AMNESTY FOR TREASURY LOOTERS, A POLITICAL TWIST OF A TIRED LEGISLATURE .by SHABA MAFU.

Treasury looters in Nigeria will soon heave a great sigh of relief if the proposed bill of amnesty for looters of public treasury as canvassed by the lower House of the national Parliament sees the light of the day.  The bill sponsored by Honourable Linus Okorie (PDP, Ebonyi State ) was first read on the floor of the House on June 14, 2017. Categorically, the bill seeks to give looters leeway to escape any form of probe, inquiry, or prosecution after fulfilling certain conditions. Besides, such looters shall not be compelled by any authority to disclose the source of their looted funds.  The scheme is to last three years from the time it is signed into law by the Executive President. The three-year period could be extended at the instance of the federal Government.

Specifically, the proposed law is titled: “A Bill for an Act to establish a scheme to harness untaxed money for investment purposes to assure any declarant regarding inquiries and proceedings under Nigeria laws and for other matters connected therewith”. This bill when it is passed into law excludes the ‘repentant’ looter from disclosing the source of his loot and the amount looted. Under the amnesty, he returns any amount he deems fit to surrender without any authority questioning him of the actual amount stolen or returned. He cannot be prosecuted by any court of law of the land under the cover of the Amnesty programme. So a looter can steal from the commonwealth in Billions of Naira and decides to hand over a paltry sum of some sick millions which will be invested into the Nigerian economy (for the recycled process of looting and Amnesty again and again)

This bill is drafted basically for the escape of the elites who have already stolen huge sums of our national wealth.  Scared stiff of being caught in the dangling hammer of the anti-graft Body, particularly the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), they are granting a futuristic amnesty to themselves as an escapist route from the pending public shame and ridicule when eventually caught. This stand is antithetical to the stand of the present Buhari-led government and well-meaning Nigerians on the war against corruption. It does not depict decency, decorum and integrity in which the Honourable Members of the House of Representatives ought to be known and referred. The bill is an aberration from its conception; its tantamount to deliberate sabotage of the economy and betrayal to the collective representation of the entire citizenry of Nigeria. It is a deliberate fatal blow dealt on the psyche of the nation; a further impoverishing of the already depressed common man on the Nigerian street.

This bill is self-seeking and has no iota of patriotism. The intending beneficiaries of this proposed Act are the likes of the allegedly corrupt people such as the former Minister of Petroleum under the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke who was accused by the EFCC of stealing a whopping sum of $115 Million (N23 Billion). Under the grace of such an amnesty, she may choose to return any amount at her discretion and that ends it all. She will deploy the remainder for political expeditions on the same poor and cheated Nigerians who will continue live in perpetual servitude and bondage to these elite rogues. The bill applauds the Police pension fraud case where Mr. John Yakubu Joseph was alleged to have stolen the sum of N23 Billion from the police pensions. When charged to court, he was asked to pay a fine of N750,000 or be jailed for two years. Right there, he doled out the fine from one of his pockets and strolled home a free man to enjoy the remainder loot legitimately. Can one compare the lives wasted by the deeds of Yakubu for the alleged theft and the “lump pat on his wrist” he got from the court? This Linus-sponsored Amnesty bill got its inspiration from the judgment passed in the fraudulent case of Mr. Yakubu Joseph, I guesswith all sense of responsibility.

In this proposed law, someone like the former National Security Officer, Colonel Sambo Dasuki who was alleged to have squandered the sum of $2.1Billion dollars being money meant to purchase arms to fight the Boko haram insurgency, will enjoy the amnesty. He could just stroll to the office of the Amnesty and in a drawl declare that the whole money being lamented about was just 1Million token. The Amnesty Office will pat him at the back for patriotism and collect the remnant to ‘invest in the Nigerian economy’.

This bill is not only evil, but destructive to the entire economy of the country and by extension the country itself. The bill will not stop looters of the economy who are the worst criminals in this country. It will give them a leeway to perpetrate this evil. Most painful of this bill is that it protects the thieving elites. The bill was silenced about the mammoth corruption going on in the private sector. While the economy is being milked dry and the deliberate perpetrators of the crime excused, the rate of employment will continue to skyrocket thereby birthing poverty in ripple effect. The common man has nothing to benefit from this highly pervasive bill.

This bill reminds me to call on the EFCC to extend their search-light on the Chairmen of all the 774 Local Government Chairmen in Nigeria. Each quarter, we hear of the trillions of Naira shared among the three tiers of government by the federal Government. These monies do not translate to any developmental projects especially at the local Government level.  This bill cannot cover up people like these, who ordinarily ought to be accountable to the electorates at the grassroots.

I call on President Muhammadu Buhari or the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo not to desecrate their revered names by appending the Executive signature to this hellish bill to effect it a law. The Executive should rather strengthen the anti-graft Bodies and make them more effective. If the bill eventually receives an executive assent to become law, the human and civil rights organizations in Nigeria, such as SERAP, CACOL, CDHR, etc, should mobilize themselves and the entire Nigerian populace to protest and denounce this misnomer called the Economic Amnesty Bill or Amnesty Bill for Looters.

Before going to that extent, I all on the Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Dogara to fling the bill through the window and count it as anti-people and an anti-progressive bill. It is only by so-doing, the legislature can untwist the political scenario glaring menacingly on the eyes of the already-frustrated Nigerians.