No need for apprehension overIslamic banking -Soyinka

NOBEL Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka,has condemned the apprehension that greeted the proposed Islamic banking by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi.
Delivering the keynote address at the ongoing Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Monday, Soyinka said the structural woes facing the country did not generate from any mode of banking, suggesting rather that the nation needed to unite to move forward.
This was preceded by the upbraiding of the NBA by the Rivers Stategovernor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, who delivered the opening address.
In his address, Soyinka said it was not the Islamic banking system that was responsible for the breakdown of social infrastructure such as education, health, power supply, among others, in the country.
He said any Nigerian hadthe right to apply for any system of banking, as much as such process conformed with the laid down lawsof the nation, expressing surprise as to how the non-interestIslamic banking had contravened the law of the land.
He said non-interest banking, which exists in other countries like the United Kingdom and the United States of America, did not, in anyway, lay the foundation for the global financial meltdown, the militancycrisis in the Niger Delta and the Boko Haram in some states of northern Nigeria.
He, however, said “we need to come together and engage the protocolof national conference and dialogue,” which, hesaid, was the surest way of moving the country forward.
In his address, GovernorAmaechi advised the NBA to stand as the beacon of hope to the common man, noting that the rule of law would not be achieved ifcorruption subsisted.