NIGERIA’S SUKUK BONDS: INCHING CLOSER TO A SHARI’A COMPLIANT STATE

Nigeria’s Federal Government has just announced the commencement of offers for its Sukuk (Shari’a compliant ) Bonds. Sukuk Bonds and financial instruments are designed to ensure investment in solely Shari’a compliant investments and activities.

Some of the questions now arising include::

1. Why would Nigeria, a supposedly secular state, or at the very least a multi-religious state, issue Shari’a compliant bonds/financial instruments?

2. Will the entirety of the Nigerian Federation have to be Shari’a compliant at the time of the redemption of the Sukuk Bonds?

3. Is it possible to extricate proceeds from Value added Taxes (VAT) derived from breweries {alcohol sales} which constitutes a sizable proportion of revenue of the Federal Government and its component States from the funds that will be used to redeem the shari’a-compliant Sukuk bonds?

4. Will paying of Federal taxes, some of which will eventually be used to redeem the Sukuk Bonds, not intone being Shari’a compliant for non-Muslim Nigerians?

5. Is this yet another surreptitious step down into an abyss for Nigeria?

Restructuring and renegotiating the Nigerian contraption will stem this slide and more like it.