Senate should not waste public funds debating an unnecessary bill by Ebuka Nwankwo

Presently, for those politicians who intend to preserve their wealth, the naira is not a currency that they might want to leave their money in. The naira is, in one word, ‘‘unstable’’. The dollar is currently their only option.

This explains the selfish bill being sponsored by Senator Solomon Olamilekan. Olamilekan is sponsoring a bill to alter the constitution in order to allow public officers own and operate foreign bank accounts. (This bill has been given number 347 in the Senate.)

Despite the fact that this law has not been effective – many public officers have surreptitiously operated illegal foreign accounts – Olamilekan intends to remove any barrier that would prevent the export of scarce dollars from Nigeria.

Obviously, this bill is not in the interest of the large number of impoverished Nigerians, who voted for Olamilekan in his constituency. It is in the interest of politicians who have seen their assets lose enormous value as a result of the depreciation of the naira.

Let’s be clear: there is nothing wrong in trying to preserve your hard-earned wealth or in operating a foreign account, especially when you are not holding a high public office. Public service should come with a price. Especially the office of president, minister, governor or a lawmaker.

People in positions to make laws and policies that could affect the value of the naira should not be shielded from the consequences of their actions.

There is a consensus view that wrong government polices exacerbated the woes of the naira. And should public officers be allowed to store their ‘wealth’ in foreign currencies abroad, they would be protecting themselves from the damage they have caused.

It is only when they are badly affected that that the urgency to fix Nigeria would be utmost in their minds. Today, one thing is clear: Should Nigeria be caught in a disastrous war, as result of the actions and inaction of some public officers, many of them are in a position to catch the next flight out of Nigeria for good.

This shouldn’t be so. It is only when politicians know that they have no other country that they put in their hearts and souls into the job.

The restriction on foreign accounts does not indicate a breach of right, rather it indicates that a high status should carry a considerable obligation and responsibility.

Besides, in this world of e-commerce and e-payment, you could make any payment with your naira debit accounts and dorm accounts. Legitimate payments such as health bills, children school fees, holiday expenses and the like could be done in naira or from dorm accounts, which are domiciled in Nigeria. Or are there things our lawmakers intend to hide?

More importantly, public officers represent a special breed of people whose actions should not be controlled by foreign countries where they could be keeping the bulk of their investments.

There is no need mentioning the fundamental purpose of the existing law prohibiting public officers from owning foreign accounts: to check capital flight and corruption. It seems the sponsors of this bill are not interested in checking these or preserving our battered naira.

A similar bill of this nature was sponsored about three years ago, but died a natural death. This dead bill has been woken up by lawmakers who ought to be busy finding solution to the hardship in the land.

If our lawmakers were patriotic, they should have been asking themselves why American and British public officers were not rushing into Nigeria to open bank accounts, instead of thinking about taking out all barriers that would prevent capital flight from Nigeria.

ON LEKKI GARDENS AND REIGNERS BIBLE CHURCH

It has been reported that the Uyo Capital City Development Authority (UCCDA) ordered Reigners Bible Church International to stop work on its collapsed building, but the church ignored them. Interesting! Yet, the governor never knew of this and was almost killed in the same building that his men in the civil service said was defective.

In the same vein, Lekki Gardens and GTRich, owners of a five-storey building that collapsed in Lagos, have been accused of not obtaining proper permits. And the Lagos State government announced yesterday that it is now prepared to charge the company.

Presently, the Nigerian Society of Engineers has not made public their findings on this five-storey building. But Lekki Gardens says the gentle souls that lost their lives in the collapsed building were squatters.

This is a fundamental point. Buildings, which are structurally incomplete, are not supposed to be occupied for any reason. The truth is that for a building to fail, especially those that were designed by licensed engineers, many things have to go wrong. Engineers design buildings for loads that are 60 percent more than the loads that are expected on the building. (During construction all retrofits, supports and connecting systems might not have been placed. Also, wrong use of building – for example vibrations during serious dancing in churches if not considered in design – might cause failure.)

Our construction industry needs to be overhauled. Many things are wrong with the industry. And the focus now should be on incorporating the lessons learnt from failures into our national standards and public enlightenment campaigns.

Meanwhile, I sincerely wish Lekki Gardens – a company which has managed to change the face of real estate and mortgage system in Nigeria in its own small way – the best of luck. The real estate industry still has a lot to learn from Richard Nyong’s innovative model.