At the recent World Economic Forum,
the Nigerian President Dr. Good luck Jonathan stirred up a debate when he
reportedly told the international audience that Nigeria's problem is not
corruption but rather the insecurity situation that has not allowed
productivity to reach a commendable height and for the democracy dividends to
reach the millions of unreached rural poor Nigerians.
Most Nigerians immediately opposed
this way of analyzing the very serious and weighty existential problem
afflicting Nigeria which obviously is corruption that has not allowed Nigeria
to grow optimally and this climate of corruption has created widespread poverty
and hunger in the land and has led to the systematic collapse of vital national
assets and infrastructure thereby exposing a lot of Nigerians to insecurity of
lives and property coupled with the unprecedented rise in armed insurgency in
parts of the North. Globally, it is a notorious fact that money laundering,
terrorist financing and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction are interconnected and are indeed serious threats to security and
integrity of the financial system and constitute grave threat to the territorial
integrity of sovereign nations. So it was understandable why right thinking
observers challenged President Jonathan's assertion that corruption is not
Nigeria's most disturbing problem. He was wrong because corruption and
terrorism are like Siamese twins. Little wonder then that the Financial Action
Task Force, a global wide mechanism for confronting financial crimes was
compelled in February of 2012 to upgrade the international standards on
combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction.
The internationals standards which
recommend independent and strong institutional framework/mechanism was reviewed
to strengthen global safeguards and further protect the integrity of the
financial system by providing governments with stronger tools to take action
against financial crimes. These new standards rolled out on February 12th 2012
were targeted at addressing new priority areas such as corruption and tax
crimes. These twin evils are rife in Nigeria making it all the more imperative
that the nation has to work out an effective institution such as an independent
Nigerian Financial Intelligence office to tackle these crimes headlong away
from the bureaucratic bottlenecks that characterized the traditional crime
fighting models.
Corruption is Nigeria's most
important problem and must be seen as such. Those who are entrusted with
the duty of fighting corruption are expected to be accountable and transparent
in all their activities and the administration of the institutions that wage
war against corruption and economic crimes must be cured of all maladies
relating to abuse of power and corrupt enrichment of the officials. There is
therefore the clarion call internationally for the creation of an independent body
that will check and balance the activities of all the anti-graft institutions
so that no particular agency of government acquires the larger -than- life
tendency of thinking that the officials of these agencies are above the law.
Therefore the creation of the
Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit was geared towards making sure that all
financial transactions meet with international best practices and indeed this
body ought to be independent enough to be able to also monitor, collate and
circulate intelligence to all the agencies of law enforcement charged with the
constitutional duty of keeping Nigeria free from money launderers and
international kingpins who engage in illegal capital flight that contribute to
the economic downfall of Nigeria.
The advocacy for the creation of a
body of legislation to empower the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit to
become autonomous is said to be stridently opposed by some persons in the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Chairman is fingered as one of
those fighting the passage of this bill by the National Assembly because he
feels threatened that some of his executive powers would be eroded if this
department is made independent. This opposition has led to public spat between
the acting director of this Financial intelligence Unit and the chairman of the
EFCC to such an extent that the media is awash with reports that a detachment
of well armed mobile policemen on the alleged orders of the EFCC chairman took
over the offices of the NFIU thereby chasing away the acting Director and
refusing her access to her personal belongings. In this era of democracy should
any official of government be allowed to grow too big to be controlled by the
relevant laws? This and many other questions are expected to be answered by the
National Human Rights Commission so as to save Nigeria from international
opprobrium that may result from the determined effort of a cabal to undermine
the independence of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit.
This infighting notwithstanding, the
National Assembly, particularly the Federal House of Representatives kicked off
a public hearing on the executive bill to empower the Nigerian Financial
Intelligence Unit to become an independent institution on February 3rd 2014
with a strong note of warning by the Speaker of the Federal House of
Representatives, an accomplished lawyer Mr. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal that the
parliament is determined to pass the legislation so as to combat the increasing
wave of official theft, mismanagement of public fund in Nigeria. There is
no gainsaying the fact that under the current regime of anti-graft campaign,
the type waged since the appointment as Chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission [EFCC] Mr. Lamorde has yet to reignite the kind of momentum that
characterized the anti-corruption battles which was waged successfully by the
pioneer chairman Mallam Nuhu Ribadu who was however removed unceremoniously for
political reasons under the late Umaru Musa Yar'adua-led government. The
lackluster approach to the anti-graft war has now given rise to the clamor for
the creation of an independent Nigerian Financial Intelligence Department away
from the prying eyes or control of the chairman of EFCC since the office
coordinate the generation and distribution of intelligence on financial
transactions to all law enforcement agencies including the Department of State
Security [SSS], the Independent Corrupt Practices and allied offence Commission
[ICPC] among others.
On the public spat that greeted the
determination of the embattled acting director of the Nigerian Financial
Intelligence Unit Ms. Julieth Umezuoke to secure independence for that
office, a highly trusted and competent source at the National Human Rights
Commission hinted me last weekend that the Chairman of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission[EFCC] Ibrahim Lamorde, an assistant Commissioner of
police has been dragged before the Rights commission following a very
strong petition alleging abuse of power and threat to the life of one of Nigeria's
best known anti-corruption legal experts who is said to be heading the
Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit within the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission.
Listed as " PETITION
AGAINST THE EFCC CHAIRMAN MR. LAMORDE ON ABUSE OF POWER, THREAT TO LIFE ,INTIMIDATION
AND VICTIMIZATION OF BARRISTER JULIET IBEKAKU", the petitioner through her
lawyer is praying for a number of reliefs among which is the clarion call on
the authority to ensure that the precious life of this distinguished female
lawyer who incidentally is a pioneer senior staff of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission is not endangered by elements who are afraid that her bold
moves to secure total autonomy for the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit may
undermine their unpatriotic dealings. She also alleged that her office was
invaded by armed mobile policemen on the instruction of the EFCC boss on
December 20th 2013 and has not been allowed to pick her personal belongings.
The reputable female
lawyer left her job at THE UNITED NATIONS to join the EFCC in 2004 and for
the past 10 years, she has been serving the EFCC in various
capacities and was appointed acting DIRECTOR, NIGERIAN FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE
UNIT (NFIU) in 2012.
Some of the critical accomplishments
of the critically acclaimed female anti-corruption lawyer within one
year of her appointment to this national assignment were: the delisting of
Nigeria from the FATF blacklist, which received the generous support of
PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN and the cohesive collaboration of the
relevant stakeholders; the development of a strategic plan for the NFIU
that led to a collaborative approach to intelligence sharing between the NFIU
and other law enforcement agencies in Nigeria, particularly in the area of
anti-money laundering, combating terrorism financing and
international support for Nigeria.
In a bid to ensure that the NFIU was
operating within international standards as provided by the FATF, the acting
Director was directed by Mr. President through the Attorney General of the
Federation to initiate the Bill for the establishment of an independent NFIU.
This is because it was discovered that the domestication of the Unit in EFCC
has created a crisis of confidence amongst the other law enforcement
agencies and ultimately inhibited the efficiency in the fight against money
laundering and terrorist financing.
This position was reflected in an
Executive bill on the establishment of a “Nigerian Financial Intelligence
Agency” endorsed to the National Assembly for consideration. This is a
worthy cause.
+ Emmanuel Onwubiko is Head of Human
Rights Writers Association of Nigeria and blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.org; http://www.huriwa.org/
4/2/2014
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