FRESH allegations that billions of dollars of oil wealth are stashed away by some Nigerians in American banks expose the contradictions in the Nigerian economy. While the government is cash-strapped and is borrowing to finance its activities, expenditure is escalating, and leakages abound.
A report by an international assets’ recovery firm suggests that Nigeria has refused to recover $69 billion oil sales money allegedly stashed away in American banks by a few of its citizens. This is shocking, especially as the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), claims to be fighting corruption and anxious to stabilise the economy.
Certainly, the allegations by Forensic Assets Investigation and Recovery Services are very weighty. In January 2019, FAIR, which collaborates with the World Bank, intimated the Buhari regime of the loot estimated at $69 billion through the now-disbanded Special Presidential Investigation Panel. The loot was reportedly made from illegal oil deals masterminded by public officials through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. FAIR alleged that $9 billion of the hoard was traced to a former National Security Adviser under the Goodluck Jonathan administration. For one individual, that is astounding.
By any standard, $69 billion is a staggering sum. At a time of shrinking revenue, rapid acquisition of new loans, muted growth and a burgeoning population, Nigeria is likely to be far better off than its current state with that amount. It is about twice the size of its external reserves, which stood at $34.8 billion in March. That sum reportedly sitting idly by in Texas banks is nearly twice the 2021 budget of $35.66 billion. Indeed, it can solve many problems, including liquidity problems and wipe out a good portion of the $86.3 billion national debt. In education, it can provide the funding requirements of the MoU between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities and pay for the sorely lacking social infrastructure, for which Nigeria needs $10 billion annually.
Defending the regime, the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation says it is gathering evidence on culpable government officials involved in the deal. In Nigeria, that is the euphemism for inconclusive probes. And, under Buhari, the anti-corruption fight is haphazard. To allay that fear and restore confidence in the regime’s anti-corruption war, this probe should be comprehensive, transparent and the feedback subjected to public scrutiny and parliamentary oversight.
Incidentally, several corruption scandals have been unearthed in this dispensation, but most of them have been poorly handled, reinforcing the public perception that the anti-corruption crusade is mere rhetoric. Beyond the seizure of houses worth $80 million and jewellery estimated at N14.4 billion from former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, bringing her to justice has been difficult. She was also mentioned in a $115 million slush fund to rig the 2015 elections. In her case, she fled the country in 2015, but even for those at home, their cases die down over time. Nigerians were shocked when $43.4 million, N23 million and £27,800 were discovered in an Ikoyi, Lagos home. After a brief period, the noise subsided. For a former governor, who is now a serving senator, his prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for fraud collapsed on the altar of the All Progressives Congress’ politics to select the Senate President. Accused of grand corruption, Abdulrasheed Maina, a former chairman of the Presidential Pension Task Force is just undergoing trial after public outcry.
All this paints a picture of a government treating corrupt practices banally. In April, the NNPC, which contributes about 75 per cent of the federally shared revenue, said it was unable to do so because it had paid for petrol subsidy. With such dire reality, the government should be interested in recovering the loot stashed away by corrupt Nigerians at home and abroad.
Among such is the $62 billion judgement of the Supreme Court. In 2018, the court ordered the Federal Government to recover the sum from five international oil companies for violating a 1993 law on production sharing contract. Up till now, that enforcement is hanging. In the same vein, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria has not been able to recover any substantial part of the N5 trillion of the bad debts of a few Nigerians it acquired following the financial crisis that started in 2008. According to AMCON, just 350 debtors owe 82 per cent or N3.6 trillion of the debts in their books. Although they have collateral, AMCON seems powerless in seizing their assets. That is an ineffectual way to fight sleaze.
But the government ought to understand that crime thrives when there is no punishment. In Nigeria, that has been the story, not the least under the current regime. That should not continue. Wealthy Nigerians and multinationals owe the taxman trillions of naira with no hope that they will ever be made to pay. In contrast, Spain has recovered millions of dollars in tax backlog by publicly prosecuting football stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Xabi Alonso, and a coach, Jose Mourinho. With a strong political will, the government should rise to the challenge of bringing looters and tax evaders to justice.
The state governors have been too docile in these affairs. They should show real interest in the current case because the loot, if recovered, belongs to the centre and the federating units. Governors should mount pressure on the Federal Government to get to the root of the $69 billion loot through a wide-ranging investigation of those mentioned by FAIR. The stakeholders should carry the assets recovery firm along.
Above all, Buhari should fulfil his campaign promise to reform the NNPC and prevent such wheeling and dealing.
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