The Acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu yesterday inaugurated a committee to reposition the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).
He asked the panel to coordinate the effective process of amendment of Section 1(2)(c) of the EFCC Act to expressly reflect NFIU as an autonomous unit under the EFCC with a one month deadline.
Head of Media and Publicity of rhe EFCC Wilson Uwujaren, said the committee’s members were drawn from law enforcement, financial and regulatory agencies.
He said: “The committee is chaired by Dr. Abdullahi Shehu, a former Director-General of the Inter-Governmental Action Against Money Laundering in West Africa, GIABA.
“Other members of the committee are Mr. Chidi Chukwuka from the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC); Mr. Bamanga Bello, Head of the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML); Hajia Jamila Yusuf of the Central Bank of Nigeria; Mr. Udofia Akpan Obot, a former deputy director, CBN , while Mrs. Joke Liman of the EFCC is to serve as secretary
The inauguration is coming on the heels of the recent suspension of the NFIU from membership of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.
Magu charged the committee to take a holistic look at the mandate and operations of the NFIU with a view to coming up with proposals to reposition the agency for greater efficiency.
The statement said: “While noting that members of the committee are persons with rich experience in Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism, Magu reminded them that membership of the Egmont Group was critical to Nigeria’s effort to tackle money laundering, and monitoring of financial flows within and outside the country.
He charged the Committee to among others, address the concern of the Egmont Group, by providing the necessary frameworks needed “to coordinate the effective process of amendment of Section 1(2)(c) of the EFCC Act to expressly reflect NFIU as an autonomous unit under EFCC so as to provide legal basis or clarity on its operational independence from the EFCC.
“Make recommendations with respect to the funding of the NFIU’s operations. Develop career path for the staff of the NFIU.
Responding on behalf of the members of the Committee, Shehu expressed delight at the opportunity given to them to serve the country.
He added: “We see this as a call to service and we assure you that we will ensure that we carry out this task judiciously in order to reposition the NFIU, and ensure that it is autonomous as this will further strengthen the anti-corruption fight”, he said.
“Nigeria was the first country to enact an anti- money laundering law in Africa and also the first to set up a Financial Intelligence Unit, an agency that has mentored other FIUs in the West Africa sub-region.
He praised Nigeria’s role in setting up and nurturing GIABA to global reckoning. Shehu however acknowledged that there were challenges in the country’s anti- money laundering framework which must be tackled for the country to fully achieve the objective of fighting corruption and money laundering.
Ford has announced a new and advanced autonomous development vehicle that will be used for testing autonomous functions.
Ford didn’t give the car new name; instead, it’s sticking with the Ford Fusion Hybrid moniker that has been used since it introduced the first model three years ago.
Ford’s Chief Program Engineer Chris Brewer said: “This new car uses the current Ford autonomous vehicle platform, but ups the processing power with new computer hardware. Electrical controls are closer to production-ready, and adjustments to the sensor technology, including placement, allow the car to better see what’s around it. New LiDAR sensors have a sleeker design and more targeted field of vision, which enables the car to now use just two sensors rather than four, while still getting just as much data.”
Brewer, in his blog post, touched on some compelling and almost philosophical questions surrounding the development of new autonomous vehicles. He asked, for example, how one is supposed to replicate “everything a human driver does behind the wheel in a vehicle that drives itself?”
Brewer ponders how the car will recognise if it has the right of way or not, or what happens if there’s an accident along the route. These are questions that other firms, such as Uber, Volvo and Google, are also trying to answer. Brewer said Ford hopes to learn more by using a virtual driver system that’s dependable and able to make decisions that are otherwise left up to a human driver to make.
Brewer also explained why Ford decided to go with another hybrid vehicle instead of a standard gas-powered car. Turns out there isn’t enough electric inside of a gas-car for all of the components required in an autonomous vehicle.
He said Ford “had to tap into Fusion Hybrid’s high-voltage battery pack by adding a second, independent power converter to help create two sources of power to maintain robustness.”
Daimler’s Chairman, board of directors, Dr Dieter Zetsche, has revealed that Mercedes-Benz wants to create cars that will act as personal assistants and wellbeing monitors.
Speaking at the weekend in Berlin, Germany at the Internationale FunkausstelIung (IFA) consumer electronics show, Dr Zetsche explained that cars will one day carry out chores and tasks humans do not enjoy in a bid to improve their quality of life and reduce stress.
He said cars would be able to communicate with one another and pass on information to make journeys more efficient, and that in the very short term, they will be able to use the shared data to do things such as find spaces and park themselves.
“We’ve already begun testing community-based parking in Stuttgart together with our partners at Bosch,” Zetsche said.
He added: “It works using car sensors that can find empty spaces along a road and then share the information with the Mercedes back-end database. That information is then shared with other Mercedes cars.”
The process means all connected Mercedes cars will be able to instantly know where the nearest and most convenient parking space is. In the short term future, this system will allow users to drive their cars to them, but further ahead, autonomous cars will drive off and park themselves.
Zetsche said cars will then begin to work as their owner’s assistant, carrying out chores like taking the kids to school and picking up other family members while an owner stays at work or home.
“Everyone is talking about digitalisation and connected cars. But software alone will not be able to take you from A to B. It is the total package that will take you from A to B,” he said.
Additionally, the Mercedes boss said cars would work to make sure their passengers are as comfortable as possible during transit.
“It’s our goal that a passenger gets out of a Mercedes in better condition than when they got in. The car will use its sensors to monitor the health and wellbeing of passengers, and then adjust settings to improve your situation and blood pressure,” he explained.
While he refrained from going into further details, Zetsche cited the Mercedes F015 concept (pictured above) as an example of the idea. The concept was revealed at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, United States (US), and showcased Mercedes’s vision for autonomous cars that focus on offering maximum comfort to passengers.
He said: “We do not know exactly what the car will look like in 10 years from now, but we do know it will be of greater value for all of us. That’s why our cars have begun to become quality time machines, to hand back time to let you do what you want.
“But that time will always include driving a car for pure pleasure. We will certainly never forget that at Mercedes.”
Elder Statesman and Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, has called for a strict obedience of the laws limiting the powers of Visitors, Vice Chancellors and Councils of universities if the autonomy of the university system is to be preserved in the country.
Pursuant to this, he advised government functionaries to begin to appreciate that universities, polytechnics and colleges of education are not departments or appendages of either the Federal or State Ministries of Education.
Babalola, who spoke while delivering the Convocation Lecture, titled “University Administration: the Role of Stakeholders” at the 21st Convocation of the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, last week said: “The unconstitutional and illegal violation of University Laws by successive governments, Federal and State, ministers and officers of government makes it imperative that we should examine the role of stakeholders in university administration”.
Babalola, who served as Pro Chancellor of the University of Lagos (2000-2007), emphasised the need for Pro Chancellors to appreciate the burden on them.
He said: “It is necessary to emphasise here that the Pro Chancellors need to appreciate the burden on them. The success, failure, peace and order of the university rest on them and they take responsibility for everything, good or bad. They and their Councils must embark on policies that will ensure the smooth-running of the universities especially those that affect the development of the universities, contracts, employment of good quality lecturers, finances, including income and expenditure and auditing of university account.”
Babalola also frowned at the prevailing situation whereby Councils are dissolved and not re-constituted soon after. To him, “such an unwholesome practice leaves so much to be desired apart from running foul of the intent and spirit of the law (establishing the universities)”.
He recalled his experience in May 2004, when Councils of Universities were dissolved by Radio announcement and were not re-constituted for over 11 months as a result of which the universities lost the steam of progress.
“All those who were working on university projects under the new policy stopped work because they claimed that there was no guarantee of prompt payment anymore. It was a similar experience in efforts to re-organize income-generating units. The Endowment campaign stopped”.
He added: “The Developers in Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) projects left sites unceremoniously because of loss of confidence. I am also aware that the Vice Chancellor had problems with other areas of administration including but not limited to promotion, appointment and request for approvals for critically important actions to make the university function properly. It is my advice that there should not be undue delay in constituting the Councils of Universities”.
The Octogenarian also faulted the tendencies of Presidents and Governors to dissolve University Councils on assumption of office just as they dissolve those of other Parastatals of the government.
For example, he recalled that when Alhaji Umar Yar’Adua took over as the President in 2007, he descended on the University of Lagos Council which was constituted in 2004 and had one year more in office. The Secretary to the Government announced the immediate dissolution of all parastatals including University Councils. The same trend continued when on July 16, 2015, the Federal Government announced the decision of the President Muhammadu Buhari to dissolve the Governing Boards of Federal parastatals, agencies and Institutions.
As it were, it would appear that over the years, government has not been able to see the intricate and time-tested nexus between stable university administration and stability in the educational sector. A situation in which the tenure of Governing Councils of Universities is not secure and the composition thereof is seen as an opportunity to reward political loyalties is not one that augurs well for our Universities. By law, University Vice-Chancellors have inviolable tenure of five years. They should be allowed to complete their tenure or proper statutory and transparent procedures be adopted, if they are accused of any wrong doings.
That is the way it is done in other climes. Ours cannot be different. We have to do things the way they are done elsewhere for us to achieve positive and pleasant results.
Startling revelations of alleged misappropriation of public funds by the immediate past of President Goodluck Jonathan with the active connivance of the board and management of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised pertinent questions over the autonomy or otherwise of the apex bank, reports Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf
Does the federal government has the right to instruct the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN to sign off money from the public vaults without recourse to due process? Who has the mandate to approve the release of funds from the CBN? Does the CBN act in the overriding public interest or is readily influenced by the selfish interest and caprices of a select few? What is the obligor limit of the CBN as far as expenditure is concerned?
These and many more are questions begging for answers as the issue of propriety or otherwise of the CBN spending spree , especially under former President Goodluck Jonathan is being hotly debated in the court of public opinion.
Crux of the matter
The current administration has left no one in doubt of its anti-corruption posture, which is why as the new sheriff in town, it has been scrutinising all the alleged sleaze in high places, literally with a fine tooth comb in its quest to recover stolen public funds, chief among which is the alleged $2billion phantom arms deal, in which the CBN has been named as a major conduit pipe for perpetrating the grand heist.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), The Nation gathered made a breakthrough in tracking how some of the $2billion arms votes and extra-budgetary funds were withdrawn from the CBN based on orders from above.
According to the anti-graft agency, the alleged massive withdrawal from the CBN was possible because the apex bank was hamstrung though it was careful in obtaining a written directive from ex-President Goodluck Jonathan before releasing part of the funds in question.
Investigation by The Nation further revealed that the EFCC also discovered that the CBN may have been compelled to release funds for security matters.
A highly placed source at the agency confided in The Nation that “Investigation has shown some requests for funds or intervention funds from the CBN for security reasons. We are tracking all these requests, approvals and remittances. We are already retrieving some relevant documents from the apex bank in order to ascertain what such funds were actually meant for.
“One of the key things we discovered was that the CBN management was, however, careful because it made sure it got presidential approval of such requests. We will confront some of the suspects with these documents we have retrieved. They have the opportunity to give the details of how they spent such funds and the arms procured.”
The workings of CBN
The CBN was established by the 1958 Act of Parliament, as amended in 1991, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2007.
The apex bank was envisioned to be one of the most efficient and effective of the world’s central banks in promoting and sustaining economic development and whose overriding mission is to be proactive in providing a stable framework for the economic development of Nigeria through the effective, efficient and transparent implementation of monetary and exchange rate policy and management of the financial sector, has performed its functions not without some hiccups, especially in the recent past.
Antecedence of past CBN governors
Roy Pentelow Fenton, the first CBN helmsman served from July 1958, retired in 1963 and subsequently passed the baton to the first indigenous CBN governor, Alhaji Aliyu Mai-Bornu, who served from 1963-1967 before the civil war.
The Nation however, gathered that the CBN, which has suffered a chequered existence thus far, faced its worst time under the military as the government interfered with process and procedures.
A case which better illustrates this high level of interference is Dr. Paul Ogwuma, who served as CBN under the Abacha military junta, specifically from 1993-1999. He was said to have been a lackey of the late military ruler, who reportedly made him sign off tones of wads in foreign and local currencies all throughout the lifetime of the administration.
Thankfully, with the return to civil rule in 1999, the incidence of interference was no longer apparent as it was the case during the military reign.
Sanusi’s experience
The CBN under Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who was placed on suspension by President Goodluck Jonathan in January 2014, after reportedly squealing that billions of petrodollars was missing from the coffers, had spearheaded bank reforms and acknowledged making powerful enemies among vested interests in a country where corruption is endemic.
Sanusi said he received death threats and frequent warnings that he would be fired after he took on bank CEOs who had stolen billions of deposits and who he said had bought political protection or were themselves politicians.
He called his move, just after taking office in 2009, “a decision that would pitch us against powerful economic and political forces.”
According to Sanusi, in the course of his duties as the CBN governor, he discovered certain discrepancies in respect of amounts repatriated to the federation account from the proceeds of crude oil sales between the period of January 2012 and July 2013 and that he expressed concern in respect of the said discrepancies and had cause to inform the National Assembly of the said discrepancies because they affect the revenue of the federation and the national economy.
The erstwhile governor reported that $50 billion worth of oil sold by the NNPC had not been paid to the government.
Sanusi said corrupt vested interests keep what should be a wealthy country impoverished and are at the heart of 90 percent of the problems confronting the country, from a north eastern Islamic uprising and deadly ethnic strife to a dearth of jobs, education and health care.
But after the Senate Committee on Finance ordered an independent forensic audit into the missing money, it was discovered that the missing amount was $20 billion.
Apparently unhappy over Sanusi’s impudence, Jonathan subsequently named a deputy governor to act in Sanusi’s place but also immediately sent to the Senate the name of another banker he proposed as the new custodian of the nation’s Federal Reserve, making clear that he has effectively fired Sanusi.
Best practice
•Aremu
Prof. Jonathan Aremu, renowned economist and professor of International Economic Relations at the Covenant University, who began his working career in the Research Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 1980 as an Assistant Economist, and rose through the ranks to become Acting Assistant Director of Research before he voluntarily retired in December 1992, while going down memory lane recalls with nostalgia his days at CBN.
While reacting to claims that the CBN may have been put pressure under the former administration to release money without following the due process, he said it is absolutely wrong.
“You don’t do that. The CBN has the responsibility to advice on the direction of the economy through the management of the monetary policy. So to that extent, there is need for the CBN to have autonomy. You know this was exactly what the immediate past CBN governor was saying when he blew the whistle on the unremitted income of the NNPC but he had to be sacked. This sort of thing should not be allowed in the system.”
Aremu who acknowledged that the CBN has evolved overtime, recalled that during his days at the CBN those at the helms of affairs were apolitical unlike what obtains now.
“Let me tell you one thing, in my year in CBN when we had the late Ola Vincent in the saddle as the CBN governor, things moved in very good direction. You hardly hear of the man actually talking politics. No. he (Vincent) comes out when it is necessary. That’s the issue. You have to come out when it is necessary. But of recent times, you just see the CBN governors, particularly in the last two administrations talking almost everyday as if they are also members of the political class. That is not good at all. It will injure the kind of sovereignty they give the system because having talked to one party now, what do you want to say to the other parties?”
On best practice, he said: “Our banking policy system is a direct copy from the Bank of England and you see the chancellor of the Bank of England, has certain specific roles which limits him to certain things and gives him certain autonomy in quite a lot of things. So we need to go back to that. Though we cannot actually copy the model hook, line and sinker because we have different developmental objectives and we’re at different economic development levels. We can actually mix from the level of economic aspiration with our own. But that’s not to jeopardise the orthodox monetary policy of the system.”
The National President of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel, has said for the third tier of government to be active and proactive in it activities, it must be free and autonomous.
Khaleel said a platform must be created to organise them to harness all available human and material resources within their domains for the enhancement of their standard of living.
“I think our position is well known to all Nigerians and it has not changed from our long time of struggles to emancipate the local government system from the tyranny of the state governors.
“Our position is that we really want the local governments to be free; we need local governments that will address the aspiration and yearnings of our rural people. We need local governments that will deliver; local governments that can stand the test of time; local governments where the issue of unemployment can be addressed through tapping local talents.
Khaleel said for the LGAs to achieve their objectives, there must be an inclusive and a democratic system of governance where the people or communities that make up the councils must be the helm of affairs and be seen to have a stake in the system.
He added: “We want local governments where every member of the community will be a stakeholder committed to the development and aspiration of his area.
On the National Conference, he said the best way to address Nigeria’s problems was having inclusive local governments, stating that every member of the community will understand his roles and importance in the administration of the government.
His words: “The best way to address Nigeria’s problems is by having inclusive local governments. This means that every member of the community will realise his importance and his role in administering the local government, not a caricature system of local government that we have been experiencing since 1999 till date.”
He continued: The system of local government that will work for this country is the only answer to the problems of our divisive nature; diversity in ethnicity, religion and in many other ways. The essence of creating local governments is to address the differences. “And even the structures we have as state governments cannot adequately address and manage the aspirations and yearnings of different groups within a particular state. Those differences will be better addressed under the system of local government where smaller communities are merged.
“This is our focus and we really believe that for any government to work properly or deliver, you must have an articulate public service structure, that is why as part of our agitations, the civil service of the local government, we believe, must also have some degree of independence by way of having a constitutional framework that would guarantee the existence and independence of the local government service commission that will manage the activities of civil service of the local government”.
