The good people of
Osun State will be going to the polls this Saturday, 9th August,
2014. They will be deciding who the next Governor of their state is. It is
their chance to see the back of Sheikh Rauf Aregbesola, the Champion of
Islamism in the South-West geopolitical zone of Nigeria. It is time to bid
Sheikh Rauf Aregbesola farewell.
No other Yoruba
politician has so overtly and unabashedly exhibited his/her religious zealotry
like Rauf Aregbesola has done since he mounted the high office of the Executive
Governor of Osun State. His religious bigotry is a first in the politics of
South-West Nigeria. The revered sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, never allowed
religion to rear its head in the politics of Yoruba land throughout his days.
In the second republic, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, the Governor of Lagos State at
the time, came to be known as “Baba Kekere” as he was widely perceived as the
respected elder statesman’s anointed successor as the Leader of the Yoruba.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a Christian. Alhaji Lateef Jakande is a Muslim. Religion
was not issue in the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
Unlike the All
Progressives Congress (APC) which has shown that Christians are only good enough
to hold office in both its Interim National Executive Committee and the newly
selected National Executive Committee as Deputies and “Ex-Officio” members
while reserving the key positions for Muslims, the Unity Party of Nigeria was
open to people of all faiths. I have wondered whether the APC’s choice of its
new NEC members was borne out of naivety, insensitivity, arrogance or sheer
folly. I guess it is really hard to hide what one is at one’s core.
Sheikh Rauf
Aregbesola does not even try to veil his Islamist agenda. The controversy about
the use of Hijab by Muslim female students in public schools founded my
Christian Missionary organisations is still fresh in our minds. To be fair to
the Governor, the issue pre-dated his administration; but it was exacerbated by
the ill-conceived Education Policy introduced by the Governor which made turned
some single-gender schools into mixed schools and some Muslim groups attempting
to impress their religious identity on schools which were originally Christian
schools by encouraging Muslim girls to wear veils even though there is no
consensus among Muslim scholars as to whether it is actually mandatory for girl-children
to do so.
In March, 2013, the Chairman
of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Osun State Branch, Superior Evangelist
Abraham Aladeseye, and the Secretary, Rev. Father Gbenga Ajayi, had a press
conference in Osogbo, the state’s capital, during which they drew the world’s
attention to the Governor’s Islamic Agenda. They cited several instances of the
Governor’s zealotry to prove their case. But most curious was the Governor’s change of the motto of
the state. The Christian Association of Nigeria believes
that the government might have changed the name of Osun State from “State of
the Living Spring” to “State of the Virtuous”, because “Jesus Christ is referred
to as the living spring”. No; don’t laugh just yet. Yes; I know it sounds like
paranoia to read meanings into a thing as benign as the state’s slogan. But
this underscores the level of religious distrust which the Governor of Osun
State has needlessly foisted on his people. CAN also pointed to the declaration
of a public holiday by the Aregbesola administration to mark Hijra. It noted
that “not even in Sokoto, the seat of the caliphate, is Hijra declared a public
holiday”. Hijra is the migration of Prophet Mohammed and his followers from
Mecca to Medina.
The Governor’s
relationship and patronage of the Jama’at
Ta’awunil Muslimeen (TAAWUN), a fundamental Islamist group, is curious.
TAAWUN has been another subject of controversy. Aregbesola relishes
controversy. TAAWUN reportedly provides security for the Governor. The
Department of State Security has taken keen interest in the group. Not a few
Osun indigenes have expressed fears about the group’s possible linkage with
Islamist terrorist groups outside the state.
Perhaps, the issue
which most underscores Aregbesola’s Islamism is his issuance of Shariah-compliant
Sukuk Bonds. The “State of Osun” Sukuk Bond was issued in October, 2013. The
Sukuk Bond was issued in accordance with enactment of “the Osun State Bonds,
Notes and Other Securities Law 2012” under which the Osun Sukuk Company Plc was
established. The state raised the sum of N11.4Billion. Interestingly, contrary to the popular belief that
Sukuk Bonds are non-interest bearing (interest charges – Riba - are considered
haram in Islam and, therefore, forbidden), Osun State’s Sukuk Bond has a fixed
rate of return of 14.75%. The yield offered was the
same as that which the state paid in 2012 to sell a conventional seven-year
bond worth N30billion. Clearly, the
motivation to issue the Sukuk Bond was religious not financial. Why borrow funds with a religious connotation at the same rate
as you would borrow from the secular financial markets and court needless
religious acrimony?
Anyway, our jihadist Governor was duly rewarded for being the
first to issue such a Sukuk in Nigeria, nay, Sub-Saharan Africa. The
transaction was given the Deal of the Year Award by Islamic Finance News in February, 2014, in Dubai.
You should read the article by Sultan Sooud Alqassemi which he
titled “The Myth of Islamic Finance”. Hear what this highly-respected and committed
Muslim scholar, who holds a Masters degree in Global Banking and Finance from
the European Business School in London and is a non-resident Fellow at the
Dubai School of Government, had to say about Islamic Finance:
“One of the latest additions to such
urban legends as the Loch Ness monster, UFO’s and environmentally friendly land
reclamation is what is now known as Islamic Finance. A new scam that started in
the second half of the twentieth century and only really took off in the last
three decades. One could wonder why the Islamic world needed 1,400 years to
invent such a system. One may also wonder why we never hear of such terms as
Christian, Jewish or Hindu Finance?........ Did you ever wonder
why in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which is the cradle of Islam there isn’t one
openly Islamic bank? And yet the UAE with 20% of KSA’s population has five such
banks, three of them white washed. In KSA when a client goes to open a deposit
account banks openly ask her if she wants a “riba account” which means an
account that pays interest, the majority of clients decline as it is seen as
“morally unacceptable[8]” which leaves the banks to rack in the profits. With
deposits approaching $150 Billion in 2006 and little interest charges to pay
the clients no wonder they are amongst the most profitable banks in the world. A
professor from the Wharton School in the US argued that “it serves little
purpose to extend financing with interest charges using a set of tricks that
disguise them as something else.[10]” In today’s world, more and more people
are looking for salvation, even if it was a trick; in this case salvation got
an Islamic disguise.”
You can Sultan read the entire article
using this link:
Shocking?! Yes. And he is a Muslim!
There are
constitutional, legal and moral issues which Aregbesola’s Sukuk Bond raises and
which must not be ignored especially since Nigeria is still grappling with
religious tensions exacerbated by the activities of the Islamist terrorist
organization, Boko Haram. Section 10 of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria states that “The Government of the Federation or of a
State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion”. A Sukuk Bond is
issued in compliance with the requirements of Islamic Shariah Law. It is a
financial instrument based on the injunctions of a particular religion: Islam.
The issuance of a Sukuk Bond by the Osun State Government is an expression of
its preference for Islam. This is a fundamental breach of the spirit and letter
of the Nigerian Constitution which Aregbesola swore to uphold.
Like the rest of Nigeria,
the people of Osun State are multi-religious. The sensibilities of its
non-Muslim population must not continue to be taken for granted. The debt-burden
of a Sukuk Bond rests on all the people of Osun State; including those who are
non-Muslim. Why should non-Muslim Nigerians be compelled to carry the burden of
a Sukuk liability? It was wrong for Aregbesola to source loans based on
compliance with the religious requirements of Islam when a large number of his
constituents do not subscribe to his religion.
Some proponents of
Islamic Sukuk have cited the announcement last year by the British Prime
Minister, David Cameron, of plans for the United Kingdom to issue a Sukuk Bond
as grounds for Nigeria and other states of federation to do the same. The
religious atmosphere in the United Kingdom is not comparable with Nigeria’s. In
fact, unlike in Nigeria, religion increasingly plays a very little role in the
lives of most of the citizens of the U.K. It is erroneous to use the U.K.
situation in judging Nigeria. Religious tensions in Nigeria are real and the
country remains highly vulnerable to extremist tendencies.
The issuance of the
Islamic Sukuk Bond by Osun State deepened the already tense religious situation
in the state and our nation. It is utterly reckless for Aregbesola, who should
have been working at promoting religious harmony, to have so blatantly used
religion for his own personally political ends.
It is time that the
people of Osun State put an end to this obtuse bigotry of Sheikh Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola. It is time to send him out of the Osun State Government House. No doubt
he will be at home amongst the Talibans and ISIS.
God bless Osun State.
Osun di fure!
God bless Nigeria.
Nigeria di fure!
