The Embarrassing Cash Seizures In South Africa

Again, the authorities in South Africa last week seized another jet load of dollars, purportedly meant to purchase arms in that country. The money in question was flown from Nigeria to South Africa in hard currency and in a manner that made nonsense of all efforts in technological advancement involving cash transfers.

It is the very method the money was taken to South Africa that is casting spells of suspicion on the transaction itself. The fact that such a huge sum of money was not transferred via modern banking platforms casts aspersions on the business transaction. And any country worth its name is bound to interfere in such deal. It is no surprise therefore that the two cash movements: the first was the $9.3 million and another $5.7 million respectively, have generated negative ripples within and outside Nigeria.

The embarrassment these have caused the country is worrisome. Agreed, Nigeria is yoked with an insurgency that needs to be tackled headlong. But does this fight imply that a corporate entity like Nigeria should engage the services of gun runners and indulge in clandestine cash transfers in the name of fighting insurgency? We don’t believe so.

The pertinent question here is: does Nigeria have a procurement policy guiding the purchase of military equipment? If she has, we wonder if this government followed the laid down rule in conducting these transactions. Findings across the globe show that legitimate arms deals between countries involve the governments of the countries engaged in the business, through their ministries or departments of Defence and External Affairs. The security agency which is the ultimate beneficiary only comes in at a point in the transaction called “an end user inspection”.

The fact that an Israeli was involved in the first deal and a private jet belonging to the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, used to ferry money smacks of total violation of this guiding principle.

Government’s response has succeeded in whipping up emotion in some quarters rather than correct its own mistakes. Every country of the world is worried about the globalisation of terrorism. As such, security agencies monitor sea, land and airspaces for any illicit monies coming into their country. South Africa, we believe, was carrying out this surveillance when the authorities ran into the cloaked Nigerian government-sponsored arms dealers. Nigerians who think that South Africa should swallow every inane foreign policy breach from Nigeria because of its support during the apartheid era are mistaken.

As a country, Nigeria has a cashless policy in place to discourage much money being in circulation. This, perhaps, is what South Africa also wants to avoid. Imagine what can happen to an economy if so much money was paid in raw cash to a firm. That country deserves to protect its economy just as we labour, though in vein, to keep ours stable.

We believe it is even an indictment that Nigeria does business of this nature with South Africa. It was in that country that Henry Okah, the mastermind of 1 October, 2010 Abuja bombing was arrested for gun-running. That former Niger-Delta militant is still serving a jail term in the former apartheid unclave. That Nigeria wanted to buy weapons from the same dealers as Okah smacks of gross disrespect for our collective intelligence and national sovereignty. Why can’t we buy guns and armour and other military hardware from countries like Germany, Britain, Russia, Turkey, Switzerland, Belgium and so on?   The fact that we keep going to South Africa which should be looking up to us as a “big brother” demeans every great thing that this country represents.

This government must stop insulting the nation. It is time to stop the externalisation of the multitude of scandals it keeps raking. At home, it has been dubbed as government of ‘one day, one scandal.’ This is already bad enough. The fact that this embarrassment is now being taken abroad  makes it even worse.