THE rise in cases of money laundering and other financial crimes in Nigeria despite efforts to tackle them is quite disheartening. Last September, one Tijani Sheriff was caught with $7 million at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. Recently, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Nigeria Customs Service arrested the son of the Jigawa State Governor, Aminu Lamido, at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, for allegedly declaring only $10,000 instead of the $50,000 he had on him. In the last 11 months, the EFCC has reportedly intercepted over N15 billion at some airports in the country.
This is happening in a country that boasts several anti-money laundering laws, including the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011; Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011; and the Central Bank of Nigeria Anti-Money Laundering/ Combating the Financing of Terrorism Regulation, 2009 (as amended). This monster has done much damage to the country and needs to be tamed. It demands an urgent shake-up in the government agencies charged with implementing anti-money laundering and the financing of terrorism laws, especially the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Deposit and Insurance Corporation, EFCC/NFIU, Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, and the NCS.
In a recent report, an international non-governmental organisation, the Global Financial Integrity, stated that on the list of developing countries that lost $5.86 trillion through money laundering between 2001 and 2010, Nigeria occupied the seventh position with an illicit financial outflow of $129 billion. Other uninspiring countries include China with an outflow of $2.74 trillion and Mexico with $476 billion. The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, said recently that about $11 billion (N1.73 trillion) had been taken out of the country through the airports this year. On his part, the EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, reported that over N14 billion had been laundered abroad by corrupt Nigerians this year. These are admissions of failure.
Obviously, corruption thrives where the environment is conducive. The task of fighting it requires a change in public perception of corruption from a low risk, high reward activity to a high risk, low reward activity. If Lamorde sincerely believes in his recent reported statement that "corruption is one of the reasons Nigeria has not been able to make progress, socially, politically and economically," then, it behoves his commission to wake up and do something about financial crimes in the country.
And this is not limited to Lamorde's EFCC. How far has Sanusi gone in ensuring that banks and other financial institutions under his watch complied with the anti-money laundering laws? The law and regulations on AML/CFT authorise the CBN to require financial institutions to establish AML programmes, file certain reports and keep certain records of transactions. The United States authorities fined Europe's biggest bank, HSBC, about $2 billion for failing to enforce money laundering rules after investigators uncovered damning evidence of the bank's role in moving cash for Mexican drug cartels and for banks in rogue states.
Government functionaries are full of objectionable rhetoric. Since the establishment of the EFCC by the Olusegun Obasanjo government, it was only during the tenure of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as EFCC boss that there was a semblance of purpose in combating money laundering and other financial crimes in the country. Then, people like the former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun, and former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, were tried, convicted and jailed.
Most other high-profile corruption cases have remained inconclusive. Some former state governors who have cases to answer have brazenly come back to political reckoning. They boldly walk the streets today, pontificating on national issues. The anti-graft agency claimed that between January and December 2012, it filed about 353 cases in different courts in the country with about 53 convictions so far recorded. Not one of these convictions involved high-profile criminals. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other-Related Offences Commission is even worse as it appears to exist only in name now.
Under the watch of President Goodluck Jonathan, trillions of naira have been stolen from the nation's common till and no serious action is being taken. The oil industry remains the nation's major cesspit of corruption where trillions of naira have been stolen in fraudulent oil subsidy payments. The Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede-led Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments reported that about 197 subsidy transactions worth N232 billion in 2011 were illegitimate. As usual, a few people are going through the symbolic prosecution while the public officials that approved the transactions remain untouchable.
It is saddening that while other countries take serious exception to corruption, our leaders handle it with levity. Earlier this week, it was reported that four Britons formerly working for Swift Technical Energy Solutions Limited, were arraigned in a London criminal court for allegedly bribing Lagos and Rivers state officials to lower the taxes their workers paid in Nigeria.
Nigeria needs a comprehensive and sound legal, institutional policy and supervisory framework to curb money laundering. While we continue to live in denial of this problem, money laundering continues to pose a serious threat to the stability of the country. The country is in the throes of anarchy occasioned by terrorism, kidnapping and armed robbery because of the ease with which part of laundered money is used to import illegal arms and ammunition.
What we urgently need are formal regulatory and enforcement actions and not lamentations. The EFCC, CBN and other anti-graft agencies should redouble their efforts in the war against financial crimes. Though government funding is inadequate, what has EFCC achieved with the little it is given? The present EFCC's scattergun approach is not working. Nigerians want to see high-profile cases prosecuted and given accelerated hearing in the courts. Those found guilty should be severely punished. It is easy to blame poor funding, legal technicalities and other bottlenecks for what is primarily lack of strong political will.
The fight against corruption will come to naught if the actions and body language of the President do not indicate any seriousness to fight the monster. It takes an upright and assertive leader to change the course of a nation.
