- Sagay is right; those who connived with looters should be prosecuted
When bank executives commit fraud or betray their privileged positions of trust in other parts of the world, they are treated like any other criminal – prosecuted and convicted – if found guilty. But here in Nigeria, they are hardly prosecuted. At best, they are relieved of their jobs and business continues as usual. Obviously this is not healthy for the banking sector which thrives on trust and integrity.
It is against this backdrop that we support Prof Itse Sagay’s decision to push for prosecution of bank chief executives who connived with looters. The looting of the country’s treasury on the massive scale that some unscrupulous politicians perpetrated could not have been possible without the collusion of bank executives. “In my own little way, we are going to push for the prosecution of such bank chiefs. They must be prosecuted,” Sagay said in a public lecture in Lagos on “The many afflictions of anti-corruption crusade in Nigeria”, on September 5. The lecture was organised by the Nigerian Society of International Law.
Nigerians are inundated daily with reports of staggering amounts in local and foreign currencies suspected to be proceeds of crime purportedly belonging to some former public officials. While it is true that not all the stolen money passed through the banking system, as billions have been recovered in homes and other discreet places, we have also seen evidence of some money lodged in banks, or at least passed through the banking system to wherever they are now, at home and abroad. Yet, those who should blow the whistle when such huge funds were being moved looked the other way.
This is only one of the many infractions in the banking sector. We have had instances of banks charging customers more than required; some chief executives had converted customers’ deposits in their care to personal property while others gave loans without adequate collateral security. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in August 2009 removed the managing directors and executive directors of five banks due to high level of non-performing loans attributable to poor corporate governance practices, lax credit administration processes and non-adherence to the banks’ credit risk management practices. Two months later, three more bank chief executives were sacked by the apex bank for gross mismanagement of funds. Only one of the banks’ chief executives fired was successfully prosecuted and substantial assets and shares confiscated from her, following the plea bargain she entered into with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
This state of affairs must be a source of concern to PACAC and all well-meaning Nigerians. There is nowhere in the world where chief executives do not tamper with funds in their care. The difference between Nigeria and those other climes is that they promptly prosecute such chief executives. For instance, in the United Kingdom, former Anglo Irish Bank executives John Bowe and Willie McAteer and the former chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent, Denis Casey, were all sentenced to prison terms ranging from two years to three and a half years for a €7.2bn conspiracy to defraud in September 2008. What is pathetic in their case is that they did not gain any direct profit from their crimes. They only conspired to mislead investors about the true financial state of their companies.
It is doubtful if most of the crimes committed by bank chief executives in Nigeria followed this pattern of not benefiting from the crimes. As a matter of fact, corruption drives most of the unethical conducts in our banks.
We support Prof Sagay’s idea. It cannot be otherwise if sanity must be restored to our banking system. We also note his apprehensions, especially about a National Assembly that has not passed any of the anti-corruption bills before it, as well as the judiciary that stinks, with some senior advocates colluding with some judges to sell judgments. What the situation calls for is eternal vigilance by Nigerians who should be more inquisitive about what transpires in both the legislative and judicial arms of government
