TUC asks Presidential Committee to revisit past high profile corruption cases

The leadership of Trade Union Congress (TUC) has called on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption to revisit past high-profile corruption cases, just as it called for introduction of severe penalties for culprits of financial fraud and embezzlement.

Bobboi Kaigama, TUC president, made special reference to the alleged $10 billion missing fund from the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) involving former minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, pension fraud involving Abdulrasheed Maina, among others.

Kaigama, who gave the charge in Abuja during a paper presentation to the committee, also urged all the tiers of government to demonstrate the requisite political will and assistance through legislation and funding of the police and anti-corruption agencies.

He alleged that previous “anti-corruption efforts through the past decades have been weak, indecisive and scandalously fraught with many avoidable cum contrived challenges. Yet for any nation to succeed it must consciously and decisively fight and win the anti-corruption war.”

In his recommendations, Kaigama urged the present administration to put mechanism in place towards “making political office less financially lucrative.”

He lamented that “the looting escapades of the James Iboris and Farouk Lawans readily came to mind. The whole thing stank of an endorsement of corruption and an express fiat to all government functionaries to loot the treasury silly in any way they can, confident that they will enjoy official reprieve soon enough. So also did the cases of syndicated thievery that were reported to have been committed by officers of the NNPC during the last administration. Even the then Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, was indicted in a case of disappearance of $10 billion from the NNPC accounts, an issue which has remained unaddressed.

“The raging anger that the more recent case involving former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki – who is alleged to have diverted over $2.1 billion meant for purchase of arms and ammunition for the Nigerian Army to political friends of former President Goodluck Jonathan to enlist their support during the 2015 elections – is still very much palpable and steaming across the land.

“Despite all the uproar and the fact that several highly placed persons have been arrested and quizzed in connection with the issue, no convictions of note are on record, and the vast majority of Nigerians believe that there will never be any such conviction.  We hope the present anti-corruption crusade will prove otherwise.

“Suffice it to say that the Maina, Yusuf, Alamieyeseigha, Alison-Madueke and Dasuki cases are typical of Nigeria’s corruption story within the last four decades. The five cases clearly show that the key issues at stake are deep-rooted corruption and lack of accountability which have given rise to wide-spread official criminality and culture of impunity. It is obvious that we have not done well in the battle against corruption, the bane of Nigeria’s development. It is an ill wind that has ruined major sectors of the economy and destroyed much of our moral fabric.”

He alleged that the corruption cases in the country is further worsened by the slow pace of dispensation of justice and favourable “judgment in favour of the guilty that are able to pay their way through” as well as politicians who, because of the quest for power, manipulate votes and rig elections.

The TUC chief lamented that “the upsurge of corruption in Nigeria in recent times is particularly disturbing. Indeed, statistics reveal that Nigeria is 163rd out of 172 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, with its annual corruption level in recent years averaging $5 billion.

“It has done unquantifiable damage to the national life.  For instance, the menace of corruption leads to slow movement of files in offices, fuels police extortion, accentuates traffic jams, port congestion, queues at passport offices and petrol stations, ghost-workers syndrome, election irregularities, inflation of budgets and contract fees, etc.

“The menace assumed a progressive rise from the era of Babangida and Abacha regimes which saw the institutionalisation of the syndrome. With the advent of the Obasanjo administration of 1999 to 2007 came a crusade against corrupt politicians and government officials.  During that time, the country witnessed the establishment of the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) – two bodies saddled with the responsibility of prosecuting corrupt persons and sanitising the polity.

“The then Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun, and some bank officials are amongst those that were successfully prosecuted by these agencies, but the efforts of the two bodies have become watered down since the end of the Obasanjo administration in 2007.  Even at that time, and more so since then, it appears the two bodies have become selective in apprehending and prosecuting offenders,” the TUC chief told the Committee.

Kaigama who commended ongoing war against corruption, also called on Nigerians to support the initiative in the bid to build great egalitarian and progressive nation of our dream.

“We recommend the following punishments: For culprits of fraud/embezzlement involving sums of between N1 to N10 million, imprisonment for 5 years; For culprits of fraud/embezzlement involving sums from above N10 million to N50 million, imprisonment for 10 years.

“For culprits of fraud/embezzlement involving sums from above N50 million to N100 million, imprisonment for 15 years; for culprits of fraud/embezzlement involving sums from above N100 million to N200 million, imprisonment for 20 years.

“For culprits of fraud/embezzlement involving sums from above N200 million to N500 million, imprisonment for 25 years; for culprits of fraud/embezzlement involving sums from above N500 million to N1 billion, imprisonment for life; for culprits of fraud/embezzlement involving sums larger than N1 billion, death penalty.

“Furthermore, plea bargaining should not be entertained except where the culprit repays the full principal sum of money involved plus 10 percent compound interest per annum with effect from the date he or she committed the fraud; any person found guilty of fraud or any other financial crime should be constitutionally banned for life from occupying any public office,” Kaigama stated in his presentation.