Good Day distinguished audience, speakers and colleagues. On behalf
of the staff, management and board of CISLAC, TI Nigeria, I feel
honoured to welcome you to this media workshop on Effective
Reporting of the Asset Recovery and Management System in Nigeria.
The aim of this event is to train journalists on how to effectively
conduct investigative reporting around asset recovery in Nigeria,
specifically in Lagos state. This is a follow up to a similar workshop
held in Abuja where journalists were trained on the same subject
matter.
International financial intelligence shows that around $18 billion is
lost abroad every year to tax evasion, money laundering and other
stashing of illegal proceeds out of Nigeria.1 Unfortunately, this
amount puts the country at the forefront in Africa. We are the worst
Illicit Financial Flows offenders in Africa! Elaborate international
fraud schemes, almost always involving ‘reputable’ law firms and
other middlemen, are used to rob Nigerian citizens of billions of
dollars that should be used to counter abject poverty, insecurity and
abysmal service delivery.
A case in point is the on-going corruption in investor state arbitration
between the Process & Industrial Development Limited (P&ID)
versus Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Federal Republic of Nigeria
is currently battling the arbitration proceeding conducted within the
United Kingdom jurisdiction. If lost, Nigerian tax payers will lose
$6.6bn plus 7% interest per annum against it for damages in favour of
1
Nigerian Ministry of Finance, 2019, Global Financial Integrity
P&ID. This case has not been concluded, yet. However, some critical
questions beg for answers. Firstly, who in the Government is
responsible for signing such a risky and potentially catastrophic
contract with an entity with no track record of similar contracts?
Secondly, why did Nigerian defence come so late, given that the
contract was signed many years ago? Thirdly, given the seriousness of
the case, how come that Nigerian defence appeared incompetent or
even suspiciously negligent for years? Fourthly, the P&ID case was
used against the ex-EFCC chairman Magu. Has his or EFCC
negligence been proven or is the responsibility for the case
somewhere else? Perhaps with the political leadership, and not law
enforcement? CISLAC, together with international partners, has just
published an elaborate publication, which will hopefully help in
addressing some of these critical questions. Cases like the P&ID
arbitration deprive Nigeria out of precious resources while the corrupt
Nigerian elite and international money launders enjoy the proceeds!
We urgently need more media coverage of this and similar cases!
To be fair, some success has been achieved in recent years in regards
to the recovery of assets. Only Four weeks ago, the £4.2 million Ibori
loot was returned by the UK.2 While the Nigerian authorities have
made some commendable gains, its advocacy for the speedy return of
recovered assets has lost the moral high ground. The executive and
the legislators have been unable or unwilling to pass and enact
domestic legal framework, popularly known as the Proceeds of Crime
Act, in managing internationally and domestically recovered assets.
Sadly, our international partners are not convinced that recovered
assets won’t be re-looted again. As the Ibori case highlights,
4.2million is a fraction of the loot which disappeared abroad and is
yet to be brought back!
This lacuna in the management of recovered asset was seen glaringly
in the recent arguments between the federal government and the state
government of Delta state as to who owns the repatriated £4.2 million
Ibori-loot.
Foreign assets recovered by the Nigerian government do not compare
to the amount of domestically seized and confiscated assets, which
include seized buildings, vehicles and others. These have proven to be
worth billions of $ in the past and are certainly surpassing the
internationally recovered assets. We encourage the media to
investigate what happens to the hundreds of billions of Naira of
domestically seized assets. International recoveries make the
headlines. Domestic recoveries are not transparently managed. The
Nigerian public needs to be convinced that these recoveries are not
just another loot used for political survival and the self-enrichment of
those in power.
Currently, various institutions like the EFCC, Independent Corrupt
Practice and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Code of
Conduct Bureau, Nigeria Custom Service, National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Nigerian Police and other
agencies recover assets without synergy. This lack of transparency in
respect of recovered assets in Nigeria creates room for re-looting and
mismanagement. The much-awaited Proceeds of the Crime
management Bill has not yet been signed into law, supposedly
because of the power struggle within agencies about economically
and politically lucrative mandate to confiscate and manage stolen
assets. Lack of transparency in the management of these assets
provides an ample room for corruption and mismanagement in “relooting” of the looted assets. Moreover, it has also become a political
weapon as accusations of the mismanagement of recovered assets are
frequently used against anti-corruption agencies to settle political
scores. This workshop plans to engage selected journalists to increase
reporting of asset management and pressure governmental and
legislative representatives on the need to improve transparency in
managing recovered assets. CISLAC plans to work with the media to uncover national and international cases of stolen corrupt assets with
links to politically exposed persons. These assets need to be
recovered, better utilized for a post COVID-19 economic recovery.
You will agree with me that in this time of economic hardship, we
can’t afford to waste resources as a nation. From the rising inflation,
to unemployment and increase in national debt the situation calls for
prudency from state actors. For example, the just released
unemployment figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS),
the government’s official statistical agency, shows that
unemployment in Nigeria as at the Fourth Quarter of 2020 was at
33%. This was against that of the Second quarter of the same year
2020 where this figure stood at 27%. If you look at it on average, it
shows that unemployment increased by 1% every month.
When it comes to asset recovery, our tasks are simple and we will
like you to join us in amplifying them. Firstly, we need a legal
framework for managing recovered asset. Secondly, this legal
framework must contain a central data base where citizens can
access these records. And finally, the government must involve
CSOs, the media and other critical non-state actors in the
recovery, management and utilization of these assets.
We hope to sustain our resolve and efforts in the anti-corruption
campaign with the hope of working with you to bring fresh vigour
and perspective to stoke the flames of true journalism in this regard.
I will not forget the efforts of the so many media houses that have
been unwavering in their duties to support democracy and expose
corrupt practices. You are our heroes.
I will like to thank you vibrant journalists for honouring this
invitation. Special thanks go to our resource persons from the
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the
Civil Forum for Asset Recovery (CiFAR), the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) and CISLAC’s In house staff. I will
also render very special thanks to our colleagues from Transparency
International Secretariat (TI-S) Berlin represented by Samuel Kaninda
who is the TI Advisor for Africa for their unwavering support.
Permit me to call for a productive discussion in this workshop. Once
again, I welcome you all. Thank you!
Auwal Ibrahim Musa (RAFSANJANI)
Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (cislac)
 AT THE WORKSHOP FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST ON THE IMPROVED REPORTING OF NIGERIA’S ASSET RECOVERY SYSTEM ORGANIZED BY CISLAC ON THE 6th OF APRIL 2021 AT REGENT HOTELS, LAGOS, NIGERIA.){kind=link}
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