During my years in Europe, bankers were often individuals who couldn’t make it in careers as lawyers, doctors, or engineers, leading modest lifestyles. This trend was even more apparent in the US, where a banking career was pursued by educated immigrants who took the job while eyeing more lucrative opportunities.
Returning to Nigeria in 2005, I was struck by the elevated societal status bankers occupied, surpassing even that of lawyers, engineers, and doctors.
However, upon closer examination, it became clear that most of these bankers lacked the professionally respected education and skills associated with other fields.
This sheds light on their efforts to project themselves as something they are not. Nigerian bankers have, through various means, including fraud, positioned themselves as society’s status symbols, illustrating why Nigerian bank CEOs are not simply fraudsters but rather “banksters” perpetrating fraud on monumental scales.
Similar to powerful criminal organizations, they have skillfully shielded themselves from legal consequences, amassing wealth while evading prosecution within our legal system, highlighting another disparity between our nation and more developed countries.
Is it not time we established a strong anti-fraud agency, led by determined investigators like Jim Obazee, and created what I call ‘the Nigerian Anti-Fraud Special Tribunal’ (NAFST), staffed with up to 200 specialist judges on financial and banking frauds?
Besides, is it not equally time, in our efforts to promote accountability, that bank CEOs from 2005 onwards were invited for investigation and prosecution?
Furthermore, is it not time for an online whistleblowing platform, as I earlier proposed, to be implemented, allowing citizens to report these frauds anonymously and be paid 5% of the recovered funds as a reward?
Though undoubtedly challenging, initiating these long overdue changes is essentially the right first step toward criminal justice in Nigeria.
