by The constitution of Nigeria states that public officers should not own foreign accounts. I believe it is more helpful for accountability, transparency and integrity of public officers not to own foreign accounts.
Before the 1999 Constitution, the history of corruption in Nigeria shows that public officers siphon public funds and send them overseas. There were also a lot of offshore corruptions through contracts because contractors lodged monies in foreign accounts for public officers.
These were part of the reason the makers of the constitution prohibited it. If you look at the case of the late General Sani Abacha, he had custody of public funds and he knew he could not keep them in Nigeria, so he had to keep them in foreign banks.
The makers of the constitution believe that it is in our own interest to ban public officers who have access to public funds from siphoning the money and keeping them in foreign banks. And most times, we lose the money; they are never repatriated to Nigeria. Look at what we are facing now, with America asking us to come and give a guarantee on how we want to spend the monies that were stolen from Nigeria and kept with them. •Chief Solomon Amowolo (A Senior Advocate of Nigeria)
Everybody has fundamental human rights and they (public officers) still have that no matter the position they hold. We cannot deny anybody of that right unjustly and unnecessarily. If you say because they are public officers they shouldn’t have foreign accounts, what happens to the ones they had before they assumed office? Don’t forget that they always declare their assets before they come into office and so, ordinarily, there shouldn’t be room for corruption.
Everyone has his own fundamental human rights. What is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander and if you deny them of that right, don’t you know there are other means and ways they can siphon money? Do you think with all the efforts President Muhammadu Buhari is making, money is still not being siphoned in different ways?
Look at people building all kinds of houses and Chinese people building skyscrapers everywhere. Where do you think the money is coming from? Is it not clear that these are investments from the proceeds of corruption? All the money that they siphoned and they can’t carry out of the country, but as soon as the road is clear, they push them out. So, who is fooling who? We need to be careful in making laws. • Cardinal Anthony Okogie (A former Archbishop of Lagos)
In places where there is no corruption, there is no reason why anybody cannot keep accounts wherever he chooses to. But when you have decided to make foreign accounts an avenue for the institution of corruption, then something has to be done. It is in that context that I look at it.
In our country, corruption has become an institution. President Muhammadu Buhari is doing his best, but the pro-corruption forces are not relenting. If not keeping foreign accounts will reduce corruption, so be it.
From recent probes, we discovered that there were some public officers, who siphoned our monies into foreign accounts in the UK and different parts of the world. It is in the context of the corruption we are battling in this country that I will say public officers should not keep foreign accounts. Why do you even want to have a foreign account in the first place? What happened to our banks here?
The reason many of them are eager to do that is because their collaborators are abroad and it is easier to keep the money abroad where no one will know what is happening.
But, if you look at the National Assembly, in all honesty, can we say they are not keeping secret foreign accounts? Who among them does not have a foreign account? Maybe a few. It has become a menace, and it has to be stopped. • Pa Ayo Fasanmi (Second Republic senator)
On paper, yes; public officers should not be allowed to have foreign accounts, but it is not true in reality. These public officers have to travel abroad too and when they get there, what money would they spend? Would they spend the naira? I believe foreign countries also have a way of tracking corrupt funds and all we need to do is to fine-tune our laws to be able to address all levels of corruption and even catch anyone that steals public funds and put such in foreign accounts. • Mallam Moyosore Jaji (A former Lagos council boss)
Nigeria must be built on loyalty, truth and honesty. It is absurd for a public officer to be running a foreign account; we must call a spade a spade. The day a public office holder opens a foreign account is the beginning of the exhibition of his greedy character.
However, the running of foreign accounts is not a new thing. It is a breach of the constitution for any public officer to run a foreign account.
The problem of Nigeria is caused by the members of the National Assembly and we don’t need to deceive ourselves. Those that are in the National Assembly are living on free money and that is why many of them believe that they don’t have any business contesting to be governors or even President when they get a lot of free money from the National Assembly. The money they have never worked for. That is why I support former President Olusegeun Obasanjo when he called them pen robbers. Many of them are not democrats; they are thieves. And if care is not taken, they will finish the economy of this country. They are not making laws that will make Nigeria better; they are trying to amend the law to make room for looting of the treasury and creating unnecessary problems.
It is unfortunate that illegality has become the order of the day in Nigeria. In China, Germany, Canada, among other countries, it is not possible. How many Americans have opened accounts with First Bank, the oldest bank in Nigeria, and even Zenith Bank that runs a lot of commercials on CNN? • Amitolu Shittu (Human rights activist)
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y the 1999 Constitution, as amended, it is wrong for any public official to have a foreign account. The law is that even if you are operating a foreign account before you are inaugurated as a public officer, immediately you take the oath of office, you must stop it immediately. There should not be any lodgment into that account forthwith, which means you are not to own a foreign account.
If the senate amends the law to make public officers own foreign accounts, I will personally challenge it in a law court because it will amount to a conduit to siphon public funds. If they are worth their onions, they (Senators) should know it will not be in the interest of the country.
If I have the privilege of being in the National Assembly, I will present a bill that whoever steals the money of the country up to N200m, that person should be tied to the stake and killed. In some Asian countries like Hong Kong and Malaysia, you cannot steal public finds and get away with it. But here, if for instance, I steal N1bn and I am caught. I will get a team of lawyers and give them N500m and wriggle my way out of it. But if you know that you will be killed if you are caught with such a huge amount of money, you will sit up.
We all know what is wrong with this country, but we don’t want to address it. If you know me that before I was sworn-in into office, I was not worth more than N10m and all of a sudden, I have properties worth N1bn, then I must have stolen. Unless we address that issue, we will go nowhere.
However, the unfortunate thing about the fight against corruption by this administration is that they are looking in one direction. They are fighting only the members of the opposition party and some judges. They have refused to look at the other side; they have forgotten those in the APC, and that is a bad example. •Adejare Bello (A former Speaker, Osun State House of Assembly)
