Buhari signs Executive Order on suspicious assets

In what is seen as another major milestone in the fight against corruption in Nigeria, President Muhamamdu Buhari , Thursday signed Executive Order no. 6 of 2018 on the presentation of assets connected with serious corruption and other relevant offences 

The Executive Order No. 6 of 2018 is expected to amongst others things  restrict dealings in suspicious assets subject to investigation or inquiry bordering on corruption.

The Order is coming on the heel of revelations which put the aggregate value of funds involved in some on-going prosecution of high profile corruption related cases stands at N595,409,838,452.25k.

Signing the Executive Order, President Buhari said “ This is in order to preserve such assets from dissipation, and to deprive alleged criminals of the proceeds of their illicit activities which can otherwise be employed to allure, pervert and/or intimidate the investigative and judicial processes or for acts of terrorism, financing of terrorism, kidnapping, sponsorship of ethnic or religious violence, economic sabotage and cases of economic and financial crimes, including acts contributing to the economic adversity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria  and against the overall interest of justice and the welfare of the Nigerian State”

The President listed corruption as major amongst the many reasons why Nigeria has been struggling, adding that “ regrettably, the most unfortunate cause of great disparity between Nigeria’s wealth and its poverty is endemic corruption”

The N595. 40b is in excess of the N500 billion federal government approved for Social Investment Programme in the 2018 Budget, which sum would be applied to cater for home grown school feeding programme, government economic empowerment programme, N-Power Job Creation Programme, Conditional Cash Transfers, etc. Cumulatively, scores of millions of Nigerian citizens would benefit from those programmes. 

President Buhari reiterated his earlier promise to anchor his administration’s program around Security, Economy and the fight against Corruption.

“ As a government, and in furtherance of our anti-corruption programme, we have since inception engaged in multi-sectoral reforms on anti-corruption including the enforcement of Treasury Single Account (TSA), strict implementation of the Bank Verification Number Policy, Signing of the Open Government Partnership, and a lot of efforts have gone into building and development of our anti-corruption institutions among others.

“As this real battle continues, we still need to strengthen our policies and institutions in order to successfully fight corruption. We recognise that there are more grounds to cover in the war against corruption, and we are prepared to go out to possess those lands by cutting off any means that facilitates corruption and supports its growth.

“To further put things in perspective, the highest appropriation in the 2018 Budget in the sum of N344 billion went to the Ministry of Works for construction and rehabilitation of several roads nationwide.

These projects include: Lagos-Shagamu-Ibadan Dual Carriageway;, Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa Bokani Road,  Abuja-Abaji Road; Kano –Maiduguri Road; Enugu-P/Harcourt Dual Carriageway; Odukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpene Road and the  Sokoto-Tambuwal-Jega-Kontangora- Makera Road;

Others include the dualisation of Obajana to Benin; Calabar-Ugep-Katsina-Ala Road;, Onitsha-Enugu Dual Carriageway; Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual Carriageway; Benin-Ofosu-Ore-Ajebandele-Sagamu Expressway Phase III and  Kontagora-Bangi Road.

10. All the foregoing roads are expected to be either constructed or repaired with equivalent of about 57% of the monies recovered by some of the on-going high profile corruption related cases.

The President said “ it has thus become necessary to re-kit and re-tool our arsenal to be able to effectively tackle corruption’s perilous counter-attack against the Nigerian State.

“Accordingly, the Federal Government of Nigeria has declared a national emergency to deal with that crisis. In this regard, the Federal Government of Nigeria in line with its anti-corruption strategy seeks to ensure that the ends of justice is not defeated or compromised by persons involved in a case or complaint of corruption.”

“Happily, the fight against corruption is gaining more momentum among the African States. We just returned from the African Anti-Corruption Year event at Nouakchott, Mauritania where all African Heads of State were gathered to promote the anti-corruption message.

Nigeria and 39 other African States recently ratified the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. I pledge to elevate the African Union anti-corruption agenda at the next session of the United Nations General Assembly in September.

The President said it is in order to preserve Nigeria’s political and economic systems, and the continuous progress of the Nigerian State from the serious threat of corruption, I call on all stakeholders, and indeed every Nigerian to give effect to this Executive Order.

Agencies of the Federal Government in consultation with the Attorney General of the Federation should identify and adopt best practices, and develop strategies for action.  The fight against corruption is one that must be fought by everyone wherever corruption rears its head.