The
Abdulmutallab (Flight 253
Jet Bomber)
effects and President Yar’Adua’s
sickness have the tendency to
dominate discussion(s) among
Nigerians. This is due to the
negative consequences
(criminalization of Nigerians etc)
Mutallab has caused for innocent
Nigerians. In the case of Yar’Adua,
his sickness has caused serious
political tension and near
constitutional crisis. It is
because of the above and many more
that Nigerians marched under
freezing cold to protest on the
streets of London on January 15th.
For our folks back home, the cold
here in like living inside deep
freezer. This is no longer global
warming, it is global warning.
On
the
Save Nigeria Protest March;
I wish to make a special appeal to
Obama (United States President) to
reconsider and remove Nigeria from
the list of axis of fourteen evil
nations. Rather what the United
States authorities need to do is
to search and scrutinize every
dollar coming from Nigeria either
through the passengers or through
the banks. President Obama should
encourage the European Union to do
same for every euros or pounds
that comes from Nigeria. This will
be the best outcome of the
Mutallab incident.
Before proceeding, I want to
comment on the statement (warning)
from Vice President Goodluck
Jonathan to some government
officials etc. It appears the
house (Federal Executive Council)
is divided or crack has began to
emerge on loyalty or otherwise of
some Yar’Adua’s cabinet members.
May be the Vice President has
started to act as the president
with full executive powers since
our President is sick? If so, did
he follow due process, if not?
Then why not? Or the Vice
President has decided to learn
from Guinea experience, where
their leader Moussa Dadis Camara
has agreed to let the second in
command led the country.
Whichever, what we need is good
governance in Nigeria.
However, let me remind Nigerians
not to get too distracted by
Farouk Abdulmutallab’s incident
and President Yar’Adua’s sickness.
Let us keep one eye on the yearly
budgets which various states in
Nigeria are announcing. Ebonyi
State announced a budget proposal
of N72.6 billion; Ogun State
announced a budget of N100.7
billion.
Kano proposed N110bn for their
budget, Kaduna proposed N196.7bn
for 2010 budget, Yobe planned
N62.42b for 2010 budget, and
Anambra proposed N67 billion for
2010 budget. Proper implementation
of all these budgets can actually
have positive impact on our
economy.
We need
to police these budgets so as to
trap all the money within the
system. Moreover, the revelation
by
the
Federation
Account Allocation Committee (FAAC)
should be a recipe for policing
our budgets. FAAC reveled that, a
total of N4.174 trillion was taken
from Federation Account in 2009
and shared amongst the three tiers
of government (Federal, state, and
local) as allocations.
FAAC also revealed that a total of
$5.5 billion was withdrawn from
the foreign excess crude account
in the same year and shared by the
three tiers of government.
If
there are no leakages in the
system, the amounts budgeted by
various state governments and the
federal government can stimulate
the economy. We can try our best
to block leakages in our system.
The
Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian
banks, bankers, Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),
Nigerian Customs, and Nigerians
will need to work in harmony to
achieve this. We will also need
the assistance of our foreign
partners. The Central Bank should
monitor the operations of the
commercial banks very well. I will
suggest That Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission should
post at least 2 staffs each at the
foreign remittance department of
every commercial bank in Nigeria.
Their duties amongst others should
be to verify every remittances
leaving Nigeria.
I will
also recommend that the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission
post at least one staff to all
finance and treasury departments
of all federal, state and local
government departments. I will
suggest that the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),
State Security Services (SSS), and
The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) to
create a covert unit mainly to
infiltrate all financial
institutions in Nigeria to prevent
financial crimes. Proactive
measures should be encouraged
rather than reactive approaches.
Let us remember that prevention is
better than cure. Furthermore, I
will suggest intense pressure on
our law makers to pass the freedom
of information bill this year
(2010). It will aid the law
enforcement agents to do their
work and it will empower Nigerians
to ask questions about government
transactions. It will abolish the
official secret act used to commit
all sorts of government frauds.
Nigerian banks and bankers have a
serious role to play to prevent
capital flight. They are in a
better position to assist in
monitoring movement of states
monthly allocations and by
extension monitor our budgets.
However the recent revelations
about activities of some top bank
executives (Mrs Ibru, Akingbola
etc) does not encourage anyone to
even entrust his money with these
smart men and women who call
themselves bankers. On this note,
I will support Sanusi (Central
Bank Governor) to introduce tough
measures to regulate the banks and
restore investors’ confidence.
I also
want to ask the bankers (both
junior and senior staffs) not to
hesitate to alert the authorities
whenever there is a suspicious
movement of funds. I know it
sounds odd or unethical, but that
might be a saving grace. I will
buttress my point using 2
examples. Recently a total of over
7,000 staffs were, sacked,
retrenched, removed or dropped
from various banks. But if some of
these sacked bankers had alerted
the authorities (EFCC, etc) as
their bosses were misusing funds,
may be things might have taken a
different shape. When you keep
quiet, be sure to be the next
victim. Another example is, had
the passengers on the same flight
with our own under wear bomber
(Farouk Mutallab) not prevented
him; all of them would have died.
Henceforth, we should all shine
our eyes and not let few people
remove food from our table or
cause us hardship. It will not be
a bad idea if our bankers can
volunteer useful information to
our authorities. It will be better
for the economy and our country if
banks can sack one or two people
for alerting the authorities than
sacking over 7,000 staffs who kept
quiet. I just hope we still have
patriotic bankers.
The
Nigerian Customs need to be awake
to their responsibilities,
especially with the Farouk
incident. I hope the new airport
scanners to be introduced should
be able to spot those taking the
government money overseas.
Nigerians need to keep an eye on
the Customs. We need to beam our
search light on them to be sure
they are effectively policing our
borders. I also believe there will
be patriotic Custom officers who
will discharge their duties
without fear or favour. Every
little thing we do count for or
against us as a people.
My
concern is for the Nigerian system
to trap all the money budgeted
this year. My call to police our
budget(s) is because
our
politicians can be clever with our
money. Watch it, each time the
monthly allocation comes,
money/capital starts to fly up and
down, in and out of the country
and naira will start changing into
euros, dollars, pounds, rand, etc.
Nigerians should not hesitate to
volunteer information that will
prevent capital flights. This is
for the interest of the economy
and our people. We can gather
intelligence or become intelligent
agents. There is nothing wrong to
spy or do enhanced surveillance.
Finally, let me use this medium to
commiserate with the people of
Haiti and
Nigerians living there over
the devastating earthquake. Please
let us contribute our quota towards
the relief efforts to assist the
people of Haiti. The world has
become a global village, what
happens in one part, affects the
rest of the global village. I wish
also to appeal to Nigerians to
participate and join the fight
against global warming. Turn off
your electrical appliances/lights
when not in use. Plant a tree or
sponsor one to plant on your behalf.
Government and companies should send
less paper work and do more email,
telephone, and sms. May God bless
Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta.
An activist and leader of “Support
Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
