Nigerian government sees some success in ongoing war on corruption

The last month has seen some major success for Nigeria’s anti-corruption commission but, as Prince Cookey reports, there are challenges too Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has recovered more than NGN17bn in the past two months, through a whistleblower policy designed to reward persons that leak locations of stolen funds. Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of EFCC, explains: “Apart from several other recoveries running into several billions of naira, the recent whistleblower policy has led to the recovery by EFCC of NGN521,815,000; $53,272, 747; £122,890; and €547,730.” In February, the sums of $9,772,800 and £74,000 in cash were recovered from Andrew Yakubu, former group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. And on 14 March, the sum of NGN49m was abandoned and recovered by the agency at Kaduna Airport. In early April, the EFCC recovered another NGN250m recovered at the popular Balogun market in Lagos. But the biggest discovery was the sum of $43m in local and foreign currencies, at a building in the Ikoyi area of Lagos. Even more contentious is the ownership of the estimated NGN17bn, as the EFCC has failed to name the owners. The Nigerian government has already set up a committee headed by vice-president Yemi Osinbajo, to ascertain ownership of the cash. The $43m discovery led to the suspension of the director-general of the National Intelligence Agency, which claimed ownership of the sum as an undercover tool. The current minister of transportation and former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, was also accused by his political detractors of being the owner of the recovered money, a claim that he promptly denied before threatening legal action against his accusers. Corruption story Meanwhile, various multinationals are becoming ever more embroiled in the corruption story. According to recent media reports, Shell has admitted for the first time that it negotiated a deal with a convicted money launderer in the process of seeking lucrative oil contracts in Nigeria. The company is alleged to be connected with various allegations of bribery and corruption between multinational oil firms and top government officials in the country. Shell is also linked to disputes between local oil-producing communities and oil firms, as well as being linked to widespread environmental pollution. Accordingly, the official statement from Shell admitting interaction between the company and Dan Etete, ex-Nigerian oil minister involved in the controversial $1.1bn Malabu oil (OPL 245) deal, has become a significant development in the OPL 245 saga. The email leak detailing alleged negotiations between Shell and Mr Etete over the Malabu deal came after publications Global Witness and Finance released emails showing that certain representatives of Shell had interactions with Mr Etete for a period of one year before the signing of the deal. "Over the course of several years, Shell made repeated attempts to fully establish and understand Malabu's ownership structure, including the exact role of Mr Etete in Malabu," a company spokesman says. "Over time, it became clear to us that Mr Etete was involved in Malabu and that the only way to resolve the impasse through a negotiated settlement was to engage with Etete and Malabu, whether we liked it or not. This was consistent with the Federal Government of Nigeria's (FGN) position. From the complex multi-party negotiations that followed, we knew the FGN would compensate Malabu to settle its claim on the block. We believe that the settlement was a fully legal transaction with the FGN.” For multinationals doing business in developing countries, it is like walking through a minefield or swimming in a crocodile-infested river, attempting to make profit through the contract system, which in most cases is largely corrupt. For while there are lucrative businesses to be made in such countries and regions, there are also huge legal and reputational challenges to encounter in such operating environments. Accordingly, multinationals must weigh the size of the profit that could accrue to them in the course of such transactions, against the damage that could also arise or emanate in the process of making such profit. That is currently the scenario or dilemma facing two oil giants – Shell and Eni – in Nigeria over OPL 245, allocated back in 2011. The lid on the deal was blown off not in Nigeria but in faraway Italy, where prosecutors in Milan sought the trial on international corruption charges of Shell, Eni and three individuals: Claudio Descalzi, Eni chief executive officer; Roberto Casula, Eni chief operations officer; and Malcolm Brinded, chairman of Shell Foundation. The Italian prosecutors called for a trial in February, after closing their investigations into the case in December last year. A court must now set a date for the hearing, at which a judge will decide whether to accept the prosecutors' request or acquit the accused. As of 1 March, the Eni board issued a statement denying any complicity in the deal. Meanwhile, in January 2017, Nigerian authorities seized the contentious oil block OPL 245 in the process of prosecuting the entities and persons involved in the deal. Western involvement Through the years, critics in Africa have often accused Western nations, multinational companies and individuals of conspiring with corrupt government officials on the continent to engage in acts of graft, to the detriment of the African continent’s citizens. And of course, references have been made in the past to African leaders who stole and stashed their loot in Western banks, without much determination by Western leaders to confiscate such ill-gotten wealth and repatriate same to its countries of origin. This explains why the prosecutors in Milan who blew the Malabu deal open deserve collective praise for standing up for transparency and integrity on behalf of the government and people of Nigeria. The Malabu oil deal has dealt a serious blow to the international credibility of Nigeria and only strengthens the often-held impression that the country is endemically corrupt. It also creates the impression, true or false, that the act of corruption in Nigeria operates at the highest level of governance in the country. Considering that allegations are often levelled against EFCC as government’s attack dog against opposition from critics, it therefore becomes imperative for the anti-corruption agency to conduct a thorough investigation of the case via partnership with the Italian prosecutors, for effective prosecution of the matter. There is no doubt that the Nigerian government, the opposition, civil society groups in Nigeria and the international business community will be watching the conclusion of the matter with keen interest, to learn whether the fight against corruption in Nigeria is either real or cosmetic.

Nigerian government sees some success in ongoing war on corruption

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