Once again, the Anti-Corruption Summit that took place in London recently has reaffirmed the widely held view that, just like the ongoing global coalition against terror, there is so much that could be achieved if the international community can shake off its apathy and decide to work together to stamp out corruption. The cooperation is even more relevant to a developing country such as Nigeria, which has most of her stolen assets salted away abroad.
Corruption has become one of the biggest challenges facing mankind, especially in African and Asian countries. In fact, in the run-up to that summit in London, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, was overheard, in a conversation with Queen Elizabeth II of England, describing Nigeria and Afghanistan as two of the most “fantastically corrupt” countries in the world. For reasons traceable mostly to corruption, most of the funds that should have gone into development and provision of basic infrastructure have ended up being stolen by corrupt leaders, leaving the affected countries – and indeed their citizens – in a state of perpetual impoverishment.
While Cameron’s “fantastically corrupt” claim may not be far from the truth, as is often evidenced in the yearly Corruption Perception Index of the Transparency International, one issue that is also beyond doubt is the fact that the massive looting of public assets would not have been possible if other countries did not serve as safe havens for the loot. This was strongly corroborated by the prime minister’s exposé that foreign companies owned about 100,000 properties in England and Wales, more than 44,000 of which he said were in London. “When it comes to tackling corruption, the international community has looked the other way for far too long,” he rightly pointed out.
But with the set commitment of world leaders, represented at that summit by the host, Cameron, and the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, among others, it has become obvious that, going forward, it will be increasingly difficult for treasury looters to find safe havens in many countries, including the United Kingdom and the US. With the decision to open a register for foreign owners of properties to declare their assets publicly, the prime minister reasoned, “corrupt individuals and companies will no longer be able to move, launder and hide illicit funds through London’s property market, and will not benefit from our public funds.”
For a government committed to the fight against corruption, it is an opportunity for the Muhammadu Buhari administration to leverage that summit to stake a claim to some of the country’s stolen assets holed up in secret vaults of some foreign banks. Aside from efforts to deny looters a hiding place, Nigeria, alongside Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Tunisia also got assurances of another meeting next year in the US to be co-hosted by the UK and United Nations that will speed up the return of her stolen assets abroad.
The groundswell of support for the global war against graft has seen 11 countries pledging to join 29 others already committed to sharing information on true company ownership in their territories, in the light of the recent leakage of the Panama papers. Among other resolutions at the summit, it is also heartening that mechanisms are to be established in 12 countries to deny corrupt bidders access to contracts, just as 16 others pledged to join a new anti-corruption hub that would harness new technology and innovation to fight corruption.
As heartwarming as the London summit may seem, however, it is not the first time that such a global forum would be launched against corruption. On December 4, 2000, the United Nations General Assembly, in its Resolution 55/61, recognised the desirability of an effective international legal instrument against corruption, independent of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime. Nigeria is a signatory to the UN Convention Against Corruption, which came into force in 2005.
Specifically, the convention covered critical areas such as prevention of corruption, its criminalisation whenever it occurs, cooperation of countries in the fight against the scourge, and, perhaps most importantly, the recovery of funds that are a product of corruption that might have been stashed away abroad. UNCAC, described then – and still seen now – as the most comprehensive and authoritative convention against corruption that was truly global, had 165 countries as signatories. “The Convention obliges State Parties to implement a wide and detailed range of anti-corruption measures affecting their laws institutions and practices, including international cooperation,” the UN body said.
Unfortunately, it has failed to live up to expectations, which is why the London Summit had to come to the rescue. Despite UNCAC, African countries have been bled dry through corrupt enrichment by a few who further launder their ill-gotten wealth into developed economies. For many years now, Nigeria has been battling to retrieve some of the billions stolen by former military ruler, Sani Abacha, traced to countries such as Switzerland, Luxembourg, the US and Liechtenstein. AGuardian of London online publication once wrote, “Abacha, who ruled Nigeria for five years after a 1993 coup, is believed to have stolen $4.3 billion while in office, placing him among the ranks of Congo’s (the late) Mobutu Sese Seko as one of Africa’s most avaricious kleptocrats.”
The same publication, quoting an African Union report, also said Africa lost $50 billion annually to illicit financial outflows as a wicked collusion between the government and multinationals tried to deny countries tax payments. Africa, according to that report, lost about $850 billion between 1970 and 2008, out of which an estimated $217 billion was illegally transferred from Nigeria, followed by $105.2 billion and $81.8 billion from Egypt and South Africa respectively.
So, if UNCAC could not curb these, what is the assurance that the new summit will? The right attitude is to give it a chance. All that is needed is commitment from the leaders and the willingness to do things differently so as to get the needed results. With a collective assault on corruption and the tightening of the loose ends exploited by corrupt leaders, the urge to loot will certainly be reduced.
