Worried about the grave economic implication of Nigeria’s suspension from the EGMONT group, the Senate has taken steps to avert expulsion.
This comes as the Senate indicted the Executive for Nigeria’s expulsion from the global body for failing to take action to make the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) autonomous.
Specifically, the legislative body expressed concern that if Nigeria’s expulsion from the global financial intelligence group comes into effect in January 2018, this will send a signal to the international community that the country is not safe for investment, as it has failed to comply with international convention and rules regarding the fight against corruption.
Accordingly, the Senate resolved to pass a legislation making the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), currently domiciled with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), autonomous and independent.
It mandated its Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes to within four weeks, submit a draft bill establishing NFIU as an independent and autonomous body.
This followed a motion by Chukwuka Utazi, Chairman Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes at plenary on Wednesday.
EGMONT Group is a network of national financial intelligence units and is the highest inter-govermental association of intelligence agencies in the world, with 154 member countries. It provides the backbone for monitoring international money laundering activities.
Nigeria became a full member of the group in 2007 during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
However, at its July 7, 2017 meeting in China, Nigeria’s Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the agency of government that represents the country at the meetings of the group, was suspended till January 2018 with a threat of an expulsion if the country does not meet the standards of the groups with regards to its operations.
It cited inability of the Federal Government to make the NFIU autonomous from the EFCC, interference of the acting chairman of the anti-graft agency, Ibrahim Magu in the affairs of the NFIU and divulging confidential information concerning EGMONT Group to the media.
The global body stated that if Nigeria fails to comply with the group’s demands for a legal framework granting autonomy to the NFIU by January 2018, the country will be expelled from the organisation.
If this happens, Nigeria will no longer be able to benefit from financial intelligence shared by the other 153 member countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy among others.
Consequently, the development will hamper the country’s ability to recover stolen funds abroad as well as affect the international rating of Nigerian financial institutions by restricting their access to international transactions.
“Informed that if expelled, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) Implementation Reviewing Group will be served a notice against Nigeria, and most countries, including the United States, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, etc., would alert their financial institutions and services through the issuance of advisories such as the Financial Criminal Enforcement Network Advisory and Foreign Assets and Cash Directive, to warn them to apply extra care and diligence in transacting with Nigeria and Nigerians. The huge political and economic implications of such action is better imagined. An expulsion might also, under certain conditions, attract the imposition of financial transaction limit, including the withdrawal, by certain countries, of scholarships to students of Nigerian origin.
“Concerned that the valiant efforts of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes to avoid this suspension including leading the Nigeria Delegation to many meetings of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to impress upon them N igeria’s readiness and willingness to be accorded full membership were not complemented by the Executive branch, especially the recognized three line Ministries of Justice, Finance and Interior, and repeated pleas and correspondences for action to avert this suspension went unheeded,” Utazi noted.
The Senate therefore urged the three line Ministries of Justice, Finance and Interior to do all within their powers to ensure that Nigeria’s suspension is immediately reversed and ensure that all conditions specified by the EGMONT Group are met to re-admit and improve Nigeria’s standing within the Group.
It called on the Executive to include in any supplementary budget estimate that may be presented to the National Assembly before the end of the year, a separate budget for the NFIU in view of the need to lift the suspension of the country as soon as possible.
In his remarks, Senate President Bukola Saraki who presided over plenary, expressed concern that the suspension is a set back in the present administration’s fight against corruption.
He called for swift response to ensure that the country’s suspension from the EGMONT Group is lifted.
He said: “One of the things that we need to do is to ensure that we pass this bill as soon as possible to give independence to NFIU and any of the other activities that must have led to this must be stopped. And the Committee on Anti-Corruption should carry out their oversight to ensure that the sooner we get the suspension lifted, the better for our image and the fight against corruption”.
