Foreign Bribery or Corporate Social Responsibility: Is the Nigerian President a Sacred Cow?

The Italian construction company must really be in love with Mr President. Otherwise, why would they offer and why would Mr President accept a gift of a ‘whole’ church building donated to him in his personal capacity. This is happening at a time when nations are tightening Anti-Bribery Laws and when statistics have shown corruption accounts for 5% of the World’s GDP.

Was it in ignorance, or is the President exempted from the provisions of the laws on anti-bribery in Nigeria. Transparency International and other like-minded organisations have shown that over 1trillion dollars is paid in bribes annually by people transacting business in other countries. 

Nations are no longer smiling with bribe payers or takers even where the bribery was committed in another country. Serious minded Nations have realised the productive uses to which these sums of money could be put. Serious minded Nations have clamped down on foreign bribery. Why then would the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria accept a gift of a “church building” something that cannot even be hidden or denied.

In 2010, several people were charged in the Siemens trial in Nigeria for being “public servants and receiving a valuable thing without consideration.” Your guess is as good as mine. Is the President a Public Servant or not? In receiving a gift of this “church” has he received a valuable thing without consideration or not? The elaborately drafted charged in 2010 classified the giving or receiving of a valuable thing without consideration as an offence under Section 96(1) of the Penal Code and Punishable under Section 120 of the Penal Code.

Let’s assume there is nothing wrong with the receipt of this valuable thing without consideration. After all, he is the President of Nigeria. But the Managing Director made him a promise to build and donate the church to his community after he complained of the aging structure of his church. 

At this my head begins to calculate. Is the Church of Mr President the only aging thing in Nigeria? If for a minute we deem it perfectly okay for Mr President to receive a valuable thing without consideration, then can Mr President be a little selfless and please complain about the dilapidated school buildings and broken down hospitals, death trap roads and drainage systems and bridges all of which are crying for repairs.

For all intents and purposes, the construction company qualifies as a bribe giver in the face of the numerous contracts being sought from the Nigerian Government or maybe not. Maybe this construction company simply feels like spending so much money erecting a 2500-seat church in the president's town for free because they love his town.

In a new twist, the President’s office described the gift as a Corporate Social Responsibility of the Italian Company. Corporate Social Responsibility how? Are they Nigerian tax payers? or are they regulated by the Companies and Allied Matters Act.

On second thought I’m tempted to agree with the President and his team. This was not a bribe at all, absolutely not. It was a gift from the Italians to say “thank you for all the numerous contracts you have given us.” At least that is how it is perceived in the President’s camp. To the Italians however it is a gift to say, “We have some proposals/bids coming your way soon. When you see our name, please remember the church we built in your town.”

But seriously, is the President’s camp convinced this is not a bribe because I’ve got news for them. A bribe is never called a "bribe". Even the policemen on the street do not ask for a “bribe”. The Italians would definitely not name the church a “bribe”. It was a “gift”. A valuable thing received by the President without consideration.

I honestly have no problem with the church being classified as a Corporate Social Responsibility. I think citizens simply request that if the Church will be conclusively regarded as a CSR initiative, the nation owes an apology to the Nigerians who had their hospital bills and air tickets paid by Siemens and are being prosecuted in Nigerian courts. After all, that was only a CSR initiative of Siemens.

It might interest Mr President's team of special advisers to know that in Italy, giving a bribe outside Italy is an offence under the Italy Criminal Code. Should this case be taken up by the Italian Government, the Italians involved face pecuniary sanctions of up to approximately €1,200,000, Disqualifying penalties, and Publication of the judgment where applicable.

So again I ask. Is Mr President even aware that Nigeria is a member of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, a convention which encourages all member states to criminalize the offer or giving of an undue advantage to a national or international public official? Is Mr President ignorant of the law, Or is Mr President simply a Sacred Cow who cannot be bothered about the message his actions send to the international community?

Mr President may have had good intentions. But he cannot prove that the Italian Company had no ulterior motives.

The SEC /HoR Face Off

The so called SEC probe has sure generated a lot of heat with accusations trailing back and forth as to who did what. My concern however is the impact this will actually have on the capital market. I am also curious as to why there would be a proposed inquiry into the cause of the crash of the stock market. I thought that was common -knowledge, or is the Nigerian capital market suddenly isolated from the global community.

The Nigerian capital market has actually fared better than most stock markets. Prices are generally low and while other developed nations are taking steps to identify the root cause and prevent similar occurrences in the future by putting in place proper corporate governance measures, Nigeria is tearing down its own capital market with its own hands.  Nigeria’s SEC had done good to put in place a code of corporate governance like other developed nations. Why an inquiry into the near collapse a market in 2009 is being conducted in 2012 eludes me.

Without taking sides, could this inquiry not have been done more discreetly given the sensitivity of the stock market? What happens where owing to the public banter that has been going on, investors panic and dump shares amounting to a further collapse, would another inquiry then be set up to look into what was man-made?

Forgive me but the Honourable Hembe could have at least educated himself a little about the operations of the capital market before questioning a Harvard graduate. What exactly does he understand by investor protection? Does he require the SEC to set up police check points around each and every investor? Or perhaps there should be a review of the Investments and Securities Act to reflect this perception by the Honourable Hembe.

I’m not a fan of Nigerian probes because usually the prosecutor is often a persecutor who would dare not cast the first stone should it be a criteria that it be cast by he who has no sin. I remember the analysis by Professor Itse Sagay’s undenied assertion that the members of the House of Representatives earn N203.8Million, A member of the House of Representatives also earns N347, 945 per day. Are they therefore truly concerned, assuming without conceding that Ms. Oteh spent N850,000 on food, or are they merely offended that she (a woman, I hate to sound feminist) spends as much as they do?

 In a childish retort, Hon. Hembe now claims he was offered a bribe by the SEC. I need to be educated but which would be of more concern to the a legislator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and which should he tackle heads on first, a bribery offer by a director general in 2012 or a meal of N850,000 some years back. I’m curious as to how it escaped his memory that he was bribed until the allegation was made against him and why it took well over 5 days for that to come to public light.

I may be no lawyer but I know that the Director-General is innocent until proven guilty and so is Honourable Hembe. However, it would seem that some degree of expert evidence is required for the alleged Memo of the SEC which purportedly incriminates the DG. Can someone please explain to me why a Memo that was issue on the 9^th of March 2012 suddenly seems like a document out of a 1990 file? Why exactly are the words unclear? I’m also unable to see exactly where it incriminates the DG. Yes, I am alleging a forgery or fabrication!

My concern is the impact of all this ignorance on the stock market. This is a national disgrace. Again our lawmakers have thrown all sense of patriotism to the wind and proceeded heads on to tear down the capital market with their hands. How do we expect to attract Foreign Direct Investments this way? How do we expect to retain Investor confidence in the market? Assuming without conceding that the DG is guilty or the House had proven allegations against her, why was she not invited by the EFCC as against the House of Representatives.

As for the SEC, I think it is disastrous (assuming without conceding that the memos are real) for such confidential documents to get to public light. Serious House-keeping Issues need to be put underway. There are moles in the SEC which need to be flushed out. Nigeria will only move forward when we learn to set aside our personal vendetta in the interest of national development and security.

The House of Representatives wants to know why the market nearly collapsed. I’ll tell them, it was never standing on its own; it was leaning on the Nigerian Banking Sector, grown with margin loans. The recession came and its creditors called in their funds leaving it naked. If our leaders read they would have this answer and would spare the nation this show of shame and the waste of funds gone into setting up the so called enquiry.