Julieth Chinenye Nwaji is a mass communication graduate of the
Kogi State University, Anyimgba in Kogi State, North Central Nigeria. Miss
Nwaji who is in her early twenties is witty, sharp and articulate. She has this
amazing capacity for asking questions that the most profoundly sound
intellectual would have to reflect deeply before coming up with an appreciable
answer.
She sat next to me on Monday when I was busy doing this piece and
her inquiry to know if sovereign wealth fund is a new generation human right
triggered off series of unprecedented debate among two of my mutual friends who
were also present even as they could not come up with a consensus on her
question.
Miss Nwaji’s point of
observation emanated from the theme of my current piece in which I advanced the
position that sovereign wealth fund if properly put into use for the
utilitarian benefit of the greatest number of the people in a given political
entity may be considered a fundamental human right.
It is my considered argument that in nations such as Nigeria,
Equatorial Guinea, Congo[Kinshasha] Gabon, Angola among others whereby
natural resources endowed to those entities are explored and the revenue
accruable from the export of those rare resources stolen by successive
political administrations and diverted to private pockets, it would be
imperative for such countries to consider establishing Sovereign Wealth Funds
and for strong institutional and legal frameworks to be enforced for the
national assets saved in form of sovereign wealth funds used to build
functional infrastructure to promote better life for the greatest number of the
citizenry.
In his widely acclaimed scholarly book titled; "CRUDE CONTINENT; THE STRUGGLE FOR
AFRICA'S OIL PRIZE", Duncan Clarke cited example of Nigeria whereby
during the eight year reign of President Olusegun Obasanjo [1999-2007] Nigeria
earned $223 billion in oil revenues. Around 70 % of Nigerians remained in
survival mode, living on $1 USD per day [80% of oil revenues benefiting around
1% of the populace".
It is therefore safe to conclude that the decision by Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala to push for the establishment of the sovereign wealth fund is
indeed a remarkable push for the fundamental human rights of Nigerians to be
respected especially if the objectives of establishing the fund are strictly
enforced and the resources used to promote public good.
The Nigerian government through the ingenuity of the current
finance minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the approval of President Goodluck
Jonathan has just established the National Sovereign Wealth Fund (NSWF) last
year.
Financial pundits have already described the establishment of the
Nigeria’s National Sovereign Wealth Fund as the most significant economic
policy decision to have been taken by President Jonathan since coming into
office as an elected President in May 2011.
What is sovereign wealth fund and why is this a human right if one
may ask?
In their words, the Wikipedia stated thus;
“A sovereign wealth fund
(SWF) is a state-owned investment fund composed of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, property,
precious metals, or other financial instruments.
Sovereign wealth funds invest globally. Most SWFs are funded by foreign
exchange assets".
The Wikipedia further expounded that;
“Some sovereign wealth funds may be
held by a central bank, which accumulates the funds in the
course of its management of a nation's banking system; this type of fund is
usually of major economic and fiscal importance. Other sovereign wealth funds
are simply the state savings that are invested by various entities for the
purposes of investment return, and that may not have a significant role in
fiscal management”.
Global Scholar see human rights as the
most fundamental rights of human beings. They define relationships between
individuals and power structures, especially the state. Human Rights delimit
state power and, at the same time, require states to take positive measures
ensuring an environment that enables all people to enjoy their human rights.
It is universally acknowledged that
one of the sure ways that government ensures respect for the fundamental human
rights of citizens is for the enforcement of policies and measures that give
rise to good governance, zero-tolerance to corruption, promotion of the
principle and practice of accountability and transparency.
The primary purpose of establishing the
sovereign wealth fund by most developed societies is the creation of quality
infrastructure that are designed to make life meaningful and if members of the
political entity are provided with qualitative infrastructure to better their
lives as citizens, it is safe to say that the sovereign wealth Funds are
necessarily established for the promotion and protection of the fundamental
human rights to life; dignity of the human person; freedom of association;
freedom of movement and other basic freedoms and rights that are inherent,
universal, and also the right to development.
To demonstrate that the establishment
of the sovereign wealth fund by the Nigerian government is one sure way of
promoting and protecting respect for the fundamental rights of the citizenry, a
cursory look at the history of sovereign wealth fund is imperative.
According to a
publication on wikipedia.org, the very first SWF was the Kuwait Investment
Authority, which was established in 1953 before Kuwait secured its independence
from the United Kingdom. The Kuwaits’ Fund was created from crude oil revenues
and is reported to be currently valued at about two hundred and fifty billion
US Dollars ($250 billion). Kuwait is one of the best places to live in the
World before of the aggressive infrastructural development achieved with this
sovereign wealth fund.
Experts who support the establishment
by Nigeria of a sovereign wealth Fund wrote in http://www.financialnigeria.com/ that; “SWFs are thus
usually established to save and invest the excess liquidity that arises from
natural resource exploitation. When for instance revenue from crude oil sales
exceed the budget projections, the extra revenue represents excess liquidity.
Pumping the excess liquidity through spending back into the national economy
has the capacity to disrupt sound macroeconomic management. Inflationary
pressure becomes real risk and economic values are distorted. There is thus the
need to warehouse the excess liquidity in savings and then invest it for the
long term for cross-generational benefit”.
Apart from the establishment of the sovereign wealth Fund by the
Nigeria’s ministry of finance, last year also witnessed some milestones
achieved by the minister of Finance Mrs. (Dr.) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her
economic management team to tame the monster of corruption and to bring about
rapid economic transformation.
Finance ministry played a
critical role in realising what is possibly the most important response against
corruption by the administration so far by the establishment of the
Aig-Imoukhuede Committee to investigate fuel subsidy payments.
The Committee was a direct fallout
of the nationwide protests that followed the removal of subsidies on January 1,
2012. The President had reportedly pledged in the wake of the nation-wide
peaceful protest that the government would take action against any proven cases
of fraud in subsidy payments.
Finance minister inaugurated the
committee which did a forensic investigation of subsidy payments. The
result is seen in critical quarters as one of the most far reaching
investigations in the history of the country which resulted in clear progress
for the country. To ensure that the good work done by the Committee under the
Federal Ministry of Finance got the requisite support at the highest levels of
the government, the Committee was later elevated into a Presidential Committee
even as 25 firms were named and shamed and are currently being prosecuted by
the anti-graft commission for allegedly stealing over N400 billion from the
subsidy fund through false claims.
I must however conclude by
repeating what I had earlier published that the attempt to collect another debt totaling over $9 billion from some international creditors including China as
contemplated by the Federal Government is retrogressive and will return us to
position of a slave nation.
* Emmanuel Onwubiko, head, HUMAN Rights Writers’
ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA writes from
www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
14/1/2013
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