ISLAMIC BANKING

Cleric tasks FG on Islamic
banking
From LIVING KING
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Outgoing Bishop of Catholic Diocese
Sokoto, Most Rev. Kevin Aje, has
suggested that the controversial
Islamic banking be renamed
‘National Free Interest Banking’ to
avoid crisis in the country.
Speaking in an interview with Daily
Sun, in Sokoto yesterday, Bishop
Aje, who described Nigerians as
notoriously creative, reasoned that
such creativity would have done the
nation a lot of good if those who
were in positions of authority were
using them positively.
He said: “If it has become very
necessary to have such a bank in
Nigeria, why not given it a name
that will be attractive to all manner
of people in the country rather than
narrowing it down to a particular
religious group. It may be called
‘Free Interest Banking’, ‘National Free
Interest Banking’ or ‘International
Free Interest Banking’.”
The bishop, who is in his late 70s,
and would be due for retirement in
September, stated that, to him,
there was noting wrong in the
establishment of a bank tailored after
Muslims believes as nothing
stopped Christians from establishing
theirs but everything about such
bank must reflect national unity,
Nigerian being a secular nation.
“Mr. President must call Sanusi to
order, the people of this country
deserves to be fully educated on
what this bank stands for to remove
the fear being expressed by some
people that the idea was being
mooted to serve ulterior purpose,”
the cleric said.
Bishop Aje opined that unless the
authority concerned had a rethink
on the issue, the establishment of an
Islamic Bank in Nigeria was capable
of leading the country into
unnecessary crisis worst than what
we witnessed during the
introduction of Sharia Law and the
issue of OIC.