Now, it's been over three months since the president slipped out of Aso Rock and all we could do is to stand and stare; at best, complain to one another that what the president did was wrong. Nothing more! The ministers, who should have salvaged the situation before it became the butt of jokes in the international arena, appeared helpless and clueless. Then, there is the National Assembly that ought to have impeached the elusive president for clear constitutional breaches.
First, the National Assembly pretended it was handicapped in the circumstance before contriving what had variously been described as illegal, an acting president cassock for Goodluck Jonathan. While the drama lasted, the world was watching in wonderment. What manner of people are these Nigerians? This is the niggling question the rest of the world has no answer to.
Truth is, Nigeria has acted more despicable scripts than we have in the Umaru Yar'Adua saga. Nigeria stinks; that's a fact. While the noxious stench oozes to the rest of world, the same putrid mess is lost on Nigerians. We don't know we stink or how much disgusting and repugnant we have become to the rest of the world.
The Financial Action Task Force, TATF, the international financial crime watchdog, has just released its list of notorious nations. As always, Nigeria made the grade as a member of the comity of nations that showed lack of will to stopping "dirty money" entering into the financial system. Let's get it right here. FATF says Nigeria is very adept at money laundering. And that's not a good badge to wear. A friend strongly objected to the listing of Nigeria among the nations of infamy. He pointed to the banking reforms, the efforts of the EFCC and ICPC as sure signs that the nation is mending her ways.
But the same cringed when I confronted him with glaring cases of corruption and money laundering over which the Nigerian authorities kept mum, while the culprits and obvious villains strut the stage as neo-heroes of our democracy. Houston, United States-based KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, recently pleaded guilty to US federal criminal charges, admitting it paid millions of dollars in bribes to Nigerian officials to win the contract to build a $4 billion natural gas plant in the country. The company was convicted in the US and ordered to pay a fine of $402 million to the US government.
US Justice Department said Halliburton and three other companies paid about $180 million as bribe to top Nigerian government officials as well as officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Recall also the separate cases of Willbros and Siemens. Both companies bribed some Nigerian officials. They have admitted before the court of law and the court of public opinion that they did bribe some Nigerians to get some juicy contracts. Both companies had been convicted by their parent countries. In the case of Willbros, a US engineering company, two senior executive were nailed in the bung.
Jim Bob Brown, 48, was sentenced to one year and a day, while Jason Edward Steph was jailed for 15 months for conspiring to violate the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Brown and Steph spent about $6 million to bribe Nigerian officials between 2003 and 2005, in an attempt to win Willbros a stake in the $387 million Eastern Gas Gathering System in the Niger Delta. Let's quickly add the testimony of US congressman, William Jefferson. He had admitted to bribing some Nigerians. Jefferson had since been convicted and sentenced.
Note that in all of these cases, the companies and their representatives admitted to offering bribe to Nigerians. Halliburton and Siemens paid goodly sums as fine to the governments of US and Germany, respectively. But in Nigeria, the home of the bribe recipients, nothing is happening. There has been a loud silence from the so-called anti-graft agencies and much more from the government that mouths zero-tolerance to corruption. Something is wrong. Neither the EFCC nor the presidency should play the possum this time. They should not pretend that all is well. To do so is to endorse the illicit campaign that corruption pays; that graft is a virtue.
The conviction of Jefferson, Siemens, Willbros and Halliburton representatives is the fodder EFCC requires to bring the Nigerian bribe recipients to book. Acting President Goodluck Jonathan should see these developments as a call to action. He should nudge the EFCC to get over its inertia. The world is watching you, Mr Jonathan.
