By Jimoh Sulyman
The President of the extant 9th Nigerian Senate, Ahmed Lawan has credited the immediate past 8th Assembly led by Sen. Dr Bukola Saraki for sparing the country from an impending humiliation by saving it from being expelled from the global body of the Egmont Group years ago.
Lawan made the claim on Friday while speaking at an event themed, ‘National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and Insecurity in Nigeria,’ organized by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, in Abuja.
The Senate President commended the 8th Assembly for passing the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit Bill which according to him is one of the major anti-corruption laws that saved the country from being expelled from the global body of the Egmont Group.
He said, “The 8th Assembly passed the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit Bill, which is one of the major anti-corruption laws that saved the country from being expelled from the global body of the Egmont Group.”
This bill establishes the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU)as the central body in Nigeria responsible for requesting, receiving, analyzing and disseminating financial and other related information to all law enforcements and security agencies and other relevant authorities.
According to the then Chairman Senate Committee on Anti-corruption, Chukwuka Utazi, the consequences of failure to pass the bill and eventual expulsion from the internal body means that Nigerian credit cards would be useless for international trade because the country would be degraded as a high risk nation.
He said during a plenary session in 2018 that , “Our credit cards will no longer amount to anything, Nigeria will be degraded to the high risk nation. Even the corruption perception index we are complaining about is a child’s play to what we are going to face in few days to come,”
Lawan speaking further on the nation’s security challenges and how the red chamber has been proactive in curbing any further spread of terrorism in the country said that the 9th Assembly, is working closely with security and law enforcement agencies to further strengthen their capacity to withstand unscrupulous elements involved in criminal and terrorist activities against the state
He stressed that legislators have continually supported the effort of the government to tackle insecurity in the country, adding that in the past three years, the National Assembly has ensured that appropriation for defence and security is improved upon, year on year.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari recently gave a marching order to the Armed Forces to extinguish bandits, kidnappers and other criminal agents that are against the state and her citizens, by December 2022.
Speaking on the development, Lawan said the incumbent government is committed to achieving this set target.
He said: “The past few weeks have seen security agencies flushing out terrorists from their hideouts in Kaduna Birnin-gwari axis, Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto. Similar results were recorded in Niger, where, like in Kaduna, the Nigerian Airforce neutralised many terrorists.”
Lawan noted that the National Assembly while looking into the possibility of unmasking the perpetrators of insecurity in the country, realised the need for an anti-corruption law to stop illicit financial flows suspected to be funding routes for insecurity in Nigeria.
