The decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to redesign the Naira as part of efforts to stem the tide of terrorism in Nigeria is not likely to result in the desired outcomes, according to an investigation report that was released on Sunday by public policy researchers and analysts – Nextier.
The report advised the Nigerian government to have the political will to courageously and diligently prosecute terrorism sponsors who have already been identified, including those who have been revealed by foreign partners like the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
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The President because of fears communicated in certain quarters that the money trade was pointed toward causing further difficulty for honest Nigerians, President Buhari made sense of that the action was pointed rather at degenerate people and dread agents who crowd not well gotten money to bankroll crimes and savagery, and that the Naira trade would cause the old notes unusable by the lawbreakers who to have reserved them.
Nextier argued that the CBN cash limitation policy cannot effectively address the phenomenon of terrorism financing in Nigeria due to some situational and contextual challenges, given the socioeconomic and political upheavals that implementation of the policy has brought on average Nigerians since the February 10, 2023 deadline passed.
“The ill-timed and quick-fix policy is a wild goose chase,” states the weekend’s Nextier report.
Instead, it stated, “to mitigate terrorism financing, the government must take some bold steps, including timely arrest and prosecution of persons indicted for terrorism financing, strengthening collaboration with other countries such as the United Arab Emirates and the United States, and sanctioning complicit banks that are used to siphon money to terror groups.”
It added, “Nigeria should stop politicizing indicted sponsors of terrorism or treating them with kid gloves.” By providing Nigeria with the names of indicted sponsors, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and other nations have demonstrated their willingness to assist Nigeria in the fight against terrorism financing.
Therefore, Nigeria is obligated to investigate such external intelligence. In their roles as watchdogs, the CBN and other banking regulatory agencies and institutions should exercise greater diligence. According to the report, “they should expose and sanction banks that collude with terrorist groups or their financiers appropriately in accordance with existing rules.”
Nextier recalled that “in March 2022, the United States placed six Nigerians on its terror list for their involvement in sponsoring terrorism after the Federal Court of Appeals in the United Arab Emirates sitting in Abu Dhabi had sentenced them for transferring $782,000 from Dubai to Boko Haram in Nigeria.” Nextier was referring to the United Arab Emirates. Two were found guilty of breaking UAE anti-terrorism laws and given sentences ranging from four to ten years in prison.
“To the disappointment of the majority of Nigerians and supportive external governments, other indicted Nigerians who were involved in facilitating the money to Boko Haram fighters have yet to be arrested and much more prosecuted by the government.”
Although Nextier praised the Naira redesign and its purpose, it insisted that its implementation at the end of the Buhari administration, along with other new programs, was poorly timed, costly, and time-consuming.
It read, ” A welcome development is the Nigerian government’s efforts through the CBN to restrict the flow of cash in order to cut off the oxygen (finance) of terror. However, the cash policy’s implementation is hampered by a number of obstacles.
It’s too soon. By combining so many new policies for implementation at the end of his administration, the current administration appears to have just awoken, as evidenced by the Naira redesign and the planned national census.
“These policies, which are expensive and take a long time to implement, are being implemented at an unfavorable time of fuel shortage and widespread violence, making life unbearable for ordinary Nigerians. The administration hasn’t been able to get the public’s support and buy-in for its policies as a result.
Nextier came to the conclusion that “over the years, successive Nigerian governments have not been able to effectively break the collusion and ties between the banks and criminal groups such as terrorist sponsors and money launderers,” highlighting the connection between finance and terrorism.
For instance, money laundering caused the nation to lose $100 billion between the middle of the 1980s and 1999.
“Similarly, between 2001 and 2004, when Nigeria returned to civil rule, an estimated $25 billion was lost to laundering activities. The majority of these illegal money transfers through banking systems are used to fund terrorism and violent crime.
The government has not been able to hold banks and those who use them illegally accountable over time. Experts believe that the CBN cash limitation policy is like other policies before it a wild goose chase.
“Some terrorist organizations have already begun online distribution of bundles of the new Naira notes. This demonstrates that the strategy has failed.