ISLAMIC BANKING REJECTED BY ARAB COUNTRIES

SEVERAL ARAB COUNTRIES REJECT ISLAMIC BANKING

By NAIWU OSAHON

Many Arab countries including Kuwait, do not want anything to do with
Islamic banking. They consider it archaic, unworkable and counter
productive to the good health of free enterprise. Islamic banking
retards entrepreneurship flair because of interference in too wide a
range of businesses that the bank has no expertise or adequately
trained or qualified personnel to nurture to success, as joint
business partner of the businesses of its loans. Islamic banking is
anti-globalization, which is the current vogue of world commerce.

Two of the most conservative Islamic countries in the world, Iran and
Pakistan, dabbled in Islamic banking but soon began to experience the
inevitable problems associated with it. Iran has since withdrawn the
interest free content of the product by allowing her Islamic banks to
charge between 4 – 8% interests on loans. Iran calls the interest
charged, by an Arab name. If Iran is charging interest on its Islamic
banking loans, why would a non-Islamic or Arab country like Nigeria,
be desperate to adopt the system jettisoned by the most radical
Islamic country in the world, if not for mischievous purposes?

‘Usury’ as an idea, which Islamic banking is fighting against, did not
originate from Islam or the Arab world. It is as old as the earliest
Christian era and is mentioned in the Bible. It represents the
practice of lending money to be paid back at an unfairly high rate of
interest. Yes, the Jews and the Arabs were the earliest ancient
principal offenders of the practice, being notorious gold merchants’
money lenders. But as banking became the vogue, modern commerce
progressed along the route of finding ways of reducing interest
charges rather than the cumbersome, primordial, uneconomic pursuit of
profit-sharing.

It was found that reducing interest rates charged by banks was a
better practice long term, than wasting valuable time chasing after
profit sharing, which although in the short run, appears to translate
to high returns for the banks relatively, was not commensurate with
high demand on the labour and time they expend on the businesses, and
was seriously damaging to entrepreneurial spirit and profits of the
struggling victims of the loan.

Of course, Al-Qaeda, bent on Islamizing the world, promotes Islamic
banking as the ‘do good’ interest free bank, an irresistible bait in a
poverty stricken, alien mentally and religiously enslaved society like
Nigeria. But deceiving a people by calling a tiger a sheep does not
transform the tiger into a sheep. The truth of the matter is that
Islamic banking relies on and makes profits, which it gives Muslim
names. The businesses Islamic banks are interested in must be bankable
and profitable because Islamic banking places emphasis on
profit-sharing rather than interest charges.

What we must ask them is the difference between profit-sharing and
Interest charges other than that the bank decides how to run the
businesses it invests in; takes the lion share of the profits
eventually, and still collects its loan in due time. In other words,
Islamic banking charges interest by non-conventional formats and
names, to remain in the business of banking. The bank’s debtors end
up paying higher interests by whatever Arab names called, than
operates in conventional banks, because the Islamic bank becomes a
fortune sharing part-owner of the businesses of its loans, until the
loans are liquidated.

And remember, Islamic banks do not have the expertise and man-power to
help run all the businesses it gives loans to, so, in the end, the
businesses they get involved in, run aground as soon as the Islamic
banks are done with extracting their pound of flesh. In fact, Islamic
banking is worst than the “usury” of old that it is supposed to be
trying to terminate. That is why Iran changed the rule to charge
between 4 – 8% on loans. It is cheaper that way, and the businesses
involved are left to be run by people who own and know what their
businesses are about, and have the interest in keeping the businesses
going indefinitely.

Islamic banking means that Islamic banks, attempt to control the small
and medium scale industries of the country in which they operate.
Arabs, particularly the Lebanese, did just that in the Nigeria of the
early sixties. They monopolized our small and medium scale businesses
as wholesalers in all domestic items of commerce; salt, pepper, oils,
rice, textile, drugs, drinks, kerosene, petroleum products etc. They
operated from the best business addresses of the time, such as Balogun
Street in Lagos. The battle to dislodge them from our small scale
businesses was bitter and long, culminating in the military era
indigenization decree. A campaign (or war cry), in which I played a
pivotal role. Now the Arabs want to come back through the back door
facilitation of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Governor of the Central Bank
of Nigeria, and take back control of our small and medium scale
businesses.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, claims that interest free banking is the answer
to Nigeria’s economic ills and appears to have been preparing the
grounds for its introduction in the last six months particularly, by
unusually increasing the Central Bank’s benchmark interest rate known
as MPR four times. His latest increase was last week from 8 to 8.75%.
He claims he is doing it to fight inflation but stakeholders say the
frequent increases do not augur well for the country because it
discourages manufacturers and businesses from borrowing from banks.

In any case, Islam or Sharia does not have the copyright or monopoly
on interest free banking. The function can be performed by any
conventional bank that so desires. It does not have to have religious
connotation or to come from a religious bank. So, if Sanusi is not a
Sharia agent and feels strongly enough about interest free banking,
all that he needs to do is give licenses or the go ahead to any number
of the currently registered Nigerian banks or foreign conventional
banks so willing, to add interest free products to their banking
portfolio without religious connotations, restrictions or limitations
on customers.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi maintains that Islamic banking would help tackle
the problems of tobacco smoking, alcoholism, gambling and prostitution
etc in Nigeria. In the first place, I doubt if these problems are
peculiar to or worst in Nigeria. The power to make laws for and
against tobacco and alcohol indulgence and commerce or the prohibition
of gambling and prostitution in Nigeria is vested exclusively by the
Nigerian Constitution in the National Assembly. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi,
does not agree with this, however. He believes his power as the CBN
Governor supersedes that of the Nigerian National Assembly and allows
him to transfer the power to institutions of his choice, including
banks, local or foreign, to ban trading in tobacco, alcohol,
prostitution, gambling and such other ethical fixations, at least.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi says Islamic banking focuses on financial
intermediation, as opposed to innovation. Is that a virtue? Without
innovations, where would the world be today? We would all be
answering one common name of Muhammad, wearing white robes and sandals
every where and at all time, with women veiling and in permanent
pudda. They cannot drive and must not travel or do business without
male guarantors. Muhammads cannot do business with non-Muhammads or
with people who are into innovative businesses. Muhammads can marry
four wives, including teenage brides and still be homosexual.

Islamic banking insists on our products and services being free from
speculation, which effectively ends the Naira Exchange Rates’
speculative activities, the Stock Exchange business, and our other
liberal commercial and global businesses with the non-Muslim world.
Our businesses must be free of interests and monopoly, thus cutting us
off from IMF and World Bank facilities what ever they are worth, and
restricting us to aids’ trifles from the Islamic Development Bank.
Does any one still need any more reason why no Arab country is heading
for the Moon? They abhor science and science is the core of
innovations.

Sanusi says, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is financing some
Fadama II projects in two Northern and one Eastern states. The Eastern
state, Anambra, has since denied taking any such IDB facility. If the
other two Northern states took the facilities, Ya’Adua got us into the
trap. What the IDB provided as aid, is on the average N140 million
(less than a million dollars), per state. The nearly half a trillion
naira stolen by Mrs Ibru and the other Nigerian banks’ executives
could have taken care of that a million fold, instead of exposing us
as a country so cheaply to the ridicule of being aided with pittance,
all in the effort of deviously imposing Sharia banking on Nigeria?

Sanusi says Nigeria’s SEC and NDIC have had dealings with Islamic
banks too. Because a thief gets away with his loot does not mean he is
no longer a thief. If the two institutions secretly breached the
secular aspect of our constitution in any way, it does not mean they
are right or that our other institutions should be encouraged to do
the same secretly or brazenly.

In the few Arab countries were Islamic banking is being practiced, it
has not impacted positively on the lives of Arabs’ indigenous poor who
are the derelict Black original owners of all Arab countries,
including Sudan, which is why we have South Sudan now, with Darfur in
toe. Sanusi says there is Islamic banking in Britain. Britain is not
a secular country, Nigeria is. Britain has the resources, sufficiently
sophisticated intelligence gathering mechanism, intimidating security
efficiency and might, to quickly isolate their small Muslim population
and nip whatever threats they pose in the bud.

Imposition of ‘Sharia’ laws at our national level of banking to
promote separate functions, products, services and queues for Muslim
men and Muslim women on the one hand and them and non-Muslims on the
other, would lead systematically to separate public places and general
elections queues, separate facilities in schools, hospitals, work
places, armed forces, national football teams etc and the forbidding
of legitimate activities such as trading in alcohol, tobacco, casino
games and other such moral fixations. This is not only the surest and
fasted recipe to disintegration in a secular country like Nigeria, it
installs Arabian hegemony and laws over our sovereignty and national
laws as if we are an occupied country.

A country which is already a melting pot of bitter non-native
religious rivalries and acrimonies, and where the Islamic
fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram, with the active support of Maghreb’s
Al’-Qaida sects from neighbouring countries, is now throwing bombs
daily, killing dozens of innocent people in public places and sacking
churches and police stations to precipitate a jihad. Boko Haram,
meaning Western education is sin, a fundamentalist group, was founded
in Borno state in 2002 to establish Sharia law and Islamic government
in Nigeria. Governor Alli Modu Sherrif of Borno state 2003 - 2010, one
of the ‘Sharia’ states, used members of the Boko Haram sect as thugs
during his campaigns for governorship. The sect first gained national
attention in 2004 when its members set up a base in Kanamma, Yobe
state, named ‘Afghanistan,’ from where the sect members attacked
nearby police outposts, killing police officers.

There has been a series of attacks in Nigeria from that time, in the
guise of the desert Al-Qaedas from Algeria and Mali, the Boko Haram
sect, and imported jihadists from the neighbouring countries of Niger
and Chad, sacking whole Nigerian villages at night or burning down
police stations and killing law enforcement officers in broad day
light in Brono, Benue, Plateau and other neighbouring states. On June
16, 2011, Boko Haram bombed Louis Edet House, headquarters of the
Nigeria Police Force, in Abuja, destroying several cars and killing
the bomber and a security officer. Over 700 people have been killed
by mid 2011 in Boko Haram attacks in Northern Nigeria. In June 2011,
the sect sent a hit list of prominent Northerners, including the Vice
president, to Nigeria security agencies. The timing to introduce
Sharia banking in Nigeria is, therefore, not only extremely troubling;
it is an affront to the collective ambition and acumen of a people
struggling desperately to evolve a common destiny.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Governor of the CBN, had been training
personnel secretly for some time, to set up a parallel Central Bank
(or what he calls a Commission or Committee within the Central Bank)
especially for Islamic banking in Nigeria, and has initialled damaging
‘Sharia’ agreements to the secular structure of our democracy. In
other words, he has sold Nigeria’s sovereignty to the OIC and the
Islamic world, and is now deceiving the nation that Islamic banking
has nothing to do with ‘Sharia’ laws, and that people opposing its
berthing in Nigeria were only being sentimental. To the shock of the
nation, the documents he had initialled with the Islamic bank’s agents
confirmed his deceit, and came to light at his meeting on July 20,
2011, with the House of Representative members.

Only a person with a carefully crafted and nurtured agenda to destroy
his country would so blatantly lie to conceal his efforts to
grievously inflict religious tension, division and intolerance on his
own country. Sanusi came prepared for the devious role he is playing
now as the Central Bank Governor of Nigeria. After obtaining his
first degree in Nigeria, he moved to the University of Sudan, where he
was radicalized in Sharia ideology, rubbing shoulders as class mate
and associate of current leaders worldwide of the Al-Quada sect.
Sudan was Al-Qaeda’s International headquarters and Osama bin Laden
was living and operating from there at the time.

As soon as Sanusi returned from his studies in Sudan, be began to
openly pursue his Sharia take over of Nigeria, particularly through
the financial sector of the economy. Reproduced here word for word is
the unmistaken evidence of his carefully laid out plan. At a
conference in 2000 in Kaduna, Sanusi delivered a lecture on Islamic
economics called International Framework of Institutional Framework of
Zakat: Dimensions and Implications. In the lecture Sanusi argued that
although collection of Zakat is the responsibility of the state, it
may be the responsibility of the Nigerian government rather than the
emirs in Northern Nigeria.

In October 2002 Sanusi published a paper on ‘The Hudhood Punishments
in Northern Nigeria: A Muslim Criticism.’ In July 2003, he presented
‘The Shari’a Debate and the Construction of a ‘Muslim’ identity in
Northern Nigeria: A Critical Perspective,’ at a seminar at the
university of Bayreuth in Germany. In August 2003 he presented
‘Democracy, Rights and Islam: Theory, Epistemology and the Quest for
Synthesis’ at an International Conference in Abuja on Shar’ah panel
and Family Law in Nigeria and in the Muslim World: A rights-Based
Approach.’ These documents confirm Sanusi’s preoccupation and ambition
for Nigeria, and to get the opportunity to put his theories into
practice in the financial sector of the Nigerian economy, President
Yar’Adua appointed him Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in
2008.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi took advantage of the seeming weakness in Nigeria
presidency to launch his Sharia take over of Nigeria. Jonathan’s
attempt to contest for the presidency of Nigeria in the April 2011
general elections was marked by ugly scheming to scuttle his efforts
by a gang led by Babangida and Atiku, pushing for Northern and Islamic
agendas in the guise of the zoning of leadership. Jonathan trounced
them at the pools and was sworn in to serve his own term in office on
May 29, 2011, but the zoning scar seems to have compromised him, and
is promoting narrow-minded, sectoral distortions in our body polity as
exemplified by the greedy regional hijack of the presidency and
speakership positions in the National Assembly.

Northern jihadists did not feel that a Christian Northern president of
the Senate represents them so they forced a Northern Muslim Speaker on
the House of Representatives to the detriment of the legitimate
interests of the West in particular and Southern Nigeria in general.
Nigeria’s Constitution does not recognize religious balancing, only
geographical, by implication. When Chief Mushood Abiola, a Southern
Muslim, won the presidency, he had a Northern Muslim as his Vice, and
that did not rankle Christians in Nigeria. In any case, over 40% of
the North is either Christian or non-Muslim. Awolowo proved this over
and over again by winning significant followership during elections in
the North in his time.

President Jonathan is so weak that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a former
president of Nigeria, who himself acquiesced in the introduction of
Sharia into the governance of most of Northern Nigeria states, had to
speak for him recently by lashing out against the Northern takeover of
the leadership of the National Assembly and warning the Speaker of the
House of Representatives to resign his post within two years.
President Jonathan might very well go down in history as the leader
that introduced Sharia into our national politics and consciousness to
prepare Nigeria for eventual disintegration.

NAIWU OSAHON Hon. Khu Mkuu (Leader) World Pan-African Movement); Ameer
Spiritual (Spiritual Prince) of the African race; MSc. (Salford);
Dip.M.S; G.I.P.M; Dip.I.A (Liv.); D. Inst. M; G. Inst. M; G.I.W.M;
A.M.N.I.M. Poet, Author of the magnum opus: ‘The end of knowledge’.
One of the world’s leading authors of children’s books; Awarded; key
to the city of Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Honourary Councilmanship,
Memphis City Council; Honourary Citizenship, County of Shelby;
Honourary Commissionership, County of Shelby, Tennessee; and a silver
shield trophy by Morehouse College, USA, for activities to unite and
uplift the African race.

Naiwu Osahon, Sage: New World Order, renowned author, philosopher of
science, mystique, leader of the world Pan-African Movement. All
members of this group and of the African race are entitled to free
e-copies of the following documents among others and are invited to
apply for them.

LAND USE ACT

Review of the Land Use Act

By Dipo Peters, March 15th, 2009

There is no doubt that land is the most vital ingredient of national socioeconomic development of a nation. Land is wealth no matter its nature or conditions. No land is ever without its purpose. This is because on it depends every economic activity. How a community or country utilizes land determines the level and kind of economic development that takes place in that community or country. The history of land utilization and development in Nigeria dates back to the pre-colonial era. The enactment of Land Use Act in March 1978 by the then Obasanjo military dictatorship marked a watershed in the history of land development in Nigeria. Ever since, there has been countless litigation in courts both on hitherto customary ownership and the new methods of land acquisition that have set individuals, communities and the state against one another. This conflict is most manifest in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria where the people there are vociferously claiming ownership of lands and all the mineral resources inherent in them. The pains of land disputes and conflicts remain gruesome and indelible in the memories of the victims and the collective consciousness of the country.

The main fault of the Land Use Act of 1978 was that it transferred title and ownership of land from individuals and communities to the governors who hold the land in trust but many of whom have been known to have abused the power and privileges conferred on them by the Act. It also made acquisition of land by individuals and corporate bodies for commercial and economic development purposes extremely difficult.

Despite all the cries and agitations for review of the Act, the federal government obstinately refused to embark upon such review exercise. To further worsen the situation, the federal government placed the Act under the 1999 Constitution thus making it extra difficult to review and amend it because any such review and amendment will have to go through the same process as stipulated for the review and amendment of the Constitution itself.

It is therefore heart-warming that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has considered it imperative to call for a fairly comprehensive review of the Act by sending 14 Amendment clauses (titled Land Use Act (Amendment) Act 2009 or the Constitution (First Amendment) Act 2009) to the National Assembly for this purpose. The proposed bill seeks to vest ownership of land in the hands of those with customary right of ownership, and also enable farmers to use land as collateral for loans for commercial farming to boost food production in the country. The bill also seeks to restrict the requirement of the Governor’s consent to assignment only which will render such consent unnecessary for mortgages, subleases and other land transfer forms in order to make transactions in land less cumbersome and facilitate economic development. It is noteworthy that since the Act came into being this is the first time such a comprehensive amendment is being proposed. We also note that this amendment is coming exactly thirty one years after the Act came into existence. There is no doubt that the Act has become anachronistic and moribund and has been long due for appropriate review and amendment.

This is why the National Assembly must look very critically at the proposed amendments sent to it by President Yar’Adua. The National Assembly must also expedite action on the review of the Act. Time is of essence here especially against the background of the national race to achieve Vision 20:2020.

JOS KILLINGS CONTINUE UNABATED

10 killed in fresh Jos attacks

VANGUARD, August 15, 2011

Ten people were killed in two separate overnight attacks outside the volatile Nigerian city of Jos, a local official said, leading angry residents to block roads to the area on Monday.

Local council chairman Emmanuel Lomang alleged that four identity cards and a cap belonging to soldiers were found at the scene of the killings, fueling rumours that troops may have been involved.

“Seven people were killed at Heipang while three were killed at Foron,” near Jos, the restive capital of Plateau State, Lomang told AFP.

He said both incidents happened around 12:30 am when the attackers opened fire on their victims after storming the two villages.

Army spokesman Captain Charles Ekeocha confirmed in a statement that seven members of a family were killed during the Heipang attack.

“At about 12.30 am on August 15 there was an attack at Heipang area of Barkin Ladi local government area. A house belonging to Mr. Nnaji… was attacked and seven members of the family were killed,” the statement said.

Local residents in the area opened fire on troops who went there to repel the attack, according to the statement. Soldiers shot one man who was armed with a rifle, and he later died on the way to the hospital, it said.

Angry residents have blocked roads leading to the area, an AFP correspondent reported.

File Photo: One of the buildings set ablaze by the protesting youths in Jos, Plateau State

Jos and the surrounding region have been hit by waves of clashes between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups that have left hundreds dead in recent years.

The region lies in Nigeria’s so-called Middle Belt between the mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south of Africa’s most populous nation.

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.

ANOTHER DEADLY ATTACK ON THE PLATEAU

This mail was sent to me this morning.

Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:19:22 +0000

Heipang community was attacked 12.05 this morning. Mrs. Elechi John Aboh her children and grand children, 8 of them, with one other Joseph Davou, have been brutaly killed.

In attempt to calm the reaction, police also killed one man and injoured one by name Bulus Chuji. He is now being treated at Bege Clinic and Trauma care Centre, a department of Stefanos Fdn, based at Hiepanp.

Evidence shows attackers were members of Special Task Force, sent to protect the area.

The attack also happened at Sabon Foron, 3 were also killed. The situation is presently difficult with protesting crowd.

Continue to pray for the peace of Jos.

Details later.

Stefanos Fdn.

CONGRATULATIONS TO DA JONAH JANG, BUT -

I congratulate His Excellency, Da Jonah Jang, on his electoral victory in the just concluded gubernatorial polls in Plateau State. A cursory look at those who are celebrating this victory on the streets and commenting favorably on social websites confirms that it is only those who have benefited or are benefiting or hope to benefit directly from this victory that are happy. This is so because the caricature which we practice and call democracy is a zero sum game which is not true democracy. Here, the winner takes all, and I mean ALL. The opposition is totally neglected and even persecuted. This is not true democracy because it is not representative as we find in places like France and Britain. PDP opponents in Plateau State have been and are going to be vilified for another 4 years. They are therefore very sad at the moment and find it very difficult to congratulate him. We saw Jang form and ran a very exclusive government in the last four years. Employment, appointment, educational bursaries, pilgrimage sponsorships, etc, were denied those perceived to be non-supportive of his 2007 election. Even former Gov. Bot Mang was not spared the invectives. Please note that PDP and LP shared bout 1.32 million votes with PDP taking 63% and LP 37%. LP support, which is conversely an indication of PDP rejection in the State, is a third of the population. This unfortunate third will be neglected and hated - no contracts, not appointments to government agencies, kept out like lepers and criminals and laughed at as they suffer economically. In a true representative democracy this one third would have one third of the seats in parliament in a just recognition of their views. All the rhetoric of "come and join hands with us" by the winners has been very insincere. When the winning party in Plateau State appoints a Commissioner or two from the other parties then their sincerity would have been demonstrated. Some of us are therefore agitating for a review of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The post-presidential election violence of last week tells us that we need to review the type of entity Nigeria should be - a federation with true representative democracy OR a loose confederation of several independent units OR separate independent countries. Dr. Leonard Shilgba, Associate Professor of Mathematics, American University, Yola, is calling on legal minds in the Middle Belt to join him before 29 May 2011 to brainstorm on this and other issues in order to draft a petition for the Courts of this country to consider. We are making very slow economic and social advancement because of a poor Constitution (two different versions of which are in circulation according Rev. Chris Okotie who is a lawyer), non-representative democracy, endemic corruption, etc. A change from this scenario is necessary. The rich ruling class is digging in and increasing in affluence and influence while the majority poor are further being ostracized and denied a voice, a share of the huge national cake, basic rights to a means of livelihood of choice, roads, education, health facilities, etc. Some estimate that the top 18,000 Govt. staffers in Nigeria earn one quarter (about N1 Trillion). Visit the Middle Belt Coalition website or email Dr. Shigba on shilgba@yahoo.com if you would like to team up with him on this project. Edmund Burke, a 19th century intelligent British parliamentarian said that evil only prevails because good people keep quite. Let's speak up.

KANO HISBAH POLICE SUPERIOR TO NIGERIA POLICE

Culled from the Guardian Newspaper of 15 June 2009

The Sharia police in Kano State
By Babrik Ndiameeh

IF all the allegations made by the former Kano State Commissioner, Alhaji Mohammed Yesufu at his final press conference in Kano are true, then Kano State is more of a Republic of Kano State than being part of the Nigerian Federation. For the readers who may have not seen the press conference or heard the news let me reproduce the details here.

The Police Commissioner was quoted as saying that the Kano State Hisbah Sharia police are now superior to the Nigerian police in Kano. That in fact they go to Nigerian police stations and barracks to arrest policemen, women and of course civilians. They close down shops, schools and churches at will. They harass magistrates and area court Judges. When courts of law grant bail, the Hisbah police will arrest the suspect and detain him or her again in their make-shift prisons.

The Kano State government it appears pays more allegiance to Saudi Arabia and Niger Republic than to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. All the above allegations by the Police Commissioner were further confirmed by the interview Dr. Babangida Aliyu, the chief servant of Niger State, granted the Daily Independent of Thursday, May 7, 2009.

Kano State has its police, it has its own prison and its allegiance is more to Saudi Arabia and Niger Republic than to Nigeria. What and how then do we classify such an entity in the Nigerian Federation? Apart from the above charges by the former Kano State Police commissioner, it is on record that more Nigerian citizens have been killed in Kano in religious crises than anywhere else in Nigeria and paralleled only by the civil war. Non- Hausas particularly Southerners and Middle belters are always the prime target. The case that easily comes to my mind was the broad daylight beheading of Gideon Akaluka in Sabon Gari market in 1990 by Islamic fundamentalists.

Since the coming of Governor Ibrahim Shekarau to the Kano political scene, the Kano intransigence against the Nigerian Federation has become pronounced more than ever before.

I can conclude and safely say that the only major link between the Republic of Kano State if I may use the expression and the Nigerian Federation is the fact that, Nigeria still pays the federal allocation to the Republic of Kano. Republic of Kano still has its citizens working in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In fact it has 22 members in the Nigerian House of Representatives. The Nigerian Ministers of Finance and National Planning are all from the Republic of Kano as well as the Chief of Army Staff of the Nigerian Army. All these are senior positions by Nigerian standards while all the states of Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa, Gombe and Kogi can boast of junior ministers called Ministers of state.

It is disturbing however that despite the fact that Kano State has been trampling on the fundamental human rights of Nigerians by preventing them from enjoying the right to freedom of religion as enshrined in the Constitution, the Federal House of Representatives which is always quick to point accusing fingers at Plateau State has never found it expedient and necessary to even condemn this unlawful and barbaric behaviour by Kano State. Even when Kano State has now confined the Nigeria Police to the dustbin of a powerless force in Kano as confirmed by the state's former Police Commissioner.

By the way, is what Kano State doing not akin to introducing true federalism through the back door? While other states like Abia, Lagos and Anambra have been prevented from having state police, why the preferential treatment for Kano State which is allowed to run the Hisbah police which is now superior to the Nigeria police?

Members of the House of Representatives are you there, what is good for Plateau State is surely good for Kano State. I therefore expect our lawmakers to condemn Kano State for usurping the powers of the Federal police through the Hisbah Sharia police otherwise you guys have a hidden agenda against Plateau State and Nigeria in general.

The House of Representatives should as a matter of national importance move a motion in the House to condemn Kano State.