By JUMI RHODES
Former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala has given an insight into how corrupt leaders have looted
Nigeria's treasury over the years. Okonjo-Iweala, who served in the last
administration as Coordinating Minister of the Economy, revealed this
in her book 'Reforming The Unreformable: Lessons from
Nigeria'{originally published in 2012}. As excerpted from the book are 4
methods the former minister reveals leaders and public officials loot
Nigeria's money:
CORRUPTION ON A GRAND SCALE: THEFT OF PUBLIC ASSETS BY HIGH PUBLIC OFFICIALS
"On
September 15, 2005, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha(now deceased), (then)
governor of the Nigerian state of Bayelsa, was who was arrested at
London's Heathrow Airport and interrogated on allegations of money
laundering by officers of the London Metropolitan Police's Specialist
and Economic Crime Unit. From the airport he was taken to his home in
the Paddington area of London. A search of the home resulted in the
discovery of the equivalent of 920,000 pounds... In all, he was charged
with laundering more than 1.8million pounds. He asserted his innocence.
He was granted bail, pending trial. He then jumped bail and escaped from
the UK disguised as a woman. He fled to Nigeria, where the constitution
grants governors, presidents, and vice presidents immunity from
prosecution while in office."
CORRUPTION FROM THE TOP: THEFT OF PUBLIC ASSETS BY A FORMER DICTATOR
"In
August 2004, authorities in Switzerland accepted the argument of
Nigeria's lawyers that an Abachar-run criminal organization existed
whose purpose was to engaged in the looting and laundering of Nigerian
public funds....In the five years of Abacha's rule, an estimated
US$3billion to US$5billion of Nigeria's public assets were looted and
sent abroad by Abacha, his family, and their associates. At the upper
end of the range, the amount stolen is larger than the 2006 education
and health federal budgets combined..
Of the amount stolen,
more than US$2.2billion was carted away from the Central Bank of Nigeria
in truckloads of cash in the form of foreign currency and travelers
checks... Another classic method of corruption practiced by the Abacha
criminal organization involved contract inflation. One particularly
odious case was a Nigerian Family Support Program contract for Pasteur
Merieux vaccines. The US$111 million contract was awarded to Morgan
Procurement Ltd, a company belonging to the Abacha family. The true
value of the vaccines was US$22.5million."
CORRUPTION FROM WITHIN: CORRUPTION BY FOREIGN COMPANIES AND THEIR DOMESTIC PARTNERS IN CRIME
"Nigeria
is replete with accounts of such corrupt and corrupting behavior by
foreign companies. Siemens, to its credit, admitted paying 10 million
euros to Nigeria government officials between 2001 and 2004 to
facilitate contract awards. Sometime in 1994, the TSKJ consortium made a
bid to provide services to a US$12 billion LNG gas project in Nigeria.
This initial bid was not accepted. ... In December 1995, TSKJ was
awarded a US$2billion contract for the Nigerian LNG proect. Years later,
evidence was produced that the TSKJ group had internally discussed
making payments of about US$180million to various foreign accounts of
Nigerian officials to help TSKJ obtain its lucrative contract."
CORRUPTION FROM THE BOTTOM: PRIVATE INTIMIDATION
"A
systemic rot has befallen Nigeria's once-solid system of public
tertiary education... Tales abound of public health workers asking for
under-the-table payments for services and diverting hospital supplies,
drugs, and equipment to the privae clinics. Nigeria is bedeviled by very
poor provision of public services in education and health, largely
because of corruption and undermining of institutions by a small
percentage of the population."
http://dawntodusknews.com/ngozi-okonjo-iweala-4-methods-corrupt-nigerians-steal-nigerias-money/
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