From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), the National Chapter of Transparency International in Nigeria (IT), and the Premium Times Center for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) have jointly called on President Muhammadu, Buhari, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, including all anti-corruption agencies to immediately commence actions to investigate all the people and companies featured in the stories and revelations of dirty financial deals so far published by the Premium Times Center for Investigative Journalism.
The groups made the call at a press conference and a statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Monday.
The coalition said the Pandora Papers development presents a meaningful opportunity for the Buhari administration to act decisively against corruption, aggressive tax planning, and other financial practices of government officials, politically exposed persons and their advisors and companies that threaten the country’s economic stability and corporate existence.
Speaking to newsmen, Executive Director CISLAC, Mr Auwal Rafsanjani expressed disappointment at government’s consistent reluctance to further investigate or prosecute politically exposed persons who have been accused of fraud due to ethnic, religious and political affiliations.
Rafsanjani charged President Buhari and all other relevant bodies concerned to never allow the Pandora Papers investigations to be swept under the carpet as was done with similar investigations in the past.
He said “I think there seems to be a lack of understanding of corruption or how to fight corruption in Nigeria. Because if you say you are fighting corruption there is no way you will not take a decisive action on a momentum case like this that has drawn global attention.
“The President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has failed to take action on the two previous occasions of this sort.
“If the government has been taking necessary steps, we will not be losing so much money to illicit financial flow and be accumulating so much debt.
“I would like to ask, how come the Central Bank of Nigeria, with all the regulatory policies and frameworks that it has, allow this kind of huge money diversion to get out of Nigeria? “Individuals are not taking this money out in their pockets. They’re using financial institutions to go so the CBN should impose proper regulation and ensure compliance. It is because there is a huge gap that is why people are doing what they are doing, and they get away with it. But the most embarrassing thing is that you see people who are even serving public officials that are having not only diverted funds in their accounts, but also huge amounts of money in foreign countries, which is contrary to our laws.
“Some of you will recall that the Panama Papers and the Paradise papers led to significant protests across the globe and the fall of governments, dismissal of officials, criminal investigations, and asset confiscations. They also precipitated hundreds of tax probes and criminal investigations, prosecutions, and reforms in the United States, Canada, Europe, and parts of Africa. Sadly, both have had minimal impact in Nigeria as the federal government led by President Buhari has failed on both occasions, to seize the opportunities to take decisive action against corruption and bring all those indicted in the two papers to account. The Nigerian Government has only managed to constitute a Panama Papers committee, which never triggered any action or any impact. It is to be assumed that given the large number of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) present in the Panama and other leaks, committees consisting of PEPs are unlikely to indict their own. Nigerians must not have anything to do with people involved in this scandal in the 2023 general elections.
The groups therefore urged the federal government to quickly enact and implement policies and programs that will help in further checkmating the issues of illicit financial flows in the country.
The Pandora Papers is one of the biggest ever corruption leaks led by ICIJ and over 600 journalists from 117 countries, including Journalists from Nigeria’s Premium Times. Following the pattern of two previous leaks (i.e The Paradise Papers and Panama Papers, which were released in 2017 and 2016, respectively), the Pandora Papers exposes systems and secrecy jurisdictions that enable and abet crime, corruption, and illicit dealings by politicians, billionaires, influential individuals, and their enablers globally.