By Pini Jason
After the Kafanchan riot in 1987 following the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference), the editors of Thisweek magazine decided to go beyond reporting the crisis and get a deeper understanding of the cause. Editors were dispatched to various parts of the North. I was dispatched to Sokoto.

At the palace of the Sultan of Sokoto, the Magajin geri, Alhaji Aliyu, who stood in for the ailing Sultan, His Eminence Abubakar III, told me something I found revealing. He said he could swear that until the OIC brouhaha, not more than 1000 Muslims in the country knew anything about OIC; but that since the Christians were opposed to it, the Muslims also insisted that whatever it is, they want it!

Since the Central Bank of Nigeria approved the introduction of non-interest banking product in Nigeria, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has mounted what I can call an uninformed opposition to it. Relying purely on what I call Ulterior Motive Syndrome, they claim it is a plot to Islamize Nigeria!

What is the evidence they have? Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the CBN Governor is a Muslim! The problem in this country is that once people believe the wrong thing, no matter how much you try to correct them, they hold tight to their ignorance. Thus, the more the CBN explains, the more CAN insists on its misinformation.

I recall that, over seven years ago, during the era of Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo as CBN Governor, Jaiz International Plc, was given provisional approval to operate non-interest banking. In one episode of PATITO’s Gang, we invited Mohammed Mustapha Bintube, the Managing Director of Jaiz International to throw light on the operation of non-interest banking. The reason Jaiz could not open its doors to customers was the banks consolidation which required banks to increase their capital to N25 billion.

There are over 300 Islamic banks spread over 51 countries, including Britain, France Denmark, Luxembourg, Switzerland, USA and Canada. These are Christian countries. They have not been Islamized because of a banking product targeted at those who desire it, including non-Muslims.

The first Islamic bank opened in London in 2004, and since then, according to Helen Christofi, writing in the Brussels Journal of February 12, 2007, London has become the leading Islamic banking centre in the West, with HSBC, Lloyds TSB and CITI group opening Islamic banking units and branches throughout England.

In October 2009, France, home to seven million Muslims, authorized Islamic banks to open, after a survey shows that over 500,000 Muslims were interested in doing their banking in Sharia-compliant banks. Explaining why France jumped into the globally booming industry, Christine Lagarde, then Minister of Economy (now IMF Managing Director) said: “We are determined to make Paris an important site for Islamic finance”.

Addressing the 2005 Arab Bankers Association of North America, ABANA, conference on Islamic Finance Players, Products and Innovations in New York, William L. Rutledge, Executive Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said: “We—and here I am referring broadly to US regulators—are open to Islamic banking products. Our mindset is to try to accommodate a variety of approaches to finance, focusing to the extent possible on the underlying substance”. What US banks are targeting is the one trillion dollars Islamic banking industry in the US!

Bloomberg Businessweek of August 8, 2005 reports that when British banking giant HSBC group began offering mortgages carefully formulated to meet Islamic banking practices in Malaysia, it was surprised that more than half of its customers were non-Muslims! Equally, there are international banks operating in many Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, which are not Islamic banks!
Zero-sum rejection of ideas, because they appear difficult or because we don’t understand them, cannot help this country. I just cannot understand how non-interest or Islamic banking should evoke the suspicion of Islamization just because the CBN Governor is a Muslim.

Secularity of Nigeria does not put any religious group above the rest, nor does it make any religion inferior. Nigeria is not, by the dictates of secularity a Christian nation, nor is it a Muslim state! Religious groups should steer clear of politics masked with religious garb.

Everyday some Nigerians provoke unnecessary controversy based on Ulterior Motive Syndrome fuelled by ignorance. It is bad that those ordinary Nigerians regard as highly placed or knowledgeable are the purveyors of half-truths and rumours. Often we forget that these religions that dog the country are all imported! What CAN should have done is to seek how to establish non-interest banking products tailored to meet the needs of their members and help then establish businesses, instead of selling then dubious miracles!