in his past writings? Is it not the same Islamic knowledge he used to defend non-Muslims in his past debates? Is it not the same knowledge of economics/banking that got him the top job in one of Africa’s biggest financial groups (FBN)?

Questions, questions and more questions. Didn’t Islamic banking pre-date Sanusi’s tenure as CBN boss? Must Sanusi throw away what he met on his table because he is a Muslim? What did Soludo call it – Islamic banking or non-interest banking? Why call a spade by another name just to appease some people? If a misguided sect, Boko Haram by name, keep terrorizing the nation due to the failure of our security system, why would they be the one to determine when a policy will be introduced? Weren’t there violent religious crises when Islamic banking idea was first mooted by CBN leadership in 2008? If Islamic banking will fund terrorist organizations, can anyone name any terrorist activity that has been traced to an Islamic bank in climes it is in operation?

The whole Islamic banking debate was needlessly controverted. I remember reading about it in Nigerian newspapers during Soludo era. Nobody even paid attention because it was seen as CBN as doing its regular job of broadening the system. But now another man –incidentally a Muslim northerner - continues the job and roof is being brought down. They accused him of devoting too much time to it, whereas the critics are even the one creating unnecessary tension.

True, war is never the way to go, as misguidedly threatened by Datti, but heating the system, especially with unfounded allegations such as re-introduction of Arabic lettering claim, is equally condemnable. Diplomacy, and not accusations and counter accusations, is the path to douse this needless tension. Stoking the fire of division and distrust will do no one any good.