ISLAMIC BANKING IN NIGERIA

Islamic Banking: Matters Arising

VANGUARD, August 4, 2011

Indeed, avoiding the discussion of the real issues this subject raises, by accusing Nigeria’s Christian leaders of Islamaphobia, reduces the debate to a question of religion, which is regrettable and a diversion.

We cannot continue like the Ostrich to bury our heads in the sand. We must face and deal with the truth that our nation can only be built on a foundation of equity and justice.

The truth is that from the very foundation of Nigeria, there has been acceptance and an understanding, that while Nigerians are a people of multiple faiths, the Nigerian state is secular and must continue to remain so otherwise we run the serious risk of national disintegration. The founding fathers of Nigeria along with our former colonial masters recognised this and enshrined secularity in our constitutions from the very beginning.

The secularity of the Nigerian state has been compromised through a number of insidious steps such as the membership or affiliation of the state or its organs to faith based organisations.

The most notable of these was the introduction by military fiat, under the Babangida regime, of a decree which removed the word ‘personal’ from every reference in the constitution to ‘sharia personal law’. This became part of the 1999 constitution, and was the basis on which 12 Nigerian States shed their secularity to become Islamic states.

Christians have no objection to Non-Interest Banking, and indeed welcome and encourage it. However the objections being voiced are the Islamisation of it as a concept and the championing, sponsoring and driving of the very specific “Islamic Banking” by the CBN, which by our constitution is a secular body.

What CBN must now do is to issue guidelines for Profit and Loss Sharing Banking or Non-Interest Banking, and allow the various faith groups to regulate the faith based aspects of their banking services within the parameters set by CBN.

That way, the faith based aspect of banking will not be brought under CBN, thus preserving the secularity of the Nigerian state, contrary to the position under the present guidelines. It is possible to have fully fledged Non-Interest Banking in this way.

—Pastor Wale Aderafasin, National Secretary, PFN, Lagos.