SERAP IN THE NEWS

— Editorial of The Nation Newspaper.

This may not be clear to the Federal Government, but its move to take the money of Nigerians, be they pensioners or be they dead, without consent is impunity, and official theft. We may call it a theft of impunity, or impunity of theft.

Hence we align ourselves with the position of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) in its court action against such mischief of power.

The use of the word “borrow” bothers us. To borrow, as SERAP has observed, follows a distinct moral and legal protocol. “For there to be a borrower, there must be a lender. The intention to enter into such borrower-lender relationship must be known to both parties,” noted SERAP. “Any other arrangement that allows a borrower to access funds from a lender without the knowledge and express consent of the lender will amount to stealing.”

Even SERAP should have, in its court filing and statement, used the word “borrow” with a parenthesis to emphasis its misappropriation. But the rights organisation has made its point.

Pensioners belong to an anonymous crowd, but in reality they are our brothers, fathers, mothers, and sisters. They are Nigerians. They worked for our wellbeing while we were without clues as to how to make a living, or build a country.

If we are to take their money, they ought to know. More importantly, they ought to want it and show it in clear language.

The other group belongs to those who ran accounts now deemed as dormant. It is wrong to presume them dead. There are no proofs either from the Federal Government or the banks that because the accounts are no longer active, the owners are not alive.

The banks can testify that quite a few Nigerians have left their accounts over time only to show up and they are asked to follow certain procedures to reactivate them. It will embarrass the banks if such persons erupt after the  Federal Government has swept up the money only to see that the owners are living, breathing beings.

But even if the owners are dead, it is no excuse for the Federal Government to dip its fingers in their purses. Every bank account has next of kin, and they have addresses and contacts. We have no evidence that the banks and Federal Government have collaborated to ascertain if the owners have been tracked and certified dead. Even if they have, have they certified all their relations and fiends or next of kin dead? This is a convoluted process, if there is one. This is a back-door means for the government to generate funds. It is unethical, brazen and lawless.

The Federal Government wants to collect all the money from unclaimed pensions and dormant accounts into what will be known as “Unclaimed Funds Trust Fund.”

The amount in question is N895 billion.

The persons who made the money sweated to have them. We cannot allow an opportunist government to cart it away in the name of providing services to the nation.

This is happening in a nation where there are no welfare schemes for the weak and vulnerable, especially the old who find it almost impossible in their creaky years to obtain the pittance they need for the remainder of their years.

SERAP drew attention to the contradiction of a government that has failed in the areas of transparency and accountability, and is seeking a ‘trust” fund. It has not been able to account, for public consumption, how it has or is spending about $31.98 billion of recovered loot. The same government is still grappling with its National Security Adviser’s claim that hundreds of billions of Naira in military money is missing, neither money nor weapons being accounted for.

If they fiddle with other funds, the government should leave the people’s money alone.