By Chimezie Godfrey
Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center(CISLAC) has urged the presidency to fulfil its commitments to the anti-corruption fight by empowering relevant agencies with necessary legal operationalization tools to effectively deliver on their mandates.
Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani,Executive Director,CISLAC who made the call during a press briefing on Thursday in Abuja expressed concern over the inability of the administration to efficiently fulfil its promise on anti-corruption at global and national fora.
“While we are excited about the commitment of the present administration to wage war against corruption, we are however, concerned over the inability of the administration to efficiently fulfil its promises on anti-corruption at global and national forums.
“This inefficiency is largely triggered by the delayed..assent to the enabling legal frameworks and instruments on anti-corruption by the national assembly and presidency.
“A case in point is the failure of the president Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the companies and allied matters act bill which was transmitted to his office on the 27th of May, 2019, after it was passed by the 8th national assembly on the 14th of May, 2019,” he said.
Rafsanjani wondered about the logic behind Nigeria’s calls to other countries to institute a legal framework for disclosure of beneficial ownership while it lags in legalizing same.
He reiterated the fact that current legislative measures in other countries need to go farther to effectively prohibit non-disclosure agreements by governments with big corporates, and to rejuvenate the use of secret trusts to hide beneficial ownership from the eyes of the law.
He warned that failure to sign the bill will result in dire consequences for the country.
“Inability to fulfil Nigeria’s 2016 London anti-corruption summit country statement to build public central register of company beneficial ownership information.
“Lagging in financial action task force requirements, whose efforts aim at promoting policies and standards that insulate global financial systems from acts of money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of destruction.
“We therefore, urged the presidency to fulfil its commitments to the anti-corruption fight by empowering relevant agencies with necessary legal operationalization tools to efficiently deliver on their mandates,” he said.
The Human rights activist also urged the president take advantage of his cordial relationship with the national assembly to resubmit the bill for assent.
