Buhari’s appeal

•Senate should accede to President’s request on passage of anti-corruption and other bills

President Muhammadu Buhari’s appeal to the National Assembly to expedite the passage into law of some bills before the lawmakers is welcome. The president made the request during a dinner he held in honour of the National Assembly members at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, as part of activities to mark his one year in office.

These include: the bill for Acts of Domestication of Agreements for Avoidance of Double Taxation between Nigeria and South Korea, Spain and Sweden, respectively; the Federal Capital Territory Appropriation Bill 2016; Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill 2016; Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill 2016; and the Statutory Budget of the Niger Delta Development Commission 2016.

All these bills are important in their own right. Indeed, the president’s appeal is all the more appreciable against the backdrop of the fact that the National Assembly will complete one legislative year on June 9. Some of these bills have been pending before the lawmakers for months. Time is of the essence and the earlier these bills are passed into law, the better for a government that is running against time.

We need to domesticate the agreements reached between the country and other countries to stem double taxation, which is inimical to doing business. We cannot get the desired response on investments, whether from foreign or local investors, if the taxes are not streamlined. No investor wants to reel under the yoke of double or multiple taxation. Also, there are issues begging for attention in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) which can only be addressed after funds have been approved and released.

With regard to the Niger Delta, there is a lot to be done in the region which is the goose that is laying the golden egg for the nation. The Niger Delta Development Commission was created essentially to accelerate the pace of development in the region. The country needs to cool frayed nerves in the area and this cannot be possible unless the National Assembly gives its consent to its statutory budget.

Perhaps most important of the bills that the president wants the lawmakers to  pass into law are the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill and the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill 2016.

It is instructive that the two bills were the first sent to the Senate by the president for formal consideration. They were sent on January 27. The Money Laundering Bill seeks to repeal the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012, to “make comprehensive provisions to prohibit the laundering of criminal activities, expand the scope of money laundering, and provide protection for employees of various institutions, bodies and professions who may discover money laundering”.

The second bill, as the president noted in his letter to the Senate, “seeks to facilitate the provision and obtaining by Nigeria of international assistance in criminal matters.” These include “the recovery, forfeiture or confiscation of property in respect of offences, the restraining of dealings in property or the freezing of assets that may be recovered, forfeited or confiscated in respect of offences.”

Without doubt, Nigeria needs these laws in view of the prevalence of corruption in the country. David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, drove the point vividly home when he told the Queen that Nigeria is “fantastically corrupt”. Cameron was right; except that he did not say that the present government in the country has been fighting the cankerworm.

These laws are important to us because many of our politicians and public officials who pilfered the treasury stashed their loot in foreign countries and unless we have some legal understanding with these countries, it would be difficult to retrieve our assets. Those who have their own loot within we can easily deal with using the Money Laundering Bill.

We urge the Senate to accede to the president’s request by expediting action on these bills. The country needed them as early as yesterday.