African anti-corruption day: In search of common ground(I), by Ibrahim L. DanHalilu

The Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) on Wednesday, July 11 celebrated the first African Anti-Corruption Day in Abuja with a roundtable under the theme “Enhancing Domestic Resources for Sustainable Development Goals By Improved Asset Recovery and Asset Return.” The day has been designated by the African Union to commemorate the adoption of the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUCPCC) by members states in Moputo, Mozambique on July 11, 2003.
In recognition of the damage that corruption has inflicted on the continent, and to ensure and sustain high level of commitment to fighting corruption, the Assembly of the African Union also declared 2018 as the African Anti-Corruption Year to be observed all over Africa under the theme “Winning the Fight Against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation.” The United Nations has estimated that about $148 billion is stolen from Africa annually by political leaders, multi-national corporations, the business elite and civil servants as proceeds of corruption and illicit financial flows, which clearly suggests that money kept in foreign banks or liquidated into assets is enough to provide most of the basic infrastructure and services that Africa needs to uplift the livelihood of its people.
This underscores the need for urgent collective efforts to recover Africa’s stolen assets.
According to the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, the roundtable was organized to celebrate President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigeria for the major achievements in the anticorruption war since 2015.
It was also intended to provide a platform for stake holders to do an assessment of how the Buhari Administration has utilized the proceeds of the anti-corruption war towards attainment of the U.N.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the administration’s performance on asset recovery and blocking the flow of illicit finance.
Most Nigerians believe that the Buhari Administration has made remarkable successes in the anticorruption war.
Under the tutelage of PACAC, the present administration has launched four aggressive policy reforms that have changed the narrative of anti-corruption fight in the country.
The reforms adopted preventive approach to fighting corruption instead of the traditional reactive measures of arrest and trial of corruption offenders.
The first of such reform measures is enforcement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in 2016 which has blocked many leakages through which public servants and political office holders siphoned public funds.
As of April 2018, about N3 trillion has been mopped up and deposited in a dedicated account managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
In addition, the administration has enforced strict implementation of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) policy which aims to monitor bank transactions and identify unnumbered or fake accounts used by public officials to deposit corruption proceeds.
The policy has exposed many unnumbered accounts being operated by officials of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and transferred the money to the mainstream of the economy.
The third measure is the introduction of the Voluntary Asset And Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) last year by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) which is intended to capture the assets and income history of Nigerians living abroad or those living in Nigeria but operating substantial businesses abroad, and are not making tax remittances.
This measure has recorded appreciable success.
The Nigerian Government has equally signed the Open Government Partnership (OGP) to promote transparency and accountability by opening its activities to scrutiny by international partners.
The measure has built the confidence of these partners and encouraged multi-lateral engagements that support Nigeria’s anti-corruption war.
The four policy reforms have not only changed the way of conducting government business in Nigeria, but made funds available for important development projects.
The measures have also raised Nigeria’s ranking on the list of “ease of doing business” countries in Africa, which was not the case few years ago.
Despite the giant strides in fighting corruption, many Nigerians have faulted the strategy adopted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anticorruption agencies in tackling corruption.
The opposition People’s Democratic Party has accused the Buhari administration of selective prosecution of corruption cases that targets their members.
They alleged that the government is witch-hunting its members and intimidating them with arrests and unending investigations aimed at damping their morale so that they could withdraw from contesting any elective office in 2019.
Professor Sagay has disputed this claims huge success, describing the ongoing anti-corruption war as a huge success.
According to Sagay, almost on a daily basis Nigerians are reading news of a court order of forfeiture of looted funds, landed properties and other assets stolen by functionaries of the last government.
He revealed that billions of dollars have been traced to the functionaries of the last government and their associates all over the world while within Nigeria the value of recovered assets has risen to about N1trillion.
“Money recovered from abroad has followed same pattern, Switzerland, $321 million, United States, $$400 million and United Kingdom, $73 million, he told the attentive audience at the roundtable dialogue.
While the opposition is accusing the government of selective prosecution, the concern of many Nigerians is that the anti-corruption war has not recorded any high-profile conviction despite clear evidences against some top functionaries of the previous government.
As if responding to the public outcry, President Muhammadu Buhari two weeks ago signed an Executive Order on preservation of assets linked to corruption, which affects about 155 politically exposed persons and prominent business men, including former governors, ministers, party chieftains, and heads of government agencies.
The Administration also won another pyrrhic victory against corruption about the same time as it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Swiss Government to return $322.5 million from the late General Sani Abacha loot.
The signing of the MOU followed a long and tortuous discussion between the two countries during which the Nigerian Government delegation committed to utilizing the recovered funds towards the United Nation’s SDGs.