Falana, Rewane, others react as Buhari fails to name looters

Some legal practitioners and economists have expressed support for the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to unveil the names of looters and the amount of looted assets so far recovered.

The President, had, in an interview in London, while attending the anti-corruption summit organised by British Prime Minister, David Cameron, recently, promised to disclose the figure in his Democracy Day address to the nation.

Buhari, however, on Sunday, dashed the hopes of millions of Nigerians who were waiting to be told how much his administration had so far recovered from individuals and firms accused of looting the nation’s treasury.

In his nationwide address to mark his one year in office on Sunday, Buhari failed to disclose the figure as promised.

Rather, the President promised Nigerians that the Ministry of Information and Culture would be publishing the details which he said would be updated periodically.

He simply said “significant amount of assets” had been recovered.

Buhari promised that when forfeiture formalities were completed, the money would be put in the nation’s treasury and be spent transparently to fund developmental projects.

The President said, “The processes of recovery can be tedious and time-consuming, but today, I can confirm that thus far, significant amount of assets have been recovered. A considerable portion of these are at different stages of recovery.

“Full details of the status and categories of the assets will now be published by the Ministry of Information and updated periodically.”

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, and Lagos-based lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, said on Sunday that Buhari’s directive to the Minister of Information to release details of the looted funds periodically, was in order.

In separate telephone interviews with one of our correspondents, the human rights lawyers believed the President’s directive the ministry was the best approach.

“That is the correct approach because it is an ongoing process,” Falana said.

But the Executive Secretary of Anti-corruption Network, Ebenezer Oyetakin, said Buhari’s speech did not meet the expectations of most Nigerians, who expected him to name the corrupt elements as he promised.

Oyetakin stated that the people also expected some shake-up in the structure of government, adding that disappointment occurred because people thought that Buhari would never say what he would not do.

He added, “He must embrace immediately a single policy that is capable of disarming the moneybags, who uses their stolen wealth to sponsor destabilisation projects. He must as a matter of urgency and courage deflates such people immediately before they rocked his government.”

Ogunye said he would not have expected the President “to be reeling out names of looters in his Democracy Day speech”.

He said, “The President cannot be reeling out the names of looters in his speech because there is no way he will give details of the recovered loot without giving the names of the looters or from whom what amount was recovered.

“It is the duty of the Minister of Information to speak for the government. The strategy adopted by the President is the best.”

Falana however said the Buhari administration had yet to address “some inbuilt leakages” in government’s funds.

He argued that the government needed to mobilise other anti-corruption agencies in the country in the fight against graft, contending that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was already overwhelmed by the huge number of cases it was contending with.

He said, “The other anti-graft agencies ought to be reorganised. More importantly, the government should mobilise the Nigerian people to own and take over the fight against corruption.”

Falana stated that the Buhari administration’s fire brigade approach would not solve the current economic crisis in the country.

He said, “The economy cannot be fixed through the fire brigade approach of the government. Why should the Central Bank of Nigeria be wasting the country’s scarce foreign reserves on the importation of consumer goods for our pampered elite?

“The goods produced by companies funded by the bank are not patronised because imported ones are cheaper.

“Why has the CBN not increased duties on imported goods, which can be produced locally? In some of our neighbouring countries, public officers wear locally produced dresses. Can’t the government lead by example?”

Also, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, said, “He is not going to mention it (list of looters) in a broadcast. The President said ‘the government’; he didn’t say he would mention it himself.

Punch