Summary
Book Title: Show Me The Money – Leveraging Anti-Money Laundering Tools to Fight Corruption in Nigeria.
Chapters / Pages: Seven / 59
Author: Nuhu Ribadu
Book Type: E-book
Publisher: Center For Global Development, 2010
Introduction
Reading is fun – more so when the subject of the material is of interest to the reader. January 2019 reading wise has gone just according to plan. Two e-books, read and dead (pun intended.)
The first book on anti-corruption and the second, on terrorism – two plagues that continue to bedevil Africa. If I had a third on misgovernment, I could effectively label January – my Africa month.
This review centers on the anti-corruption “stunts” of an ill-equipped man (lawyer and police officer) who set out to fight corruption in Africa’s most populous nation and its largest economy, Nigeria.
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| Cover of the book along with a 2011 photo of Ribadu back to contest for presidential polls - bid failed. |
The book
The book titled “Show Me The Money” allowed Nuhu Ribadu – the former head of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to produce a tell-all tale of the four years he led the body in ‘combat.’
The book puts under the spotlight how change can be engineered from outside – It took a 1989 legislation passed by the G-7 group of nations to push Nigeria almost a decade and a half later to take the fight against endemic corruption seriously.
Buoyed by the US-based Center for Global Development, Ribadu told the backstory of how the EFCC started out and how its carefully crafted strategy – legal, structural and internal mechanics – made it the standout security agency in a matter of four years.
“Show Me The Money” does show a lot of money – from the way advance fee fraudsters fleeced unsuspecting clients and how the body chased the monies, retrieved and compensated some victims.
More money is uncovered in the chase to arrest oil bunkering, smuggling especially via the ports, and the audacious clean-up of banks plus the daring minefield of chasing Nigeria’s “junior presidents” – State Governors.
Whiles hailing the commitment of staff whiles at the helm, Ribadu who chose exile in the face of attempts on his life underscores why and how no matter how hard a task, it needed people to step up and to take bold decisions.
Ribadu emphasizes the extent to which the fight against corruption needed political shield – in the case of Nigeria, the executive. Aside the legal and structural cover he stresses the need to have the media, civil society and citizens on board in fighting the scourge of corruption.
When the political shield was lifted off the EFCC in 2007 after a change at the top, Ribadu was left exposed. Though still with a fight in him, the people he was going against were not ready to fight but to kill. He fled but looks back with pride.
Ribadu hits some top quotes on corruption relative to its impact of the ordinary Nigerian and its wider effect on the subregion when it is perpetrated by Nigeria. Below are my top six quotes.
Corruption weighs on the poor more than anyone else. They are the least able to absorb its cost and depend the most on the very public services that corruption destroys. Economic development is stolen from them, and they suffer from decaying infrastructure and greedy government agencies, which, instead of serving them, seek to further empty their pockets. - Page 2
Most crucial of all is to have both investigative and prosecuting powers under one roof. A key factor to the EFCC’s success was to have the commission be responsible for prosecuting cases it investigates. Experience across the developing world has shown that separating these two functions is a recipe for failure when it comes to financial crimes. - Page 12
The best laws and structures are useless without the lifeblood that moves and operates them, however. The EFCC could only succeed if staffed with highly skilled investigators and prosecutors imbued with a mission to salvage their country from the plague of financial crime. In other words, the EFCC needed selfless crusaders. - Page 15
Corruption and fraud run very deep and powerful roots in Nigerian politics. I understood how Hercules must have felt standing in the Augean stables that hadn’t been cleaned in decades. - Pages 41, 42
Next were state governors. These de facto presidents of Nigeria’s 36 states wield enormous power and money and therefore greatly weigh on the lives of ordinary Nigerians. About half of the national revenue is controlled by the states, which enjoy broad constitutional autonomy under Nigeria’s federal system and are in charge of education, health, local security, and infrastructure. This gives enormous power to governors. - Page 44
A successful Nigeria would do more for the subregion than any amount of foreign aid ever could. The same is true of other parts of Africa. - Page 57
Jumadal Uulaa 23, 1440 = January 29, 2019
Likely can't read photo below but it's written notes whiles I read - the freshest leg of my reading escapades, noting keep points aside underlining, bookmarking and taking screenshots. And to the main point: This Chinese notebook, a gift from a reading friend.
Make friends with readers eh, secret is; if they don't lend or buy you books you can read, they'd give you stuff to take notes as you read. On to the next read.
Make friends with readers eh, secret is; if they don't lend or buy you books you can read, they'd give you stuff to take notes as you read. On to the next read.
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