By Samuel Malik, Abuja

Boko Haram and corruption are preventing American business owners from coming to Nigeria, an international business development expert has said.

Benjamin Birney, Principal Partner at Birney, Frederick, Quinlan & Tupper LLC, an American-based company offering both business and legal services, said anytime he advises business owners in the US to come to Nigeria, they are reluctant because of insecurity and also the possibility of falling foul of American anti-corruption laws.

Birney was speaking at a media-civil society roundtable on Accountable Governance for Justice and Security organised by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, IWPR, in collaboration with CLEEN Foundation in Abuja.

“The reason I am here is to develop new business in Nigeria and create opportunities for U.S. firms to come here,” he said.

“When I go back to the United States and I say, ‘you should be in Nigeria, your business should be in Nigeria, you should invest in Nigeria,’ the first thing I hear is Boko Haram. The second thing I hear is corruption. ‘We don’t want to go there because we are going to go to jail in the United States because we are going to have to pay bribes, we are going to do something that is going to violate the U.S. anti-corruption law.’”

Birney also advised anti-corruption agencies, particularly the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to be more concerned with building a solid case before heading to court rather than focusing on filing countless charges against a corrupt person, which in most cases cannot be successfully prosecuted. That way, he said, they stand better chances of successfully prosecuting corrupt persons and getting convictions.

“I had the privilege to work for the United States Justice Department and what I have seen about trials is that when U.S. Attorney’s office decides that they are going to bring a trial, they wait until they can build a mountain of evidence,” he explained.

“They do not proceed to trial until they are virtually certain that they are going to win and what that means is that actually there are very few federal prosecutions in the United States because by the time they charge, everybody knows they are going to win, it’s a question of how long the sentence will be.

“So, I am saying if you can work towards that as public prosecutors, if you can work towards jumping into mountains before you charge, I think that will put you in a position to win because by the time it hits the papers, these papers are saying we know he’s guilty because of the charge.”

Speaking on the topic, Proceed of Corruption and Asset Recovery: In the Absence of Asset Recovery Law in Nigeria, the EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu, who was represented by Lawrence Iwodi, said even though there is no law that specifically deals with asset recovery, there are several aspects of existing laws such as those setting up the EFCC, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC which can be applied.

He noted that asset forfeiture or seizure is one way to discourage corruption.

“Once you are able to take away the gains of corruption, it shows and sends a signal that corruption does not pay,” Magu said, adding that a credible collaboration between civil society and the media can help a great deal in fighting the menace.

The chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Chidi Odinkalu, while agreeing that corruption helps in massive asset transfer, blamed anti-graft agencies in Nigeria for the steady rise in the incidence of financial crimes.

“Why does EFCC keep charging people with 100-and-something crimes when they cannot convict for one? Is it possible for EFCC to just charge somebody with one or two crimes, mount the biggest, most serious prosecution possible and convict the person so we know the person is a thief?

“No lawyer can prosecute and convict for 100 counts of corrupt. No lawyer can prosecute and convict for 20 counts of corruption,” Odinkalu asserted.

Silas Joseph Onu, publicity secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Abuja chapter, agreed with Odinkalu but also contends that the establishment of EFCC and ICPC was unnecessary because there were already laws in place to tackle corruption before they were created.

He also faulted the composition of the agencies’ leadership.

“We blame the police for corruption but let the police head the EFCC. We accuse judges of corruption, yet let the ICPC to be headed by a retired judge,” Onu said.

According to Seember Nyager, chief executive officer, Public Private Development Centre, PPDC, the best way to deal with corruption is to prevent it from happening and this can be done when government businesses, especially procurements, are done transparently and people given access to information.

Central to the fight against corruption, it was observed, are the roles of the media and civil societies.

However, the relationship between these two key sectors has been described as fragile and fraught with mistrust.

Kemi Okeyondo, a security sector and governance expert, believes the society has taken advantage of the unhealthy rivalry between the media and civil society, which she said has led to a dearth in investigative reports.

“There should be more investigative reporting, which should naturally bring the media and civil society closer,” she noted.

Lauratu Abdulsalam, media manager, Nigeria Stability and Reconstruction Programme, agreed with Okeyondo’s view and charged both the civil society and media owners to do more in ensuring that the media plays its role effectively.

“How well are we supporting the media to do investigative journalism?” she queried adding that media owners on their part should help in building the capacities of their journalists.

The media, Onu added, is one of the biggest problems in the country with regard to the war on anti-corruption. He accused the media of thriving on rumour.

“From what you read in the media, one does not need to study mass communication to practice journalism in Nigeria.”

This view was amplified by Omakwu Marx Ikongbeh, who said as a member of the public, he sees the media and civil society in the same light as the corrupt politicians they seek to hold accountable.