A Show of Shame: Is Nigeria a Political Adventure or a Comedy?
“Nigerians are worried by these stories of stack money perpetuated by the high and mighty in society. Even more disturbing is the relative ease with which the culprits get away with these acts that, in more civilized countries, would carry a prison sentence. As a patriotic Nigerian, it pains me to see Nigeria suddenly becoming a comedy workshop. Sadly, our leaders are acting more like comedians than doing what we voted them to do.”
In the unprecedented fictional classic Animal Farm, famous writer George Orwell painted a clear picture of the quest for power, greed, and materialism. Orwell tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human master, hoping to create an egalitarian society where the animals can be equal, autonomous, and happy. As the plot thickens and plays out, the rebellion becomes a betrayal, and the farm ends up in a state even worse than before under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon. The pig ends up subverting the revolution. You may wonder why I began with this analogy. I have taken my time in the past few years to study Nigeria. I can now confidently draw my conclusion as a personal opinion that Nigeria is no different from Animal Farm. Animal Farm in Nigeria is enormous. On this farm, some creatures are powerful and believed to be “more equal” than others. They have successfully held this country to ransom for the last two decades. They have ensured they suffocate every person on the farm by siphoning billions of Naira and stuffing them in warehouses, septic tanks, underground tanks, and their farm's land.
A few days ago, a viral video surfaced online of the many bags of old naira notes stacked away in a warehouse in the Wadata area of Makurdi in Benue State. A video circulated on December 13 showed what looked like old naira notes in the hips of bags that could meet the needs of the entire state. However, it is not clear if the story was true or if it was about money. But in the video, one could hear many people lamenting while others bring out some of the money that has already gone bad from the sack. Responding to the allegation, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Makurdi office and Benue State Police Command debunked the report saying the purported money was waste papers obtained from the CBN. An official of the anti-graft agency (who spoke on condition of anonymity) said the office got information about sacks of old naira notes. When they deployed their men to the place, they discovered that the banknotes were condemned notes from the Central Bank of Nigeria. Also, in a statement issued in the late hours of Tuesday, the State Police Command described the report as speculative. According to them, the shop owner, Mr. Isah Suleiman, was invited for questioning and tendered a license issued to him by the CBN for waste management. They added that the CBN gave these waste papers to Suleiman, who refined them as mosquito repellents. They also promised to present pictures of the contents in the sacks for Nigerians to see. As of this writing, we have not seen the images the police promised to release. Whether the stories of money stuff in the warehouse are real or miscommunicated, the fact remains that the explanation by EFCC and the police command is usually hilarious and entertaining.
There is no single day in Nigeria that its citizens will wake up without hearing a bizarre story of alleged corruption that involves enormous amounts of money stacked in warehouses, septic tanks, or underground tanks. Sometimes, if it is not animals making away with large sums or eating up financial documents, it is about money stacked in trucks in secluded places. In all of these stories, the people behind them suddenly disappear in thin air without a trace. Nigerians are worried by these stories of stack money perpetuated by the high and mighty in society. Even more disturbing is the relative ease with which the culprits get away with these acts that, in more civilized countries, would carry a prison sentence. As a patriotic Nigerian, it pains me to see Nigeria suddenly becoming a comedy workshop. Sadly, our leaders are acting more like comedians than doing what we voted them to do. I cannot but wonder why we have leaders who were voted into the position of leadership but have suddenly turned into comical acting. The example of a dancing senator turned dancing governor is a typical illustration. The first thing he did on his day of inauguration was to dance to the Buga song by Kizz Daniel. While it is good to see him dance to his victory, it is proper to say that at the end of his tenure, people will judge him not by his dancing skills but by the impact he has made in the lives of the masses. He can dance when he needs to but should remember to do the work he is elected to do.
The question is, will the newly designed banknotes reveal more people depositing wasted currency on behalf of CBN? Nigerians are worried about the cover-up stories by our security agencies. In 2013, the EFCC arrested a pastor in Ikorodu for trying to print money. After his arrest, Pastor Godson Akubuiro told journalists that he was not using the money for himself but supporting the less privileged and the needy in his congregation. He pleaded for leniency, saying men of God can often undergo temptation like King David, though a man favored by God fell several times before God pardoned him. The pastor admitted to his crime but blamed the devil for overwhelming him. The same old story of blaming the devil each time the security agents arrest a criminal in Nigeria. In 2019, security agents apprehended Mr. John Elem for trying to print fake banknotes worth 20 billion Naira at the Banana Island and Parkview Estate. The defendant denied the allegation, but the items recovered from his house later implicated him. The court later granted him bail while the investigation continued. In 2018, EFCC arrested Samson Otuedon for allegedly possessing $400,000 in counterfeit U. S. bills. The agency apprehended the suspect at Masaka, Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State. EFCC said Otuedon's arrest occurred because of an intelligence report acted on by the anti-graft agency. The report revealed how the syndicate that specializes in counterfeiting foreign currencies duped residents of Masaka, leading to an investigation and the eventual arrest of Otuedon. Deep into the interrogation, Otuedon admitted that the fake dollars were given to him by other members of his syndicate based in Lagos. Otuedon pleaded guilty and revealed his collaborators used counterfeit U. S. dollar bills for currency duplication.
More disturbing is the fact that Nigeria thrives on corruption. Today, many corrupt people store large amounts of cash in their septic or overhead storage tanks. In 2017, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) discovered more than $43 million in US dollars at an expensive apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos. The anti-graft agency said it raided the Lagos apartment after a tip-off by a whistleblower. The agency said it also found 23.2 million Naira and £27,800 UK currency neatly arranged inside cabinets hidden behind wooden panels of a bedroom wardrobe. The EFCC Commission stressed that the funds are suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity by high political persons but made no arrests. Likewise, the agency also found N448,850,000 in a shopping plaza on Victoria Island, Lagos. The money stashed in several ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags were in N500 and N1000 denominations, hidden in a shop awaiting conversion into foreign currency. In the same week, the EFCC Commission again recovered €547,730, £21,090, and N5,648,500 from the Bureau de Change operator in the Balogun market in Lagos. Converted to Naira, this figure adds up to 250,558,670 Naira. Meanwhile, after the recovery, Nigerians called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to disclose the identity of the owner of the $43 million (N15 billion) discovered at the Ikoyi, Lagos luxury apartment and save Nigerians the embarrassment of the controversy trailing the recovered money has caused. They warned that not doing so would further dent the image of Nigeria, especially as it concerns the war on corruption. According to them, the EFCC should not have allowed the controversy over ownership of the money to have arisen. They appeal to the EFCC Commission to save the country from the ongoing debate about who kept the money in the apartment by naming those connected to it. Some Nigerians have raised questions about the recovery process by the anti-graft agency. According to them, issues that hampered the recovery process include a lack of transparency from the government and the agency, an excessive obsession to recover loot, inadequate legal action against perpetrators, the uncooperative attitude of accused persons, and, more importantly, a limited internal report from the agency. These issues have combined to frustrate Nigeria's quest to bring those responsible to justice.
A mere Google search will reveal several other instances of money counterfeiting and hoarding. But how on earth did we get here? The answer is simple, yet not so easy. For example, the Nigerian governments at the local, state, and federal levels have failed to develop the country. They are not taking advantage to use wisely the natural and human resources they have. Critical sectors such as education, health, agriculture, transportation, aviation, the power sector, housing, and technology remain worthless. One of the catastrophes of our country is the contamination of the democratic process. More troublesome is the propensity of our current political leaders to appropriate our collective commonwealth to their pockets. These leaders live lavishly while the masses live in abject poverty. Sadly, they are out again to contest the 2023 general election promising us heaven and earth.
A few days ago, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) raised the alarm that some politicians were buying Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and financially inducing innocent voters to harvest their Voter Identification Numbers ahead of the 2023 general elections. The revelation by INEC, however, elicited angry reactions among Nigerians. But in conversations with Nigerians, the INEC National Commissioner claimed that some politicians were buying PVC. They urged Nigerians to collect their PVCs and keep them safe. For them, selling PVCs was aiding in the illegal possession of the PVC, an offense punishable by the Electoral Act. We should not take the alarm raised by INEC lightly because, in the last couple of weeks, Nigerians have seen an upsurge in the desperate tactics of political leaders to grab and retain power by all means, including the purchase of PVCs from gullible people. The question for consideration is, how are the politicians getting all the money to buy PVCs when the government designed new naira notes and ascribed a limit to how much one can withdraw in a day?
Today, the allegation against some corrupt politicians is that they store large amounts of cash in their soaking cabinets or overhead storage tanks to finance kidnappers, bandits, and terrorists. We cannot justify this allegation because the government has not gone after corrupt people to squeeze them out of their comfort zone. Sadly, these allegations of corruption are occurring even in an administration that came into power on moral grounds with a pledge to root out corruption in all ramifications. But how could we allow dishonesty to last this long? The answer to this question is that Nigeria thrives on corruption. And the more worrying issue is the relative ease with which the culprits get away with these acts of corruption that, in more civilized countries, would carry a prison sentence. For example, several alleged cases of misappropriation by the political elite have made little progress in the courts. So far, there have been a few arrests, yet those convicted have faced relatively little or no prison time. Other senior political figures widely implicated in corruption have not received a single criminal charge against them. At the moment, we are yet to see a single politician in jail for these alleged crimes. The ones in prison have even received a presidential pardon. Despite its promise to crack down on corrupt leaders, the EFCC has fallen far short of its potential. More than eight years after its inception, the Commission still has a battered reputation and an uncertain record of accomplishment. So, political analysts have concluded that the anti-graft agency will yield little or no results in its fight against corruption. For them, if the Commission wants to curb money hoarding, counterfeiting, and laundering, the financial mechanism of the country must improve. In other words, if they intend to curb corruption, the level at which the money supply is in the hands of politicians must stop. We can imagine what has kept us that long to design a new currency. Seventeen years is a very long time to bring corrupt people to justice. Hence, there is an urgent need to take control of money in circulation and address the hoarding and stacking of Naira banknotes outside the banking system. This action will do away with these stories of banknotes stacked in warehouses.
Our nation is awash with people who lack moral values and decency. We can longer distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. A country where dishonest people are the lawmakers who shamelessly hold on to power is a clear case of the breakdown of values and another show of the decay in the system. So, naturally, Nigeria is now hovering around what Patrick Obahiagbon refers to as the political Bermuda Triangle, as values have decayed over time. In other words, Nigeria is dozing on duty with a crop of VIPs embodied with misconduct, lawlessness, grand-scale corruption, hooliganism, and so forth. We need to look inwards and ask our representatives the right questions while holding them accountable for their lovely campaign speeches. The religious and ethnic institutions also need to revert to their primary roles of shaping national values and holding members accountable. By doing so, we can break from the unending comedy called Nigeria.
So, what is the way forward? In 2016, the Federal Government of Nigeria launched a whistleblowing policy to fight against corrupt practices. The whistleblowing policy in Nigeria encourages people to voluntarily disclose information about fraud, bribery, looted government funds, financial misconduct, government assets, and any other form of corruption or theft to Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Finance. A whistleblower who provides information about any financial mismanagement or tip about any stolen funds to the ministry's portal is rewarded or entitled to a 2.5% - 5% percent from the recovered funds by the Nigerian government. Within the first two months of the Whistleblowing policy, the Federal Government of Nigeria recovered over $178 million stolen from the government. By mid-2017, the Federal Ministry of Finance received 2,150 tips from the public. About 128 tips came through the ministry website, 1,192 through phone calls, 540 through SMS and 290 through email to the ministry. By the last quarter of the year, the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said the government recovered N527,643,500. That same year, a whistleblower helped the Nigerian government recover $ 43.5 million in Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria. There were reports that the Federal Ministry of Finance paid the whistleblower N421 million. Whether true or not, we need to awaken the whistleblower policy and give it maximum support. To be successful in the fight against fraud, bribery, looted government funds, and financial misconduct, we must protect whistleblowers. Security agencies must engage several advocates to ensure that the law protects people who blow the whistle. Therefore, let's strengthen whistleblower policy to end this political comedy show of shame.
Rev. Ma, S.J, is a Jesuit Catholic priest and doctoral student in public and social policy at St. Louis University in the state of Missouri, USA.