EDITORIAL: Money Laundering And Weak Institutions

The report that hundreds of thousands of dollars are being laundered out of Nigeria should not have come as a surprise. It is a pretty old hat, you might say. Every discernible soul was aware of this, ages ago. 

The country has very weak institutions. This has not been surprising, for the strong independent institutions required will be incompatible with the operating ethos of a rentier state. This is also a reflection of the development of underdevelopment. An economy based on consumption cannot be bothered by a fiscal balance anchored on revenue collection and production.

It is dramatic that at a time when many Nigerians are on the streets demanding urgent solutions to the issues of governance, economy, and multidimensional poverty, those in charge of the nation’s commonwealth are hell-bent on personal gains rather than drastic solutions to put the economy back on track.

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The report returns a discerning mind to the systemic corruption that has decided the fate of the people. It is not just about the hungry, jobless youth on the streets of Lagos, the struggling rice farmer in Kebbi, the unrelenting truck pusher in Asaba, or the cobbler in Aba trying to get a N50,000 loan to improve his business, it is about the heavy taxes that have crippled small scale businesses while legislators change SUVs like clothes.

While agencies like Interpol continue to unravel the mysteries behind the growing poverty in the country, the campaign against corruption must not abate from all fronts, just as the anti-graft agencies given further enablement to work.   

In addition, the country needs an “Unexplained Sources of Wealth Act “ just as it needs to return to a proper federal constitution. Neither is about to happen anytime soon. Until the political will to do so is put into play, it will be the same contrived wailing and motion without movement.