ISLAMIC BANKING AND THE CHRISTIAN

Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi,

"Islamic Banking is interest-free, profit-sharing and ethical banking. How that hurts anyone, I honestly don’t know. There are many money and financial products that are ethical – no investment in alcohol, tobacco etc – and they are doing well. Properly regulated this so-called Islamic banking can do us good. And if we, as Christians, like to start something of our own to compete with it, I guess, we should. If Sanusi then refuses to approve, we would have good reason to scream."

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is easily one the most controversial public officials in Nigeria today. As Central Bank governors go, the only thing conservative about him is his choice of tie. His radical and activist approach to his job ensures that his tenure won’t be forgotten in a hurry, when it’s over.  How he would be remembered; whether on the right or wrong side of history resides in the womb of time, for now.

However, one thing is certain, though, how the introduction of Islamic Banking into the financial system through the recent release of guidelines, the licensing of Jaiz Bank and approval to Stanbic/IBTC to commence that variant of banking, play out,  will play a part in how he is remembered. I say that because, whichever way you look at it, something is bound to change for good or ill, when the dust finally settles.

I say so because, by this singular policy step, Sanusi is, inadvertently perhaps, challenging some fundamental assumptions about our nation. That much must be clear to him, and every perceptive watcher of the Nigerian space, from the variety of reactions coming from across the country.

One of such assumptions is the secularity of the Nigerian nation, a constitutional fact which no less a person than Alhaji Abdul-Lafeef Adegbite, secretary-general of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), has consistently challenged, Nigeria, he insists, is a multi-religious, rather than a secular state. This incidentally is, as I write, generating heated but very enlightening and polite debate on the Facebook page of Nigerian Legislature Surveillance Group (NLSG).

I shall resist the temptation to go into the nitty-gritty of that debate here, but it’s useful to state that most of the contributors agreed with the constitution that Nigeria is a secular state and should remain so, for the simple reason that the adoption of one or more religion as state religion will lead to infraction of rights and subsequently chaos. My wonderful friends on that forum said so; and my friends are wise men; so I dare not say otherwise!

But, to return to the issue at hand, does the introduction of Islamic Banking violate the letter or spirit of the secular provision of our constitution? What is secularity? How well has it helped our pursuit of integration, peace, socio-political and economic development? Will Islamic banking retard or strengthen our march towards the nation of our dream?

On the face of it, it seems exaggerated that a policy that, as its most basic form, is simply approval of a banking product, need lead us to such fundamental soul-searching. But that is the nature of our society! So, let’s attempt to answer some of those questions, in order to engage with the issues in currency in this unnecessary controversy.

Secularity is simply separation from religion; neutrality on religious matters. It does not imply hostility to religion, although at its “advance” form it could lead to it. I wish I could answer truthfully that secularity has helped our march to integration, because if it has, we probably would not be having this debate. Nor would we be afflicted with “Boko Haram” 50 years into flag independence. I am not a lawyer, so I cannot make a definite pronouncement on whether Islamic Banking violates the letters of the constitution, but I certainly don’t think it runs contrary to its spirit. I say that because all that the Central Bank of Nigeria has done is license companies that meet its guidelines for the particular kind of banking; it has not established one on behalf of the state. To have continued to shut out Islamic Banking, in my opinion would have done violence to the principle of neutrality that secularity entails. Neutrality, in my humble opinion, ought to include provision of a level playing ground for all tendencies within the space called Nigeria.

The question as to whether Islamic Banking will help or hurt our march forward can be answered with an “it depends”. It depends, ultimately, on how much light we are willing to let into the discussion and how courageous our leaders are in addressing the fundamentals of whether secularity really suits us; if it does, how true to the concept have we been or are willing to be henceforth, and believe it or not, how successful we are in preventing a linkage between it and the emerging threat of Islamic fundamentalism.

I have heard my brethren talk about an Islamisation agenda of Nigeria which dates way back to the days of the late respected Sardauna of Sokoto and which this blue blood CBN governor is still pursuing! And those of this persuasion are fully persuaded that the Islamic Banking project is one of the tools. I am too un-initiated to share that viewpoint, though.

You see, my take on this Islamic Banking thing, which I wish to commend to my brothers and sisters is this, and it flows from something I have been saying for ages. I have been confronted with this obstructionist secularism in my search for advertising for the magazine I steward going for all of seven years. The big spenders tell you they don’t want to be branded Christian, so they’ll rather not use our medium to push their goods and services. When I say to them, find a Moslem medium to balance things out, they say no! The result is they put their money in God-neutral outlets, many of which corrupt and, ultimately serve the devil!

Islamic Banking is interest-free, profit-sharing and ethical banking. How that hurts anyone, I honestly don’t know. There are many money and financial products that are ethical – no investment in alcohol, tobacco etc – and they are doing well. Properly regulated this so-called Islamic banking can do us good. And if we, as Christians, like to start something of our own to compete with it, I guess, we should. If Sanusi then refuses to approve, we would have good reason to scream.