PANDORA PAPERS: EFCC'S INVITATION TO PETER OBI CONFIRMS THAT THE AGENCY IS MANAGED BY CLUELESS, ANALOGUE, MEDIA CRAZY NEOPHYTES

By: Onwuasoanya FCC Jones

I will not want to agree with those who suggest that the invitation extended to the former governor of Anambra State and 2019 Vice-presidential candidate is not another way that those who seek to perpetually hold on to the presidency of this country aims to blackmail potential Southeast candidates out of the 2019 presidential race, because as at this moment, Mr. Peter Obi has not declared interest in vying for the presidency, even though he remains, in my reckoning, one of the best candidates for that position, anytime any day.

I would have found it difficult to believe that an agency like the EFCC which is supposed to be technology and intelligence driven would invite someone merely because his name is among the hundreds of names of world leaders, top businessmen and even religious leaders who chose to offshore their investments in territories where they feel that such investments would be safer and where taxes are less or completely non-existent, but, more than twelve hours since the former governor posted about his invitation by the anti-graft agency, there is yet to be a rebuttal from them.

While it can be argued that the information contained in this 12 million pages of document could be vital to security and anti-graft agencies in cracking some cases, especially given that the leaks contained in the Panama papers of 2016 provided vital resources to investigators in tracing cases of fraud, tax evasion, money laundering and also evasion of international sanctions, it was expected that the EFCC would have done its homework well by determining the source of the funds offshored by the former Anambra governor and when these transactions were consummated.

Okwute Ndigbo as he is popularly known is not one of those who jumped at big monies following their involvement in politics or government contracts. He is actually among the few Nigerian politicians with very structured personal finances and traceable income flows, yet, among the least ostentatious.

The Pandora Leak features about 35 current and former heads of national governments, about 400 public officials from about 100 countries. More than 100 billionaires, 29,000 offshore accounts and an estimated 32 Trillion Dollars in cash were revealed to be owned by these individuals and outsourced to financial companies in the British Virgin Islands and other tax Haven's with the aim to hide these wealths or make them untraceable to them.

While we may have some moral questions to ask about this idea of off-shoring these assets, especially, as regards the morality of hiding away these monies while millions of our youths are jobless and poverty is rife in the country, the EFCC's invitation to the former governor solely on this leak, is embarrassing to the corporate reputation of the agency as it passes its management off as being out of touch with present realities and not being serious with bursting and effectively combating official corruption but seeking media attention and public validation.

Before you search for something, you have to first of all establish that something is missing. Has the EFCC been able to establish that some funds belonging to Anambra State or Nigerian taxpayers were mismanaged or got missing under Peter Obi, hence, their decision to invite him as soon as they learnt that he had offshored his investments? If the EFCC were competent and sincere, they wouldn't have waited for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to publish these documents before they start looking into Peter Obi's records.

But, like most Nigerian agencies and public institutions, EFCC might be manned by corrupt, unpatriotic and impulsive charlatans who lack the slightest idea about their job specifications.