‘How to recover $400bn stashed in foreign banks’

You are seeking amnesty for money launderers and culprits of other financial crimes. What exactly will such amnesty achieve? To start with, amnesty is a period of time and condition when you can admit to having done something illegal and not be punished. Amnesty for people who took money outside the country in questionable ways […]

You are seeking amnesty for money launderers and culprits of other financial crimes. What exactly will such amnesty achieve?

To start with, amnesty is a period of time and condition when you can admit to having done something illegal and not be punished. Amnesty for people who took money outside the country in questionable ways will help in getting much of that money back. Corruption is the reason for the poor infrastructural development in Nigeria. Amnesty will give us access to and use of the proceeds of corruption to bring economic growth to Nigeria. Money laundering and other illegal ways of taking money out should ordinarily be punished. We are saying, however, that the process of enforcing the laws requires that offenders should be prosecuted. But the obstacles in the way are tedious and almost impossible to surmount. Complying with the laws required to facilitate the repatriation of stolen wealth is difficult
Number one, there is a colossal amount of funding to trace the stolen assets: to hire lawyers and consultants who will prosecute the cases within Nigeria and outside. You can cite several instances in which efforts in that direction have failed. Number two is the timeframe. You can spend twenty years on such cases and not get anywhere.

How far can you get through amnesty?

Now, it has been estimated that Nigeria has national assets worth over $400 million taken out of the country by Nigerians.  Now, if you can attract back half of this money and invest it on power generation, roads, education, transportation, infrastructural development, you will see a huge impact.
The idea is to encourage Nigerians, through the grant of an amnesty, just as the government has done with militants. Government can say, ‘okay, we give you a two-year window. We are giving all who have assets outside two years to bring them back. Within the two years, government will look the other way as you bring it all back.’ After two years, government will apply the law with vigour against those who reject the amnesty.
What applies today is that the money Nigerians have out there, the stocks they have, are helping to develop the economies of those countries. The assets are helping to develop Germany, the United State. They are helping to develop Dubai. Nigerians are using our money to develop Ghana, to develop South Africa. Much of the money used in these places is laundered money. They won’t bring the money back, ordinarily, because they are afraid they would be rounded up and jailed. With amnesty, the usual legal process will be waived and these people will bring the money back. All that is necessary is the leeway through amnesty.

What is the motivation for people with foreign investments to bring their investments home?

Now, one of the things that makes this idea most auspicious is the legislation on Public Private Partnership (PPP) by which government brings in the private sector to join in the provision of vital infrastructure like power supply, healthcare services, and all that. We have the PPP arrangement which encourages people who have resources to invest it in developing the economy and providing vital services. With the PPP already in place, all you require is a way to make Nigerians bring their money from abroad and you will have what you need for development. It is a win-win situation. The owners of this money make their profitable investments and the local economy gains.
They took this money outside illegally, but we are saying, let government create the environment that will make them bring it back and invest in our economy. Let me show you what happens. When buying bank shares became a big thing, a lot of Nigerians who laundered money started bringing it back. But there was a hitch when the Central Bank insisted in knowing the source of such funds before they could be accepted into the Nigerian Stock Market. Those who were set to bring in money stopped until the Central Bank relaxed that regulation.
Let me make a point clear. I am an anti-corruption fighter. I am not saying that stealing public funds is a good thing. I am not suggesting that people who steal funds should be condoned. I am saying that in the circumstances we find ourselves, we are between the devil and the deep blue sea. We cannot go out and bring these funds because the countries in which they are domiciled are not willing to release them. These countries are not willing to let these funds go.
This idea is to find an alternative around the near impossible to ensure that Nigeria does not lose all. You will have heard of Nigerians who kept money in coded accounts outside the country and died. Those accounts are gone. Those monies are gone. We’ve similarly had instances when Nigerians took money out to invest in other economies only to die thereafter and forfeit the investments to the countries of investment. How long must we continue to make such loses? Why not open this door of amnesty and let in the monies and investments while we have time?

Amnesty for Niger Delta militants is clear. But…

This one is clear, too. The term is amnesty for voluntary repatriation of assets considered to have been illegally taken abroad.

The Niger Delta militants were known. They even had lawyers who represented them when they were negotiating with the Federal Government. How do you identify those expected to respond to amnesty for repatriation of monies stashed overseas?

Just say it. Proclaim the amnesty relaxing the rules and they will come out. You won’t see anyone accepting to possess monies or investments abroad through the back door because they know that as things stand, they will be prosecuted. Government saying they are granting amnesty will encourage them to come out. Let me mention one of the things that will make them come out. If you have a house in Dubai, for instance, that is not occupied, they tax you heavily. Similarly, if you have money in banks in some parts of the world, they tax you heavily. It doesn’t pay in many cases to have money or property outside.
America did this thing at a time when they had problems collecting taxes. The American Inland Revenue Service said we will not treat you as a criminal if you come out to pay your taxes. We give you so, so time to clear your tax obligations. Huge tax defaulters took advantage of that initiative to pay up without fear of punishment. They were relieved because paying up the taxes they owed freed them from fear of the law. Government gained because they were able to collect taxes that they couldn’t hope for if they had insisted on wielding the stick against defaulters who couldn’t have paid up through the usual channel.
Similarly, since we can’t make those who took our money abroad through unconventional ways to return it, why not open the window of amnesty? After all, these people are Nigerians. Let me mention another reason why insisting on repatriating money through normal channel is difficult. These people who launder money employ people who are experts in handling laundered money. These experts know how to handle such money in such ways that you can never hope to trace. Even where you succeed in getting to such money, the cost in the process is enormous. Find out what was spent to recover what was recovered of the Abacha loot and you will see what I am saying.
Take the Niger Delta challenge. Some people said kill all the militants. Of course you couldn’t have done that. Thousands will die, many of who would be innocent civilians, and you will still not have solved the problem. But look at what amnesty has done. Not many believed that the amnesty programme would work. But it has lowered the temperature. It has helped in raising the production of crude, the general population is at more ease than they had known for years, because you don’t find militants all over the place any more. Extend amnesty to repatriation of money stashed abroad and it will amaze you the amount of money that will come into our economy and help development.

Some of the money you are talking about is already in profitable investments out there. How will you convince owners of such money to bring it back?

Nowhere in the world makes the kind of money people are making in Nigeria. You have only to pick the right business to make your good profits. The GSM companies here, do you know how well they are doing? MTN made profits in their very first year of operations in Nigeria. The company broke even and started making profits in the very first year! In which other country do you get that?