Nigeria is crawling with fanatics and fundamentalists of all religious hues, writes acorrespondent. The column has had cause to defend Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in the past, particularly against vested interests bent on frustrating his appointment, He says. A correspondent: "in a kleptocracy it is impossible to be a decent Central Bank Governor without stepping on toes"
Nigeria is crawling with fanatics and fundamentalists of all religious hues, writes acorrespondent. The column has had cause to defend Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in the past, particularly against vested interests bent on frustrating his appointment, He says. A correspondent: "in a kleptocracy it is impossible to be a decent Central Bank Governor without stepping on toes"
Nigeria is crawling with fanatics and fundamentalists of all religious hues, writes acorrespondent. The column has had cause to defend Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in the past, particularly against vested interests bent on frustrating his appointment, He says. A correspondent: "in a kleptocracy it is impossible to be a decent Central Bank Governor without stepping on toes"
On The Engaging Subject. - A Correspondent igeria is suddenly crawling with fanatics and fundamentalists of all religious hues. There is so much rancour and rabid hate in the land one begins to suspect that some people are working towards a predetermined agenda to terminate the existence of the nation. As if the scourge of Boko Haram, the minimum wages palaver, tenure elongation rumours, the arrival of monsoon- like flooding and the general insecurity o f life and property are not enough, we have now added the dangerous controversy over Islamic Bank to the combustible cocktail.
This column has had cause to defend
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in the past, particularly against vested interests bent on frustrating his appointment. In a kleptocracy, it is impossible to be a decent Central Bank Governor without stepping on toes. Where the incumbent is driven by a missionary and messianic
Lamido Sanusi
zeal it is bound to be war in Babylon: a
stridently agocistk m J h ;n which no hostages are taken. Sanusi does not step cm toes. He crushes toes, sending his
adversaries hobbling about in
excruciating pains. But toes can be crushed without gleefully counting the remaining for the owners. This is where Sanusi's personal comportment becomes a problem. In the past, we have had cause to caution Sanusi against a resort to excessive histrionics and grandstanding in the course o f what is otherwise an honorable and noble mission. Hell-raising and hysteria-mongering are incompatible with regulatory banking at its most rarified level. It is not for nothing that bankers are seen and perceived to be traditionally conservative; always soberly besuited and evincing a dour impassivity o f outlook. Like pilots even scary turbulence, they must project a becalming mien even while taking out of the ordinary decisions. It does seem as if Sanusi is sometimes more driven by media melee and attentionseeking than actual results; more forsworn to giddy and gaudy showmanship than real substance. The catalogue of political indiscretions in a delicately poised nation prone to centrifugal forces is truly amazing. In an attempt to reform and sanitize the banking sector, Sanusi stands the risk of fatally endangering him self and the country by his hubris. If anybody would be pleased by those prospects, it is those who have turned banking in Nigeria to a vastly criminal enterprise. The problem is not Islamic Banking. The most terrible thing about the advent of Islamic Banking is the timing.
N e w s g ra in
Magazine
Dr. Okonjo Iw eala
Coming at a time o f dangerous
polarization of the nation along religious and ethnic lines, it has now added a frenzied volatility and incendiary prospects to an already combustible situation. Suddenly, it is either you are an obliging Muslim fanatic or an objecting Christian fundamentalist without a pan-Nigerian middle ground, and without a thought for millions of Nigerians who still worship at the shrine of their ancestral deities. There are legions stoking the fire either out of criminal m ischief or mischievous ignorance. The most elementary factor ignored by proponents and opponents of Islamic Banking alike is the fact that its ideal habitat is a Sharia-compliant society. W ithout the teachings of the Koran and the Hadith to enforce its theological injunctions, Islamic Banking is a fish out o f water. Its hatred o f Riba or interest banking, its preference for profitsharing, its aversion for speculative gambling based on economic gaming
Connivance by Silence: How the Majority’S Failure to Challenge Politically Motivated [Mis]Interpretation of the Qur’An Empowered Radicals to Exploit Islam and Propagate Radicalism