‘Jonathan’s Govt, Weak In Fight Against Corruption’

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, has assured that the House of Representatives will not abandon the fight against corruption, even as he restated that the President Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Government is weak in the fight against graft.
Tambuwal gave the assurance at a public hearing on a bill to establish the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency organised by the House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes.
The bill seeks to establish the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency as the central body in Nigeria responsible for receiving, requesting, analysing and disseminating financial and other information to law enforcement and security agencies.
“The House of Representatives of the Seventh Assembly is fully determined to do everything possible to check the haemorrhage of our national resources.
“We must make sure that the people we represent benefit from the democratic system they have sacrificed so much to make possible,” he said.
Tambuwal said the country had witnessed the consequences of the reckless and cavalier manner in which public officials and civil servants manage public funds.
He lamented that billions of naira go missing in Nigeria every year as a result of mismanagement and outright theft of money belonging to Nigerians.
The Speaker noted that this level of financial impunity was possible because of dubious accounting procedures and the lack of a specialised agency.
He said the establishment of the agency would create a harmonious inter-agency relationship between various inter related organisations.
In his remarks, Chairman of the House Committee on Drugs Narcotics and Financial Crimes, Hon Adams Jagaba (PDP-Kaduna), said the bill if passed, would curb money laundering and terrorism.
“In essence, the bill seeks to provide legislation for an institution responsible for generating and dispensing information on money laundering, terrorism financing and other financial crimes.
He noted the prevailing institutional arrangement which places NFIU as a department under the EFCC is an aberration and not in consonance with international best practices.
The lawmaker said draft legislation was an attempt to rectify glaring deficiency and further enhance confidence on the Nigeria’s financial climate.
He noted that it was just recently that the Financial Action Task-Force (FATF) delisted Nigeria from its list of “high risk countries”.
Jagaba urged all stakeholders to give the bill every necessary support “in order to sustain and improve on our current international rating.
“I wish to state that the creation of NFIA as an independent body with a clearly defined mandate does not in any way entail additional financial burden on the nation.
“This bill will entrench transparency in financial undertakings and serve as impetus for enhancing the present administration’s transformation agenda,” he said.
Stakeholders at the hearing all supported the bill, except the EFCC which was conspicuously absent.
They include the ICPC, NDLEA, CBN, Nigeria Police, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service and National Intelligence Agency. Others are Department of State Security, SEC, NICOM, and Presidential Committee on Financial Action Task Force (FATF), among others.