All eyes, Many readers of this column may be disappointed today and there is no apology for that. From various parts of the country, people have been calling or sending text messages or email, since last Monday, to ask yours sincerely to write today’s article on the raging controversial Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) law that is currently causing unnecessary brouhaha across Nigeria. However, having turned down the seemingly popular request, the onus is on me to explain why I refused to succumb to their pressure on that subject. As readers, they are kings and queens in their own rights just like customers in an open market. And they deserve to be so treated.
The focus of ‘The Message’
‘The Message’ is an Islamic column which does not concern itself with a matter that is unrelated to Islam. The FRCN law currently in contention does not affect Islam because the Mosque is House of congregational worship which no Muslim can claim as a private property. If any Muslim claims to own a Mosque he should be called a thief. A Muslim may build a Mosque with his money. He may offer to bear the cost of maintaining a Mosque on his volition. But as soon as the Mosque is ready as a House of worship, it becomes a public property within the Muslim community.
What can ‘The Message’ write on an idea that was initiated by a Nigerian professional body during the second republic in 1982 to serve as one of its organs for regulating the financial institutions in Nigeria? What can ‘The Message’ say now about how that organ became a subject of legislation in 2003, when Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, held sway as Nigeria’s President? What did the readers of this column expect ‘The Message’ to write about the enactment of that legislation into an act of parliament in 2011 when Goodluck Jonathan, another Christian was the President?
The Mosque is not a family business that can be bequeathed to a son or a daughter. It is therefore not for Nigerian Muslims to jump into an unnecessary brouhaha over a law that concerns materialism much more than religion. Neither is it for them to ask ‘The Message’ to write on such an inconsequential subject. Currently, there are many crushing issues on the table in Nigeria. One of them is recession which concerns every Nigerian Christian or Muslim. And the concentration here today will be on that. Read on:
The Egyptian experience
Egypt, a North African Arab country was never a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). She was not an oil producing country until recently. The main stay of her economy was agriculture which was well facilitated by her River Nile endowment. But of course the latter was backed up by the strategic Suez Canal that became a necessary need of all Western countries.
This North African Arab country was in economic mess in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her ravaging war with Israel had reduced her to a virtual beggar nation. Not only did her macro economy plummet, her micro economy also dwindled to the lowest ebb. No job for the rising army of highly skilful youths and no sources of income for the majority of the citizenry. Thus, the country looked like a famine- stricken one. The best residential houses were rented out to foreigners. And most vehicles on Cairo and Alexandra roads were terribly rickety at that time.
Solution
It took an ingenuous economic management by President Gamal Abdul Nasir and his successor, President Anwar Sadat to device a means of bailing out the country from what could have amounted to self-genocide. With the meagre amount of money accruing to the nation from agriculture and manpower export at that time, the government was able to set up a food distribution centre in each ward where every family in the ward was registered.
All varieties of foods, including grains, wheat, meat, milk and eggs, were supplied to each family every week. And no family got less than what could suffice for one full week. The cost of those highly subsidised food were deducted from the salaries of those working while others were supplied free foods for survival. And to ensure that only the citizens benefited from the wonderful largess, the use of national identity card to qualify for supply was made compulsory.
Security and patriotism
This Islamic welfare business strategy did not only create a high sense of security in the citizenry it also spurred them to become die-hard patriots. With that strategy, Egypt was able to weather her economic storm of that time even as her war with Israel continued.
What could have been a major problem for the ordinary Egyptians at that time was the education of their children. But President’s Nasir’s government had taken care of that since inception. A fundamental policy of the Egyptian government introduced by President Nasir in 1954 was free education at all levels. That policy which the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo adapted for primary education in western Nigeria a year later (1954) had put Egypt far ahead of all African and Arab countries. The policy was to put Egypt in good stead in later years when the going became economically tough.
Reaping the benefit
The country began to reap the benefit by supplying all other Arab countries with their needed man power such as teachers, doctors, Engineers, pilots, accountants, pharmacists, nurses, administrators and even drivers. Those experts were officially deployed to those other Arab countries on three years renewable contract. And each deployed expert was made to remit about 35 per cent of his/her income to the government of Egypt monthly. Such remittances were not difficult to make since those expert were well paid. The remittances were made directly by the employers who deducted the agreed amount from the salaries of their employees. Thus, in those days, manpower generated from planned education was more profitable than today’s oil wells. It is a confirmation that a well planned education is an investment like no other.
Yet, countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates and others that benefited from the programme found the arrangements convenient because they did not need to employ interpreters separately as would have been the case if they had employed Americans, French, Germans and Italians for the same purpose. At least, based on Islamic principles, their languages and culture were almost the same.
Social welfare
With the provision of social welfare for the people, Egyptian government of the 1970s, led by Anwar Sadat after the demise of Gamal Abdel Nasir, was able to solve the problem of the three necessities of life: food, shelter and clothing. Not only that, the government was also very much aware that an idle hand was the devil’s workshop. It therefore provided soft loans for many university graduates to embark on small scale businesses that could boost the nation’s economy at the micro level.
With this, it became possible for most of those fresh graduates to be self employed while aiming high to mount the economic ladder of life to the very top. Today, some of those businesses have grown into gigantic industries exporting their products to many countries, including Nigeria.
If Egypt is not one of Africa’s poor countries today, it is because her government managed that nation’s meagre economy to the benefit of her ordinary citizens, despite several decades of war with Israel. Compared to the industrialised nations, Egypt may not be called a rich country now, but her preparation for the future seems to be assuring her of a front line economic position soon. Her unsurpassed investment on manpower through education is a confirmation of that.
Industrialisation
What obtains in Egypt equally obtains in most other Arab countries, especially those of the gulf. For instance, Saudi Arabia has always known that oil would not flow forever in her wells. Thus as far back as the 1970s, that country had diversified her economy by establishing two industrial cities of Yambu’ and Jubail, a project (commissioned in 1982) which the United states described as the most ambitious ever in the industrial history of mankind.
Much more have since been put in place for the benefit of the future generations. And, travellers who have visited countries like Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria will confirm that the future of global wealth will definitely be in the Middle East courtesy of foresights of the above mentioned leaders. But the greatest assets of those countries are manpower which their free education programme is providing from primary schools through the university with impeccable foresight.
Shameless deception
Long before now, a promise of economic leap was made in respect of year 2000. That year came to pass without any effort made towards fulfilment. Then, another promise was made in respect of year 2010. That year also came to pass without any sign of seriousness on the part of the government even as Nigeria sank deeper into economic quagmire. Now it is the turn of year 2020 which will also come to pass in three years time. Haba! Is there no shame all for those running the government in Nigeria? The speedy economic train of the modern time waits for no crawling nation like Nigeria.
Blind trust
Long before the West came to know anything about the term “blind trust” at all, Islam had educated the Muslims in details on that subject. The great religion had foreseen the possibility of manipulating this term to the advantage of the exploiters in certain societies and, had thus, forbidden it.
In Islamic jurisprudence, “blind trust” simply means the transaction of business illegally between a seller and a buyer to the detriment of either of them. In this case, the buyer or seller may be an individual or a group. “Blind trust” is like a coin with two sides. In it, either the seller or the buyer can cheat. An example is a situation where a product is sold in a wrap without allowing the buyer to examine what he wants to buy before paying. This may occur in any sector of the economy. In agriculture for instance, it is forbidden to sell tubers like yam and cassava without uprooting them. Such a business is often done on a mere assumption, thereby putting either the seller or the buyer at a great risk and disadvantage.
Varieties of blind trust
Blind trust may also occur in an ordinary market of quantity grains like rice, beans, millet, bally salt or groundnuts where and when the instrument of measure is manipulated with the intention of reducing the quantity of its contents while receiving the payment in full. Also, selling wrapped dresses or textile materials without indicating their sizes, yardage or fault may amount to “blind trust”. Even, those who engage in the sale of electronics without allowing the buyers to test the products before paying are trading in “blind trust”, which is illegal in Islam. In a nutshell, any business that entails some elements of doubt and does not allow for transparency is “blind trust” prohibited in Islam. And, anybody who is engaged in such a business is deemed to be a criminal.
In retrospect
It must be remembered that the people of Madyan (Median) whose Prophet was Shuayb, faced with the wrath of Allah and became perished because of “blind trust”
In modern times, the term “blind trust” has been given a new connotation through a new manipulation. Not only is the chain of business deliberately being elongated to allow for more middlemen to allow for unnecessary inflation, the sale and purchase of public shares on behalf of some people without the knowledge of those people is being treated as a legitimate norm in capitalism. And that is the haven of corruption in Nigeria.
Today, if corruption does not wear the garb of ethnicity, it would robe in the garment of religion. When will this come to an end?
