By: A G Abubakar

What If There Were A Dangote Halal Bank, A Bua Sunnah Bank And Halal Finance Institutes Across The Region?
It would have been less agonising to avoid the grim statistics and the facts behind them when dealing with the challenges across the 19 states that constitute the geographical North. But, that would amount to playing evasive; akin to bringing a case before a law court but avoiding putting a “face” on the accused.

The insidious culprits in this case are the growing cases of insecurity and deprivations that have almost succeeded in pushing the region into a socioeconomic cul-de-suc with a concomitant potential to pull the nation down. A dire situation now that could only be avoided, if and when, the elites, industrialists and governments at the state and local levels in the region, should come together, as a matter of urgency to forge a common front against insecurity and economic hardships to shield the masses from being galvanised by mass discontent and as a consequence resort to the unorthodox. Currently, the North as it is ,is the North no one wants.

The other parts of Nigeria may not be immune from such a crisis, but those in the North dwarf them in terms of scale, intensity, and ideological content. In actuality, if the North were to be an independent state, it would nearing a failed one by now, especially given the increasing number of ungoverned spaces, the rising propensity to resort to self-help, the breakdown of law and order and the dwindling national capacity to address them effectively.

Insurgents and Gunmen in the Midst
By last count, experts believe that there are about thirteen (13) armed groups operating in the North alone. More than half of them are thought to be ideological Jihadists with territorial ambitions. They include the well-known ones like Boko Haram, ISWAP (Islamic State in the West Africa Province) Al’Ansarudeen, Jama’a Islamiy, the Qur’aniyun, and lately the Lakurawa which is believed to be a franchise of the JNIM (Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin) and also an affiliate of the Al-Qaed.

The Lakurawa, though the “new kids on the block” has been determined to have its roots in the Sokolo/Kebbi enclaves of Nigeria where the ancestors of the group’s founder, Amadu Kofa (Amadou Koufa), came from decades ago. Though founded and incubated in Mali, the Movement kept touch with Nigeria and parts of Niger Republic. Records indicate that communities in these regions had cause to enlist their support in the fight against bandits and cattle rustlers before also becoming a violent group, too. The group was pushed out of the country about a decade ago, only to take advantage of the recent diplomatic friction between Nigeria and Niger to stage a comeback. This time around more deadly.

The terrorist formations comprising armed bandits, kidnappers, and highway robbers have been multiplying by the day. Most are identified by their warlords who bear names and/or sobriquet like Buharin Daji, Ado Alero, Ali Kachalla, Yellow, Sububu (Kachalla Halilu Sububu Seno), Alhaji Karki,Dogo Gide, Bello Turji etc.

Today, only four (4) or five (5) states out of the nineteen (19) in the northern part of the country are relatively safe in terms of life and property. They include Kano/Jigawa, Gombe/Bauchi, and, to a lesser extent, the FCT and Nasarawa. Boko Haram/ISWAP is still very active in parts of Borno,Yobe, and Adamawa, while bandits are having field day in Taraba. The armed herdsmen and kidnappers basically considered economic terrorists have taken over large swatches of LGAs in Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, and Kebbi states The Lakurawa has added ideological dimension to the crisis.

Niger and Kaduna States are hosts to both economic terrorism and jihadists in such enclaves as Birnin Gwari, Kwantagora, Shiroro, Mokwa and others. The Ansaru Islamic group along with Boko Haram/ISWAP, Mourabitoun, the Qur’aniyun cells maintain heavy presence in the zone making life terribly challenging for the numerous communities.The neighbouring states of Kwara (Kaiama, Baruten etc) and Kogi (Okene, Obajana axis) have equally been infiltrated.

The Benue/Plateau region and parts of Taraba and Southern Kaduna states have been grappling with herdsmen and farmers clashes aside from the ethno-religious crisis that have been going on for decades and still sustaining. Inter-religious, inter-tribal, and inter-cultural tensions are frequent occurrences with far-reaching consequences for both life and property.

The Devastations.
Recent studies by such respected firms as the Nigeria based SB Morgen (SBM Intelligence), and Nigeria’s Beacon Security and Intelligence Ltd, provided insight into the gory impacts of terrorism, insurgency and banditry across the North and their concomitant socioeconomic deprivations. For the period between July 2023 and June 2024, the SB Morgen research indicates that 7,568 people were kidnapped for ransom. Out of this, 1,056 were killed. And, over a billion naira paid in ransom. The trio states of Zamfara, Katsina, and Kaduna topped the kidnapping list.In fact, except for Enugu, the top ten (10) kidnapping-prone states in the nation are in the North.

Thousands of lives have been lost, aside from the psychological trauma visited on the citizens by the numerous insurgency groups, and the picture of the devastation in the North becomes clearer in both physical and mental senses. Physically, it has been difficult for people to undertake traditional economic activities like farming and commerce in the affected areas. Physical infrastructure like national power grid and rail lines have not been spared either. Mentally, through radical preaching by the insurgents, a huge segment of the society has been instigated against the government and its policies (financial inclusion) and social safety nets programmes.

Successive governments have been trying to address the crisis of existential resistance in the region, but so far, the impacts have been minimal. The combo of kinetic and non-kinetic approaches (amnesty, de-radicalisation, etc) didn’t seem to work well. Maybe it’s high time to factor in other root causes to the crisis, namely poverty and ignorance. The panacea for the two should revolve around education, financial inclusion (including the resuscitation of the SMEs), and the re-positioning of the nation’s security architecture for efficiency and effectiveness. The masses, the Northern industrialists/elites, and the government should target the challenges in tandem; joint targeting.

Breathing life into the moribund but critical sectors.
From various sources, including casual observations, it is apparent that the industrial base of the North has totally collapsed. The famous Kaduna, Kano, Zamfara, and Plateau industrial enclaves have all gone under over the last three decades or so. Agriculture and livestock have not been left out of the regression.

The textiles, leatherwork, oil mills, and bottling ventures have become “ghost towns.” For instance, it has been estimated that over 145 textile related businesses have shut down by the end of 2015, during which over 50,000 direct jobs were lost and millions more affected indirectly. A development that precipated poverty, which incidence has since gone beyond 70% (NESG,2019) in such states like Sokoto, Taraba, Jigawa, etc. The poverty challenges coupled with low literacy levels, among other factors, became enablers of insecurity in the region.

Both the formal and the non formal educational systems in the region have suffered from years of neglect by successive governments.This is in addition to some existing pockets of resistance by sections of the society in the North even by the turn of the 21st century. The Nomadic Education Program and the Almajiri Schools strands had but literally been kept on the back burner. The neglect, the tacit resistance, and lately the insurgency/ terrorism have generally devastated the educational system measures in the Northwest and Northeast regions, thereby rendering millions of kids to poverty and radical manipulations.

In fact, statistics from the UNICEF showed that 16 m out of the 20 million out-of-school children are from the North. This is in addition to over 67% of the womenfolk in the region who can not read or write. In short, they are illiterates (curtesy former VP, Osinbajo, WIMBIZ, ’24).

The rich Northerners should invest more
The Forbes listing for 2023/24 top 10 billionaires in dollar terms in Nigeria have many Northerners featuring prominently. Dangote maintains the first position in both Nigeria and Africa. He comes in with $15.3 billion. Abdulsamad of Bua comes second with $7.6 billion. People like Muhammad Indimi of Oriental Energy Resources (OER) with over half a billion dollars and TY Danjumma of South Atlantic Petroleum (SAPERO) equally made the list. The question has this achievement impacted the regions’ well? Well, not much, except for bragging right or a psychological massage that the region still matters. For, over 80% of individuals living among the quartet in the region survive on less than 50 cent a day. A scenario that may qualify as one of the morally repugnant income inequality in the world today, with disconcerting consequences.

The national financial inclusion rate, according to Access the Access to Finance firm (A2F, 2023), stood at 67%. The North East and North West have 47% each signifying low inclusion due to poor earning capacity and/or aversion for conventional banking. May be that explains the fact that since the collapse of the Bank of North, none of the current
major banks in Nigeria has its national Hq in the North. This is aside from the nominal shareholdings in the banking sector by the region as a whole.

The call here is to the governments at all levels to pay a renewed and greater attention to education and
agriculture as it joins hands to defeat the threats of the existential insecurity across the region. The initiative in this respect should include the establishment of the Islamic Finance Institute (IFI) by the relevant state governments.

Individuals like Aliko Dangote, Mangal,and Abdulsamad Rabiu should increase their commitments to socioeconomic cause by establishing an alternative banking system. A system that is compliant with the people’s faith. In short, a banking system that meets the Islamic tenets. After all, the pursuit of wealth should be underpinned by the search for eternal redemption and salvation. Life on earth is a short one.

Dangote, in a fit of emotion arising from his perceived threat to his refinery and indeed business, said he is 67 years old, and so he had lived a larger part of his life. What he was doing therefore was not for himself but for the good of the nation and posterity. He went further to offer the refinery to any interested buyer. Besides, he said, people don’t take wealth to the grave. Aliko, like most rational beings, has come to terms with the effemeral nature of existence. The vanity of life. The same thought may once in a while cross the minds of his younger “cousin” in business, Abdulsamad of BUA Group and the others.

They can use their wealth to uplift the very society that gave them the opportunities to be what and who they are today. They may have been doing that through their various corporate humanitarian Foundations, but they need to extend the same to cover banking services, especially the Islamic brand. Truth, is their immediate constituency and catchments have been financially excluded. The federal government’s attempt at financial inclusion has not registered great success in the region due to a mixture of poverty and religious belief that abhors interest bearing financial systems.

Appropriate Banking System to leverage Government Initiatives. It would be interesting to see Dangote and Abdulsamad each floating halal (islamically permissible banking) bank to compliment government interventions that seek to break resistance to developmental processes in parts of the North. Private investors along with the government can open up the SME sector through the promotion of financial empowerment and inclusion schemes. This is regardless of the likelihood that banking may fall outside of their current core business interests. For a fact, an economically empowered region like the North has the potential for being the bedrock for their long-term business interests in view of its market size. Venturing into the banking space may, therefore, engender a win-win relationship. Besides, the required capital outlays for the advocated regional banks won’t dent their net worth of billions of dollars.

The CBN recently prescribed a new recapitalisation for banks depending on their categories. These include, the international, national, and regional, which capital base was put at N500 billion, N200 billion, and N50 billion, respectively. Merchant banks should have N50 billion while Non-interest banks need N20 billion for those with national spread and N10 billion for regional ones. To the duo, Aliko and Abdulsamad can conveniently foot such bills with ease. They can opt for foreign partnership to access global best practices and also reduce the initial financial outlay.

So let the North and indeed relevant parts of the nation have two halal banks floated by the duo. So let there be a Dangote Halal Bank (DHB), BUA Halal Bank (BHB), and even Indimi Halal Bank (IHB) to complement the not too solid ones currently on ground. Lesser known individuals can equally do the same. The relevant governments in the region should equally establish Halal Finance Institutes to provide the needed manpower and other cross-cutting support services. This should deny radical ideologues the sustained dangerous hold on the people.

The tripartite approach involving the governments, private investors, and millions of faithfuls shall be a game changer in North’s drive for stability and development and invariably the nation at large. Charity, they say, begins at home.
A.G.Abubakar agbarewa@gmail.