11 Sep 2009 |
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Growing up in Nigeria was a deeply scarring psychological experience.There is no amount of holidaying or documentary watching that will ever prepare a child born and nurtured outside of Africa for that experience nor indeed begin to make him understand the horrors.
This note is not about the hard life on the continent.Neither is it about the complicity of the west,though both would be perfectly legitimate topics for notes to come.The recent theater of the absurd in the Nigerian banking sector is still playing out.What has inspired this note more than anything else is the demise of one of the brightest lights in Nigerian human rights struggle and hope to many hopeless people right in the middle of the farce:Chief Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi SAN.
As a boy,I was forced by teachers to line up by the roadside to wave at visiting military dictators like Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida whose only claim to power was the barrel of the gun.His toothy smile inspired only derision in my young heart.I still remember vividly imagining I could deliver a dirty slap through the window of his Peugeot J5 at the time.
I was young,but the naiveté of my people was clearly evident to me.The readiness to accept the next evil as replacement for the old.The inexplicable hope that somehow the resident evil would later turn good.I still remember my father in one of those heated political discussions with his mates categorically stating that "noone is saying they must not embezzle public funds...as long as they at least tar the roads.."
That same rationalization has grown roots and firmly entrenched itself in the psyches of all our young people.The acceptance that we do not deserve perfect...or indeed that perfect simply does not exist. The commmon argument is that even in Europe and the Americas,perfection is a myth...that the history of the west is also steeped in birthing pain and regrettable mistakes.
This reasoning was shot down in the most practical of ways this week.My older child asked me if his sister would ever grow older and taller than he is if she ate more than he did.The background for the question was that my son's the most fussy eater,and often goes days surviving only on fluids. After a brief solomonic pause,I proceeded to explain to him that even though his sister may one day grow taller than he is (due more to female adolescent growth spurt than to different genes),she would never grow "older" than him.
If African countries continue to console themselves with the rationale stated above,they will never really arrive where the west is currently.Their people will continue to feed off the crumbs.Emerging world powers have refused to start from scratch for exactly the same reason.China,India and Brazil continue to learn from the west and try to improve on existing ideas and inventions...without necessarily reinventing the wheel.
During the reign of the said Babangida, a prominent economist,Olu Falae tried a well intentioned,if poorly executed Structural Adjustment Program(SAP).I am not an economist,but most enlightened Nigerians believe 'SAP' was the origin of our current fiscal woes.Successive regimes of pillage and institutionalized corruption have watered and nurtured its seeds.Just follow the trend of the Naira since 1989.Suffice to say that a very popular uprising in 1989 attempted to show the government the folly of such ass-kissing of world financial establishments.The world bank and the IMF had notable vested interests at the time.
Subsequently,the vicious cylce of unacceptable levels of unemployment coupled with declining levels of disposable incomes and the virtual disappearance of the middle class almost brought the economy to its knees.The sky-rocketing unemployment rates led to a new wave of ingenious criminal activities.Armed robbers were no longer riff-raffs but unemployed college graduates complete with fake queen's English accents,even if the language was garnished with grammatical inaccuracies,a symptom of the collateral damage to educational establishments.
Through all of that,the laissez faire disposition of those in government endured as long as they continued to receive hardly deserved inflated estacodes on unjustified trips abroad on tax payers expense...not that many people paid any tax anyway.If you were not a government employee and therefore subject to the PAYE system,you could practically give the federal government the middle finger salute.There was no credible internal revenue service.That fed into the over-reliance on oil revenue to continue to feed our depraved addiction to ill-gotten wealth.
Political office became not an avenue for service,but the surest way to personal enrichment.Gangs of murderers were employed by politicians at all levels to dispose of opponents and ensure the achievement of the goal...indeed some politicians personally led the attacks on their opponents. At least two guys on my facebook friends list are currently preparing bids for governorship in their states come 2011. Femi Fani-Kayode and Fagade Abisoye:I wish you luck, guys...better you than me.
A prominent surgeon in Atlanta GA was of the school of thought that complaining about Nigeria's problems would not solve the problem.He encouraged all in diaspora to participate in local politics.To show he wanted us to "do as he did" rather than "do as he said", he went to Enugu state to contest in the Gubernatorial elections organized by Abdusalam Abubakar.He was ambushed near his home and shot several times.He lived to tell the tale,but several others weren't as lucky.The political process in Nigeria especially has been hijacked by a murderous gang of thugs and cultists who'd stop at nothing to repress and intimidate any prospective Barack Obama wannabe.
Then came the second coming. Olusegun Obasanjo told us he became born again in a Yola prison.His accent to Aso Rock had 'divine' written all over it.The disillusioned Yorubas danced palongo that finally power was being wrestled from the grasp of the feared northern oligarchy.The Yorubas had become weary of political struggles after one of it's brightest sons died mysteriously in Abacha's gulag while laying claim to success in a disputed election.The Igbos 'knew better' than to entertain any such lofty ideas.Lessons of the bitter civil war were still fresh and continue to be passed down to new generations.
The ethnic bigotry is another major issue interwoven with many of the other bigger probems articulated above.The culture of ethnic distrust and suspicion cannot be wished away by a million "lols" or "LWKMDs" on facebook.They were cultivated by our fathers and we currently fertilize it. An Igbo friend of mine here in the US recently told me that the south south were deceiving themselves if they thought Goodluck Jonathan would ever become president should the current ailing C-in -C succumb to his chronic illness.I was deeply disturbed by his insinuation even though I understood his cynicism and pessimism.
It is in the setting of this tribal gymnastics that a certain Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has decided to experiment with financial imperialism.
To bring certain people up to date who might not have been following the progress of Nigerian banks,Charles Soludo was widely credited with the consolidation process in the sector to which has been widely attributed the innovation and growth we've come to see over the last half a decade.It was during his tenure that the Nigerian Stock Exchange experienced the biggest boom, arguably since inception.Several middle class Nigerians regained their confidence in our financial systems and began to invest again. The collapse of that confidence and ruination of many a dream is a topic for another day...another symptom of the Nigerian split personality disorder.
After Umaru Yar'Adua succumbed to pressure and replaced Soludo with Lamido Sanusi,a new chapter began in corporate Nigeria.The heavyweights in the sector had hardly had any time at all to read this guy's biography than he began to bare his fangs.Those who knew this guy at First Bank wonder why anyone would be surprised by his current moves. Sanusi holds a BSc Economics from Zaria and lectured like his boss prior to re-entering the private sector.As recently as the late nineties,he went to Sudan to study first,Arabic,and then obtained a second bachelors in Sharia and Islamic studies.
By his own admission,he is exploring every possible avenues for reform "including Islamic finance".Many of my Pakistani friends in Ireland explained the tenets of Islamic finance to me.The little I remember of it is that it bars all forms of interest...and promotes the concept of "all wealth belongs to Allah". Sanusi has to be reminded that Nigeria is not a muslim country even if one of his previous kinsmen once enlisted us kicking and screaming behind the scenes in the Organization of Islamic countries
History and trends are important because they provide fingerprints and trails with which we can predict human behavior.For what is history if we do not learn from it?.After all, those who refuse to learn from history are wont to repeat it. Sanusi's brazen attempt at playing financial czar will lead to nothing but capital flight and disinvestment. Our young ladies have been famously tagged corporate prostitutes in the marketing divisions of these banks.Soon,when the shit all hits the fan,they would all be unemployed once again...then corporate prostitution wouldn't look half as bad.
Most young Nigerians grew up in an atmosphere of instant jungle justice where, walking to school, they could see the half-charred remains of an alleged robber burnt to death with tyre and kerosene by a mob at the roadside and they would not as much as flinch.That culture of mob justice is an expression of our inner barbarian that wants to see people punished swiftly by a fast-tracking judge-cum-jury rather than go through the long process of the established justice system.
Gloating over the fate of these bank MDs (none of whom is personally known to me by the way) sounds like a consistent pattern with all of our experiences.Several ex-governors were treated similarly by the EFCC only for the cases to die down and the accused left to blow their loots with only a slap on the back of the hand. Names of alleged debtors to the troubled banks have now been publicly released.One can only hope that will satisfy the blood-hounds...but we know no amount of blood is enough in these bloodsports. I'm all for punishment of the guilty,but only within the acceptable legal frameworks.It is not enough to just hate these MDs because they make more money than many of us would ever make,we need to look beyond that. Until any of these are convicted in a regular court of law,I do not agree with even defaming them in the public domain.Afterall, all the heads of the troubled financial institutions in the US today still smile home with millions in bonuses despite huge public outcry.None of the big five MDs has been personally indicted in any direct financial crime yet.Whatever their faults were,it was more of bad judgement over who got what loans than of personal indiscretions.
We also know that this imperialistic stance of Sanusi is a leap down a slippery slope.He would need to replace these MDs with personnel just down the ladder.Same Nigerians.Same philosophy.In some instances even worse human beings.Look who replaced Tafa Balogun. The alternative is a government take-over...and I hope to hell he wouldn't even consider that,because we all know how incompetent the federal government is at managing anything.If in doubt,just visit any government secretariat about 3PM.They are like ghost towns.Everyone has a parallel business.
We were all here when Nuhu Ribadu bestrode the Nigerian stage like an immortal collosus.He racked up cheap popularity at home and abroad for being the bulldog in the Obasanjo anti-corruption crusade.But he forgot that Nigeria is a "peculiar mess" according to the late Adelabu.The horse-whip used so mercilessly on the older,uglier first wife has been well preserved and kept safely in the attic for the currently pretty and "can-do-no-wrong" new mistress.
Those who have ears,let them hear. But I ask again: who will take back the asylum from the lunatics?
P.S:Below is a late edition of this note.In the interest of balance,the author of this note has elected to post an excerpt of a recent speech delivered by the CBN governor to a muslim audience.It is the author's hope that readers would make what they would of several of his philosophies.
The Shariah and Public Sector Corruption. By Lamido Sanusi,Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria
In the time of the prophet [S. A. W.] the government was not a major economic force. The role of the prophet was largely that of a guide, a judge and a military commander. The government treasury received zakat and fai' for distribution but the major revenue flows and expenditures on social welfare, defence and the bureaucracy that later came to typify the state were virtually non-existent - It is natural that the crime of public sector corruption should not be a major feature of such a society not just because of the limited finance of the state but also, and more fundamentally, because of the quality of persons managing these funds and the presence of the Prophet of Allah among them. Thus although the Qur'an did come up with verses which showed the prohibition of corruption, its occurrence was rare and its punishment /deterrence was therefore not the pre-occupation of the Shariah at that stage . We find a greater focus on offences like theft, adultery, intoxication and slander - crimes of a largely personal nature, which was a reflection of the limited nature of public sector crimes.
With the passage of time and the conquest of the early empire, the coffers of the state were filled with treasures managed by human beings whose fear of Allah was decreasing by the day. Corruption became a cancer in public life, as we have shown. The Umayyads established a hereditary kingship, nepotism and the appropriation of booty and property and profits. Muawiya himself made it clear in his sermon in Kufa and Madinah that he had fought for power and would reap the benefits from it. The early Muslims did fight against this Umayyad mind-set. There was the great rebellion against 'Uthman. Then there was the rebellion of the Hijaz against Yazid ibn Muawiya. There was the Qarmatian revolt. All of these and many more were directed against exploitation, arbitrary power, class distinction and other features of a system without accountability and probity.
The striking thing about all of this is that the fight against corruption was always waged by those outside the establishment. Throughout the reign of the Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids etc, the Muslim world was governed by the Shariah, and by the system of civil and criminal Law recognised as distinctive of Muslim societies. Zakat was collected, the hands of thieves were cut off, and the courts continued to administer capital punishment for murder, apostasy and rebellion. Yet those who supervised the implementation of Shariah were themselves corrupt - and, seemingly, above the law. This is the question that I hope to address.
A government can claim to be implementing Shariah, cut off the hands of a thief who steals a cow or money, force women to dress in a particular way, collect zakat for distribution etc, without coming out with strong sanction for corruption in public office. This has led some people to the false impression that the Shariah is a law designed to punish the poor while allowing leaders to go scot-free. Nothing can be further from the truth. I will show that what is described above is not Shariah, but its interpretation by society at different points in time in a manner consistent with the dominant world-view of the leaders and ulama in that society. It is not the eternal law revealed by Allah but its interpretation and crystalisation in time and space.
It is perhaps fair to say that the rudimentary nature of political structures in the muslim world, the absence of effective checks and balances and the low political consciousness of civil society have contributed to this state of affairs. It is however, equally important to recognise fundamental flaws in our understanding of Islamic Law.
Criminal/Civil Law in Islam divides offences, from the perspective of sanction, into three categories. Hadd offences [jara'im al-hudud] are those which attract a fixed and non-negotiable punishment once established. These include adultery & fornication, apostasy, drinking, rebellion, slander and highway robbery. Qisas and Diyah offences [jara'im al - qisas wad-diyah] are those which are retributive in nature, but which can be substituted by some payment in kind as restitution, or forgiven by the injured party or his heirs. These include murder, manslaughter and bodily harm. A third category, Ta'zeer offences [jara'im at-ta'azeer] refers to everything that is prohibited in the Qur'an or Sunnah but for which a punishment is not prescribed under Hadd or Qisas and Diyah. Understanding this point is critical to understanding Islamic Civil and Criminal Law.
There has been a lot of polemic over the limits of punishment for ta'azeer offences. Abdul Rahman 'Audah has a detailed discussion of these including justification for including offences not specified in the Qur'an and Sunnah but which affect "general interest" of society, in his classic work on Islamic Criminal Law [at-tashri' al-jina'I al-Islami]
What interests us here is that for all offences defined as Ta'azear offences the Shariah provides a range of sanctions.
These are:
a] threat of punishment
b] whipping or caning
c] humiliation
d] detention or jailing
e] crucifixion or execution
f] exile.
These offences have been extracted by scholars from the Qur'an, Sunnah and Ijma'.
Now we know that the Qur'an prohibits many things without specifying the punishment for the offenders. For example, we know that bribery is an offence, that nepotism, in the sense of appointing an incompetent person to office, is an offence, that consuming wealth of orphans is an offence, that spreading fasad [evil] and fahisha [obscenity] among the Ummah are offences etc. If the Hakim at a point in time chooses not to punish an offence severely [and we have said his options are as severe as the death sentence] it is not because the Shariah does not provide for it but because either the judge or the government does not consider it a problem.
As we live in an environment in which these offences bother all of us, [corruption, religious intolerance, destruction of places of worship, mediocrity in the name of quota system, tribalism and ethnic genocide etc.] we must remember that Sharia explicitly prohibits each of them and also allows the state to punish with a range of punishments including jailing and death. The choice however reflects our own values, not of the Shariah. That corruption has for so long remained unpunished is a reflection of the underlying moral philosophy, which has come to permeate our collective consciousness, deadening the sense of outrage and revulsion against this heinous and cancerous crime.
CONCLUSION
I have been given only 40 minutes to speak on this wide topic. I have attempted to cover in this paper the origin of corruption in the public affairs of the Muslim Ummah, the philosophy which has nourished it and the legal superstructure which, elaborate as it is, has been seemingly designed by lawmakers to side-step it. I do not believe I have exhausted all the issues relevant to this topic. I hope that I have given us all food for thought and contributed to our outstanding of Islamic history, philosophy and law.
If I have sounded critical of some aspects of Muslim thought, please accept this clarification: I have implicit respect and love for generations gone by. However, no one is perfect and it is only by learning from mistakes of the past and questioning "received wisdom" that change is possible. "Allah does not change what is with a people unless they change themselves".
Finally, dear readers, please remember that I am not a jurist, but a banker. What I have written that is right, is from Allah. What I have written that is wrong is from me and Shaitan, Allah and His prophet are free from my errors.
Ramadhan Kareem.
Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullah wa Barakatuh. By Charles Ayanleke MD Cleveland OH USA
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