Nigeria Daily News: British War Against Nigerian Kleptocracy By Remi Oyeyemi

British War Against Nigerian Kleptocracy By Remi Oyeyemi
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Staff on 28/05/2012 00:00:00


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By Remi Oyeyemi
"We hope that, by tackling the likes of James Ibori, we're saying to those
stealing from the state purse, you can't have your children at private school in
London. You can't have a multimillion pound house in one of the most affluent
areas of London. You can't drive around in top of the range vehicles. We won't
let you move money around to buy multimillion pound jets."
- Detective Chief Inspector Jonathan Benton, Proceeds of Corruption Unit of
London's Metropolitan Police. 
One of the major reasons why our ruling elites have been incorrigible about
dipping their hands in the collective purse and stealing our resources is
because they are confident that there are places they could run to when trouble
comes. They believe that if Nigeria becomes too hot, their loot would be safe in
the overseas accounts where they were kept.
As we all know, family is the most important thread in every person’s life.
This is more so with one’s children. The fact that our looters and dealers who
call themselves leaders could also hide away their children in foreign schools,
away from angry Nigerians that may descend on them in a retributive manner, has
also been a very good incentive for the incorrigibility of the Nigerian
kleptomaniacal elite.
Coupled with the above is the fact that every country is always looking for
foreign capital as part of the global economy. This way, every country hopes
that the flow of foreign capital in whatever form ought to be encouraged to help
the local economy and provide jobs. In this activity, morality has often taken
the back seat. Not only that, the operating principle has always been one’s
country first, before others. This is in obeisance to the first law of nature,
which is self-preservation.
This has always been the operating rules of the European countries as well as
the USA. It has been this way before colonialism. It was so during and after
colonialism. This was why the conscienceless exploitation of African continent
was carried out without any remorse whatsoever. This crude Euro-American
mentality has spilled over to the contemporary politico-economic relationships
with mother Africa and has encouraged the pillaging of African resources for
“safe-keeping” and benefits of the citizens of Europe and America.
To this end, our clueless leaders, who lack the vision and capacity to liberate
and empower their own citizens, have been willing partners in this odious
endeavor. Rather than help to develop their countries, they siphon their local
resources for glamor in Europe and America. They buy mansions in very exclusive
neighborhood, purchase top-of-the-line exotic cars, send their children to the
most expensive schools in those countries and patronize their well-equipped
hospitals.
They impoverish their own people for the benefits of the Euro-American
economies. They commit treasonable genre of economic and political crimes
against their own countries to accomplish these dastardly acts. They become
highly irritable when critiqued. They transform into blood-sucking dictators and
would mow down their people, should the people have the guts to protest misrule.
They do all these, because they are confident that, if the worse comes to the
worst, and they are chased out of their countries, they could always escape to
these Euro-American countries to live a life of opulence for the rest of their
lives.
Of recent, the frontier of these countries willing to allow the
“safe-keeping” of ill-gotten wealth has expanded into the Middle-eastern,
Asian, South-American as well as the Caribbean nations. The competition elicited
by the new global economy has made this possible. But "Nothing is politically
right which is morally wrong," says Daniel O'Connell, as quoted by Chief Obafemi
Awolowo in his 1961 lecture, “Politics and Religion.”
This is where Britain’s new attitude and approach to international money
laundering law must be commended by those who wish Nigeria well. Though, it
could be argued that the British as colonial overlords of Nigeria fermented the
ground on which the present corruption has germinated gigantic roots, it is
still commendable that they are seeking to allow morality and law to operate
pari-passu in checking the excesses of the Nigerian rulers.
Without doubt, there is an element of self-interest embedded in this new
attitude of the British.  Nevertheless, it must be welcomed by all and sundry.
 Nigerian leaders, after messing up their own land, have unleashed their stolen
wealth on the British psyche. Watching a Mutallab, an unemployed student, live
in a four million dollar apartment in London; witnessing Nigerians lavishly
spend hundreds of thousands of pound sterling in Lloyds’, on their bad days;
observing Nigerians buy mansions that would take British citizens two lives to
pay for and seeing them buy “cash down,” exotic cars that ninety-nine
percent of them could not afford on hire purchase, could not be good for the
psyche of a people who work hard to make few hundred pounds a week,
According to a report by the London CNN, the British Banks have been fingered by
Proceeds of Corruption Unit of London's Metropolitan Police funded by UK
government's Department for International Development, as being complicit in
money laundering activities. The same report noted that in March, this year,
“the Financial Services Authority fined Coutts, a private arm of Royal Bank of
Scotland, a record $14 million for failing to monitor three-quarters of its
high-risk customers, known as Politically Exposed Persons. Although Coutts says
it found no evidence of money laundering, and its processes are now robust,
campaigners say London's banks are still playing a role in the problem of
African corruption.” 
The Transparency International has reportedly called for “more sanctions”
against these Banking Institutions, noting “the greater the severity of
penalties, the greater the deterrent effect." Robert Palmer of anti corruption
NGO, Global Witness, has also echoed this position by contending that "the only
way we're going to get serious change is if you have heavy penalties, you go
after individual bankers and, in the worst cases, in the most egregious
failures, you put people in jail."
Reviewing the colonial history of Nigeria it is difficult to miss the overt acts
of the British in setting up Nigeria for failure. The British corrupted Nigerian
demographic distribution, introduced apartheid, hounded and haunted Nigeria’s
best out of power play and grandfathered the docile, incompetent and feudalistic
into power to guarantee British continued hold on the destiny of Nigeria.
But if this present war on the Nigerian kleptocrats is what the British
government would use to atone for its sins against the peoples of Nigeria, then
so be it. We should encourage the British and give them a hand. While we
exercise caution to ensure that this is not a “Greek Gift,” Nigerians the
world over should embark on war of exposition against these enemies of our
people. Where possible, let us institute court cases against them in the country
where their accounts could be traced. International laws could be employed to
frustrate dubious collaborators in such countries and bring these thieves to
book.
If their stolen wealth is no longer safe outside the shores of Nigeria, and
there is unbearable pressure on them within Nigeria, the incentive to steal
would be greatly reduced.