It was a damning self-appraisal of Nigeria when President Goodluck Jonathan received the United Nations’ High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, at State House recently. The president rightly pointed out the extent to which corruption has ravaged Africa as the over $50 billion illicitly taken out annually is undermining the continent’s development. “The huge funds being illicitly taken out of Africa can solve our infrastructural and other problems” Jonathan said, adding: “corruption would be minimized if there are no places to hide the illicit funds.” Jonathan challenged oil refineries worldwide to ask questions about the source of the crude they refine, and said his administration was taking definite steps to check the theft of crude oil from Nigeria and directed all relevant ministries and government agencies to cooperate fully with the panel.
This cry from the heart by Jonathan, though laughable, is comforting because the president might finally be waking up to the fact that under his watch, corruption is killing Nigeria. According to the UN panel report on illicit flows, Nigeria accounted for more than 30% of all illegal financial transactions in Africa from 2002 to 2012. This blight on the toga of Nigeria is indeed lamentable, signposting as it does; the exportation of the corruption that abounds at home. Fundamentally, it is another pointer to the much vilified but unaddressed corruption in the country; and it is unfortunate that Nigeria keeps featuring among countries acknowledged for all the wrong reasons.
Although it is difficult to decipher the fiscal intricacies involved in illicit financial flows, the amount of $50 billion that is illegally siphoned from the continent annually is simply mind-boggling, but more importantly, the prospect of Jonathan making promises that may yield nothing is heart-rending. Even more so, because Nigeria as usual, is topping the table for illegal financial transactions in Africa; ahead of Egypt, South Africa, Morocco, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo. This indeed, is damning. This is a sad commentary on the administration’s predisposition to accountability. It is a clear demonstration of inept fiscal management, against the backdrop that not too long ago, the president granted a controversial pardon to former Bayelsa governor, convicted of corruption.
These illegal funds technically described in the international market as “Illicit Financial Flows” are categorized as corrupt practices by government officials and private sector practitioners; consisting specifically of under-taxation, over-invoicing, fake billings and outright stealing and illegal exploitation of natural resources. These activities obviously require accomplices in developed countries whose leadership may be less concerned because these particular funds are not connected with drug trafficking and terrorism. By this circuitous rigmarole, however, the impression is given that Nigeria is a country of fraudsters with zero respect for accountability. Parenthetically, these illicit financial flows are the result of pervasive corruption which mutually reinforces each other in an unending vicious cycle. In fact, under Jonathan, corruption has grown bold and ravenous that he has simply abandoned the fight; as if to say, if you cannot beat them, join them!
Corruption is criminal, inhumane and condemnable in all ramifications besides being a major cause of the country’s under-development; resulting in decrepit social infrastructure, dearth of health services, insufficient funding of education and a high crime rate. It is unacceptable to adduce any reason to justify corruption. As a people, however, it is necessary for Nigerians to task themselves about the cause of corruption. Why are people so materialistic that they wish to acquire everything in sight, including what they do not need? Why does the nation allow easy access to massive wealth by a few privileged persons, leading to a diminution of a sense of value, along with an ostentatious lifestyle that is insensitive to the misery of the masses? How does one reconcile the paradox of having the highest number of private jets in Africa, while most of the people live in abject poverty? What is the president’s policy for tackling the massive unemployment especially amongst the youths?
Above all, questions must be asked: what manner of man allows himself to be corrupted and to be consumed in greed? There are too many such greedy public officials and politicians who are headed to an unreachable island of illusory and material security. What goes on in the mind of such a person? Why is there a refusal to learn from greedy individuals from the past and present, who stashed funds in coded accounts in faraway countries but never got the benefit of spending them? Presidential apologists are quick to point to the many government agencies tasked with fighting corruption, but even Jonathan himself has demonstrated with his recent pardon of his former boss that, the entire process has been jaundiced and enmeshed in so much noise with very little success.
In civilized countries, public officials and businesses are reprimanded and punished for involvement in corrupt practices abroad. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act strictly prohibits United States businesses from paying bribes and so-called “facilitation fees” anywhere in the world as part of the cost of doing business. But in Nigeria, the president can afford to award a million-dollar contract to an Israeli firm to spy on Nigerians without due process; in violation of extant statutes and procurement laws. For all their hype on fighting corruption, this administration cannot point to any instances of success in investigation and prosecution of corruption offenders.
To address the movement of illicit money, the Economic Commission for Africa set up a Web Tracker to track, stop and return. Nigeria may indeed tap into the systems instituted by international agencies and other countries, but such efforts will be effective only if the president takes ownership of the issue and shows seriousness in his resolve to tackle corruption in the country. He should begin with the oil sector where the quantity of Nigeria’s oil output has been shrouded in mystery over the years. The recent disclosure by Shell that Nigeria lost a whopping $4.3 billion to oil thieves in the last two years at an average rate of $2.3 billion annually, indicates that oil theft has reached an alarming dimension and underscores the tragic nature of the problem. The nation’s leadership should enforce vigorously the extant laws against corruption. The only solution to Nigeria’s prevailing negative image is for the president to demonstrate with deeds, his commitment to fight corruption. Nigeria needs an enlightened president whose mind cannot be corrupted, as an imperative for national survival.
