You are corrupt, Obasanjo tells lawmakers

Buhari seeks stronger money laundering law, as TI ranks Nigeria 136

NIGERIA’S former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has taken a swipe at the current set of legislators in the Senate and

House of Representatives, saying that they have not shown sensitivity to the nation’s economy downturn.

Yesterday too, President Muhammadu Buhari asked the NASS to urgently amend the Money Laundering Act, by increasing the penalty for the crime.

In a letter addressed to the 79 senators and 306 members of the House of Representatives, through the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and Speaker House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Obasanjo noted that the “management of the economy is one of the key responsibilities of the president as prescribed in the constitution."

                                                                            Obasanjo

While tasking the legislators to collaborate with the president in observing fiscal prudence and transparency, the former president noted that the president could not manage the economy “if he does not have his hands on the budget.”

He accused the national legislators of impunity and corruption, saying that after the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission finished its work, the lawmakers “by different disingenuous ways and devices, overturned the recommendations and hiked up for themselves that which they are unwilling to spell out in detail.”

Obasanjo regretted that even when the emolument, which the commission recommended for the lawmakers, could take care of their legitimate requirements, other allowances and payments had been added unconstitutionally by the National Assembly for members’ emoluments.

He challenged the lawmakers to have the courage to publish their recurrent budgets for the years 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, in line with the demands of transparency, adding that comparisons in emoluments could also be made with countries like Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and even Malaysia and Indonesia which, according to him, are richer and more developed than Nigeria.

According to the former president, the management of the economy is a shared responsibility where the presidency holds greater responsibility, as he noted that “if the National Assembly becomes a cog in the wheel, the executive efforts will not yield much reward or progress. The two have to work together to provide the impetus and the conducive environment for the private sector to play its active vanguard role.”

Providing an insight into how the legislature could show the path for transparency, Obasanjo declared: “The management of the budget is the first step to manage the economy. It will be interesting if the National Assembly will be honourable enough and begin the process of transparency, responsibility and realism by publishing its recurrent budgets for 2016 as it should normally be done.

“Hopefully, the National Assembly will take a step back and do what is right not only in making its own budget transparent but in all matters of financial administration and management including audit of its accounts by external auditor from 1999 to date.”

The former president disclosed that when such a publication was done, “(it) will bring a new dawn to democracy in Nigeria, a new and better image for the National Assembly and avoid the Presidency and the National Assembly going into face-off all the time on budgets and financial matters.”

He noted that he had on many occasions agonised on certain practices in the National Assembly, which were not honourable especially issues relating to budgets and finances that were shrouded in lack of transparency.

Part of Obasanjo’s letter dated January 13, 2016 reads: “The present economic situation that the country has found itself in is the climax of the steady erosion of good financial and economic management which grew from bad to worse in the last six years or so. The executive and the legislative arms of government must accept and share responsibility in this regard.

“The two arms ran the affairs of the country unmindful of the rainy day. The rainy day is now here. It would not work that the two arms should stand side by side with one arm pulling and without the support of the other one for good and efficient management of the economy.

“The purpose of election into the Legislative Assembly particularly at the national level is to give service to the nation and not for the personal service and interest of members at the expense of the nation, which seemed to have been the mentality, psychology, mindset and practice within the National Assembly since the beginning of this present democratic dispensation. Where is patriotism? Where is commitment? Where is service?”

Admonishing the lawmakers to change, Obasanjo disclosed “that the beginning of good governance, which is the responsibility of all arms and all the tiers of government, is openness and transparency.”

In a letter to the Senate president, Buhari added that the bill, which seeks to repeal the money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011, as amended in 2012, would provide protection for employees of various institutions, bodies and professions who may discover money laundering and enhance customer due diligence.

“It seeks to provide appropriate penalties and expand the scope of supervisory bodies. It also recognises the role of certain self-regulatory organisations to address the challenges faced in implementation of comprehensive anti-money regime,” the president’s letter read.

Meantime, Nigeria has retained her 136th position on the global corruption index out of 168 countries surveyed in 2015 by the Transparency International (TI).

The Chairman of TI, Jose Ugaz, explained that the 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index clearly showed that corruption remained a blight on the world.

“But 2015 was also a year when people again took to the streets to protest against corruption. People across the globe sent a strong signal to those in power: It is time to tackle corruption,” he added.

Also, the Director of Sub-Saharan African TI, Chantai Uwimana, noted that if corruption and impunity were to be a thing of the past as the African Union stated, governments should take bold steps to ensure the rule of law was the reality for everyone.

Uwimana said 2015 showed that people working together could succeed in fighting corruption, saying that although corruption was still rife globally, more countries improved their scores in the year.