The laundering of 182 Billion Dollars

NIGERIA has been financially haemorrhaged by
some corrupt leaders, as a report from the United
States-based Global Financial Integrity indicates.
The agency recently said a total of $182 billion
was stolen and laundered offshore between 2000
and 2009. Nigeria is ranked eighth out of 20
countries notorious for illicit financial outflows,
just as it is placed 135th out of 176 in the
Transparency International's Global Corruption
Perception index. The plundering of our
commonwealth by just a few goes against the
grain of prevailing crippling poverty,
unemployment and decrepit socio-economic
infrastructure.
The GFI described Nigeria as "the leading source
of illicit financial outflow from sub-Saharan
Africa." This is a huge paradox as the theft
happened under a democracy. Since 1999, the
country has been under civil rule. According to
the GFI, it relied on analysis of data from the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund to
reach its conclusion, stressing that developing
countries lost a total of $903 billion in 2009. Even
now, the trend is accelerating as graft is worn as a
badge of honour.
What fostered this heist is not difficult to
fathom. Ours is a government being run by
narrow minds, and harder hearts.
Mismanagement of oil wealth and illegal oil
bunkering have strewn a cobweb of corruption,
making slush funds easily available for pillaging.
However, the seemingly industrial scale of the
looting, despite the operations of the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission and the
Independent Corrupt and other Related Offences
Commission, should arouse some curiosity. Is it
that the anti-graft bodies were deficient,
complicit or looked the other way while the
looters had a field day? And what role did the
banks play? These are genuine concerns.
The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and the
Special Control Unit against Money Laundering
were established to strengthen the performance
of the EFCC. Under the act, through automation,
banks alert the EFCC on transactions that fall
within the "suspicious thresholds." From periodic
revelations of how public funds are looted by
public officials, with banks as conduits, it is
obvious that extant laws on money laundering
are observed only in the breach. Annually, the
Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Deposit
Insurance Corporation audit the books of these
banks; yet the humongous illicit transactions that
pass through their systems in violation of extant
financial regulations are not made public.
Nevertheless, the only oasis was the CBN's
hammer of 2009, which fell on some corrupt bank
chief executives who were not only relieved of
their jobs but were prosecuted.
Money Laundering Prohibition Act (2011) as
amended prescribes limits of financial
transactions in banks by individuals and bodies
corporate, beyond which a bank must alert the
EFCC or make transaction reports. The MLPA
increased the threshold for reporting
transactions by individuals from N1 million to N5
million and between N5 million and N10 million
for corporate bodies. Abuse of this regulatory
regime was evident in the pension funds looting
spree uncovered by the Senate in a recent
investigation.
The political leadership is not sincerely
committed to the eradication of corruption. As
the chairman of the ICPC, Ekpo Nta, once put it,
"there is no political will to fight corruption in
Nigeria." Key public officials do not demonstrate
exemplary conduct such as adopting a modest
lifestyle, and avoiding corruption themselves.
People found guilty of corruption are not
punished because of their position or status in
the society. The "big fish" are not only protected
from being prosecuted for corruption, the
unlucky few that are prosecuted get light
sentences. Besides, spurious state pardons are
remedial measures for the few that get
convicted. It is this vacuous moral compass that
led the administration of the late President
Umaru Yar'Adua, in cahoots with corrupt
politicians, to hound the pioneer chairman of the
EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, out of office.
In the corporate sphere, the scourge is as
corrosive and devastating as it is in the political
arena. A disgraced former bank executive
reportedly acquired 12 homes in the United
States, 28 shops and seven residential houses in
Dubai, and four houses in South Africa, all bought
with laundered funds. Indeed, the rot in the
banks is very deep. Since successful money
laundering is largely a product of either
connivance of, or negligence of, bankers, the
Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria Act
2007 has a redemptive role to play here. Striking
out names of its members aiding and abetting
money laundering from its register has become
imperative. By so doing, such elements become
professionally prostrate and are seen as lepers
who should never be employed by other banks.
But, the situation is becoming hopeless. The
former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton,
described the level of corruption in Nigeria as
"unbelievable." Fighting corruption requires a
strong political leadership. The basic
requirement of civilised democracy is that
everyone plays by the rules and that the rules
command public confidence. Brazen stealing of
public funds will continue until laws aimed at
fighting corruption are strictly and consistently
applied.