Transparency International (TI), a global anti-corruption watchdog, has urged the Nigerian government to strengthen its anti-corruption bodies and increase transparency on asset recovery.
The organisation stated this at a workshop to follow up on the commitments the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government made at the Anti-Corruption Summit held in London in May, on fighting corruption in Nigeria and international cooperation following his revelation that more than $10 billion in looted cash and assets had been recovered.
“The people of Nigeria are suffering from the economic downturn. They need to know that the government is using all of its resources to benefit public services. This requires a serious crackdown on corruption, as well as transparency when it comes to how recovered stolen assets will be used. Words are not enough,” Chantal Uwimana, director of Africa for Transparency International, said.
Uwimana further said, “We need to know who stole the money and when they will be brought to justice. There should be no impunity for the corrupt.”
TI also calls on anti-corruption agencies to speed up the process of investigations so that the suspects can be formally charged and their identities made public. Thereafter, the judicial process should be expedited so that the funds can be released and made available for public spending.
Nigeria was reminded that in London, it committed to the transparency and accountable management of stolen assets and greater cooperation to uncover and stop international enablers of corruption in the global financial system.
“We want to see progress on this in Nigeria, and with the law enforcement authorities in other countries. This is not a problem specific to Nigeria. The global financial system has to tackle this by holding the enablers of corruption – the lawyers, bankers, accountants for example – to account,” Uwimana said.
Since Nigeria also committed to signing on to the Open Government Partnership as a means of increasing openness, transparency and accountability in government, TI calls on the government to follow through with this commitment without delay.
It called for the government to commit to a timetable for introducing legislation to strengthen the Proceeds of Crime Bill, currently in draft, and enact whistleblower protection legislation.
The group noted that 75 percent of Nigerians surveyed recently felt that corruption had increased in the period 2014 – 2015, while 78 percent felt their government was doing badly in the fight against corruption. This points to very low levels of public trust in government.
TI would also like to see the adoption of a national anti-corruption strategy with a clear vision for change and targets to guide and ensure the sustainability of the current anti-corruption drive. This will provide a much needed framework for coordinated action between state and non-state actors, both nationally and internationally, in the fight against corruption and help ensure that the country’s anti-corruption agencies are adequately resourced to carry out their mandate, it said.
