SINCE the world received secret documents on how rich and powerful persons from different countries dodge taxes and hide their wealth in “shell” companies in Panama, the question has been: what can Nigeria learn from the disclosures? Some former and current Nigerian government officials, businessmen and at least one religious leader have been named in the documents that are now known as the Panama Papers, and the nation’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has promised to investigate them to determine the veracity or otherwise of their involvement.
The Panama Papers are, indeed, a phenomenal leak of 11.5 million confidential documents with detailed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies enabled and listed by a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, with the identities of the shareholders and directors of the offshore firms. A preliminary examination of the documents reveals astounding information on how the named persons, including at least five heads of state and hundreds of senior government officials from more than 40 countries including Nigeria, hid their assets and those of their close relatives and associates offshore.
More than half of all the “shell” companies were domiciled in the British Virgin Islands. Hong Kong hosts many of the affiliated banks, law firms and middlemen involved in the questionable transactions. The documents were donated by a whistleblower who, fearing for his life, avoided every attempt at identification and asked for nothing in return for the information.
He had enlisted the famous German newspaper, the Suddeutsche Zeitung, which in turn contacted the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The documents were released in batches and distributed among 400 journalists in 107 media organisations in 76 countries. The revelations have had earth-shaking results, including the resignation of the Prime Minister of Iceland.
We commend the anonymous whistleblower who donated this mine of information which we are confident will lead to positive changes in the world. We also commend the ICIJ for its mature handling of the documents and their effective dissemination. It is our hope that the entire documents will be deposited on the Internet for universal access.
The trouble with offshore companies, the kind revealed in the Panama Papers, is not that they are invariably illegal or criminal. It is that most times, they are created and utilised to hide illicit funds. They are often used to evade taxes and deprive governments of vital funds for development, especially in a country like Nigeria with poor infrastructural facilities. The offshore firms are also sometimes created as a vehicle to pay bribes clandestinely in a world that is daily becoming averse to corporate corruption. We need not mention that these companies are often used for money laundering by drug barons, arms smugglers and all manner of international criminals.
We agree with Gerard Ryle, the director of the ICIJ, that the leak of the Panama Papers is the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken because of the scope of the documents. Even Edward Snowden of the Wiki leaks fame admitted this to be the biggest leak in the history of data journalism. Ramon Fonseca has said the leak was not an inside job but that the company was hacked by servers based abroad and has filed a complaint with the Panamanian attorney-general’s office. Last week, it was announced that Jurgen Mossack was resigning from Panama’s Council on Foreign Relations. These reactions are understandable, but there is no doubt that the leak of the Panama Papers is a welcome contribution to the quest for greater transparency in global business transactions. It has given the world a glimpse into the schemes of the rich and powerful in their effort to conceal and extend their wealth at the expense of the poor and the development of their own countries.
We support the position taken by the EFCC to investigate the Nigerians named in the Panama Papers if only to know what they did or wanted to do with offshore shell companies. The country might learn a few things from the outcome of such investigation. Some of those named are familiar malodorous figures. Many Nigerian leaders have not been willing to be open or transparent in their handling of public funds. The rich still demand different terms from ordinary citizens. Public affairs are conducted with too much secrecy and the gap between the rich and the poor widens by the day as the rich refuse to pay their taxes
Even though the EFCC already has a lot on its hands trying to bring corrupt Nigerians to justice, it will do well to probe the involvement of our public officials who might have used the shell companies to either hide the proceeds of corruption or evade the payment of due taxes.