Call it an action-packed movie with many intriguing Seasons and you won’t be wrong. This is what the face-off between the Senate and Executive represents.
Just when political observers had thought the rift had been confined to history, another issue crops up that revives old wounds.
From missing/padded budget; Senate rejection of Ibrahim Magu as Chairman Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); its vow that requests from the Presidency will not be considered until Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo withdrew a statement credited to him, to the effect that some appointments from the President did not need Senate confirmation; refusal of Customs boss, Hameed Ali, to wear Customs uniform to the hallowed chamber; Presidency’s insistence on retaining Magu as EFCC boss; Senate insistence not to confirm Executive requests of nominees into establishments created by acts of parliament until Magu is removed as head of the anti-graft agency, the list is endless.
The latest row followed Nigeria’s suspension from the EGMONT Group, a network of national financial intelligence units and the highest inter-governmental association of intelligence agencies in the world, with 154 member countries.
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, Nigerian 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 group with regard 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 Unit and divulging confidential information concerning the 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 would be expelled from the organisation.
If this happens, the country 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 and Italy, among others. Specifically, the Group provides a forum for FIUs around the world to enhance support to their respective governments in the fight against money laundering, financing of terrorism and other financial crimes.
The development comes at a time the Federal Government is making frantic efforts to recover funds looted by highly placed Nigerians and stashed abroad.
At plenary last week, the Senate blamed 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, it will negatively affect Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). This, lawmakers argued, 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.
This followed a motion by Chukwuka Utazi, Chairman Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes.
He argued that 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, among others, 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 actions are 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 Nigeria’s readiness and willingness to be accorded full membership, were not complemented by the Executive branch, especially the recognised three line Ministries of Justice, Finance and the 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.
The Unit is the life wire of the EFCC, as it supplies intelligence information to the anti-graft agency.
Already the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency Bill, which seeks to remove the Unit from the anti-graft agency and make it autonomous, passed First Reading in the upper legislative chamber last week.
BDSUNDAY gathered that the directive by Senate President Bukola Saraki that the Rules and Business Committee should schedule the proposal for Second Reading this week, has been complied with, as the document was forwarded for gazetting on Thursday night.
The bill is expected to be referred to the Committee on Anti-Corruption which will hold public hearing on it during the six-week recess.
An aide to a principal officer who pleaded anonymity revealed that the bill would be passed upon resumption from recess in September for onward transmission to the House of Representatives for concurrence.
“The Senate leadership is interested in this bill; hence it will be given accelerated passage. The fear of the lower house not concurring to it does not arise. I can assure you that both chambers are on the same page as far as this matter is concerned. Don’t forget that Saraki also doubles as Chairman of the National Assembly. The expulsion threat will be used as a bait to woo lawmakers,” he said.
Senate spokesperson Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi accused the EFCC of usurping the powers of the NFIU.
Sabi noted that when properly reorganised, the agencies that will benefit from the activities of the EGMONT Group include: Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Customs Service, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), EFCC, Nigeria Immigration Service Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Securities and Exchange Commission among others.
While the EFCC has set up a committee to examine the country’s expulsion from the Group, a Presidential source maintained that the suspension has nothing to do with the rating of the anti-corruption crusade of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
He explained that the NFIA bill currently before the Senate is meant to whittle down the powers of the Commission.
The Senate, he alleged, is on a revenge mission following the decision of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to retain Magu as EFCC boss against all odds.
He blamed the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan for the current crisis.
His words: “The suspension of Nigeria was a carryover of the problem in NFIU since 2013.
“What is happening to NFIU is not strange or peculiar to Nigeria. Germany suffered a similar fate when its FIU was placed on suspension after it was moved from the German Police where it had been domiciled, to the Custom.
“The Egmont Group is not averse to having FIUs domiciled in law enforcement organisations. Most FIUs are indeed domiciled within existing law enforcement organisations except for a few that are stand alone”.
There are also speculations that the face-off could force the National Assembly to activate Section 58 (5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), should the Acting President fail to sign it into law if passed by both chambers.
It provides that “Where the President withholds his assent and the bill is again passed by each House by two-thirds majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required”.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
