Foreign exchange justice Nigerian style
A Nigerian graduate student of an American University was recently reported to have been jailed for five years by the Port Harcourt zone of the Exchange Control (anti-sabotage) Tribunal for unlawfully importing 526 naira.
Mr Justice Gregory Okuru-Idiogu, head of the Tribunal ordered the student to pay the amount as fine to the Federal Military Government.
The student, according to the prosecution, had on arrival at the Lagos Airport on April 29, declared the amount and was arrested by customs officers because it was in excess of the 50 naira allowed to be imported into Nigeria.
The student explained to the Tribunal that he had been in the US as a student since 1975 and was only coming home because his father had died and he had come to Nigeria for his burial. The student stated that his friends had contributed the 526 naira in true Nigerian tradition to help him defray the expenses he had to meet.
On arrival he declared the 526 naira plus $102 as required by law. The customs were unmoved by his explanation and arrested him, the Tribunal, apparently, was equally unmoved by his father's death and also by the fact that he had not tried to hide the amount nor tried to smuggle it into the country. Five years in jail. Nigerians really have to learn to respect regulations, nobody, but nobody is allowed to bring in more than 50 naira. That is what is meant by a War Against Indiscipline. Enter Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the renowned Nigerian musician. He has many record albums to his credit, with worldwide sales, he performs in concerts and shows the world over, in fact, he was on his way from Nigeria to a US tour when he was arrested at the airport because he had a little over $1,000 on him. Against the law, resident Nigerians are not supposed to have foreign exchange on them.
Granted bail, bail revoked, he is in obvious jeopardy of a jail sentence and in the meantime, has been unable to join his group for the US tour. Fela is probably in jeopardy also with the organisers and agents for non-appearance and not fulfilling the terms of contract. Fela definitely is losing money in the all sacrosanct foreign exchange. But discipline has to be maintained, the Federal Military Government's no respector of persons, that is the message of the times, that is what the War Against Indiscipline is about.
On bail, Fela Anikulapo Kuti
Ex-Governor Okilo is serving a ten- year jail term for flouting Nigeria's Foreign Exchange laws. The Federal Military Government is determined to instil discipline in all Nigerians and to show that when you have been put in a position of power, you are expected to obey the law. Enter Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, Nigeria's super Permanent Secretary of Finance who has been flying high through many regimes - Gowon/ Murtala Obasango/Shagari and now Buhari.
His briefcase containing £42,000 or by his own account a measly £17,000 is stolen from a hotel room in Vienna. His explanation is that he had been to London to close his account which he had held since his student days because the Federal Military Government has ordered all public officials to close their foreign accounts.
Nobody is interested in which of his foreign accounts it is he closed, if indeed, he closed any, nobody wants to ask where he was taking the £42,000 or £17,000 in cash to or whether the Central Bank of Nigeria no longer accepted bank transfers. He stays on in his position, stronger than ever, leading official delegations.
His lamentations about how he would pay the fees for his children in school in Britain apparently still unanswered. He is said by those close to him to have been boasting that he is indispensable to the Federal Military Government.
His trump card is said to be that Maj-Gen. Buhari knows his feelings exactly and what he is suffering, having been with him when as a commissioner for Petroleum affairs there were all those talks about a missing 2.8 billion naira. Gen. Buhari knows that people tell lies to discredit the govern ment's most important negotiator. And the FMG is not unfeeling, they sympathise with Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji.
Rumours that he is boasting that he cannot be touched because of what he knows are of course only meant to discredit him and the FMG.
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