We’ve been watching developments in Nigeria closely as of late. Lamido Sanusi is that country’s central bank governor and, unfortunately, he is also a Shariah scholar of sorts. As we have reported previously, he is pushing hard for Nigeria to embrace Shariah-compliant finance and has pulled all sorts of strings to facilitate it.
This has made many Nigerians nervous, especially since the country is being subject to an Islamic insurgency aimed at establishing Shariah law in the northern portion of the nation.
Now we learn more about what Lamido Sanusi has in mind for Nigeria’s financial system and it may as well be a clinic on the true nature of Islamic economics and Shariah finance. What is that true nature: a centralized economic system that would make Stalin and Mao blush. Among Sanusi’s proposals are one for a a cashless economy brought about by limiting daily cash withdrawals from commercial banks.
In fact, when you read through his bizarre activities over the past couple of years, one gets the distinct impression that he is trying to gain complete control over the Nigerian financial and banking system through a series of flip flops and decisions which can accurately be described as crony capitalism and bureaucratic harassment. The article linked below is well worth the read:
http://www.independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx?id=37760
