Economic and financial crimes have become the plasma component of blood stream of Nigerians. It can be the air that everyone breathes in and out to survive, to some people , it is like the clothes use in covering their private parts. It has no segregation of political class, culture and tribe, religion or geopolitical zoning. Nigeria as the giant of African continent has not yielded positive developments towards any sector due to the crimes, considering the liquidified and consolidated natural resources; large and viable soil that support the cultivation of various degrees of food and cash crops as well as rearing of different species of livestock. We would have become among the developed countries in the world if these blessings have been used wisely!!! The chronic evil wishes and greediness have distorted the expected timely equilibrium. We are still hoping things will be better in the future since there are reminants of patriotic citizens in the core and peninsula of our homeland. Below are some of the proposed measures to be followed to restore the situation:
Government should provide strong and standard policies for punishing any citizen that is found guilty of promoting the occurrence of those crimes as well as rewarding any one that works tirelessly to prevent the existence of financial crimes. The policies should be consistent and unbiased so that people may not compromise and temper with them.
There should be justice and equity in conviction of criminals of such kind. There should be certain wrath that a culprit who steals or mismanages the public trust should serve which shall be death sentence or its equivalent so as to serve as deterrence for others.
On the other side, reasonable amount or public recommendation should be conferred to anyone that appropriates the resources or helps in preventing it diversion through whistleblowing or using any means of exposing the suspect.
More so, government can curtail the financial crime by promoting good child upbringing in our society. Parents should be urged to instill sound moral discipline among their children and norms and values of each culture should be primary inducement to the younger ones. These values count a lot in reshaping their minds towards positive thinking that will prevent them from becoming perpetrators of financial crimes. Parents should teach their children patriotism at homes, they should be taught that government properties are not personal properties, as such shouldn’t be mishandled. The children should also be taught about the consequences of economic and financial crimes. This will correct and change their thinking as they grow-up to become ambassadors of change.
In addition to these, establishment of courses about economic and financial crimes in our educational institutions ediate or eradicate the notion in the upcoming generation. These courses should be introduced in our primary and secondary schools as well as tertiary institutions. Local clubs that will aim at giving orientations and programmes on financial crimes should be established alongside with Novels that depict the negative impacts of economic and financial crimes. These will give our youths knowledge on what the crimes are; chances and channels will created to properly address the issues and prevent many citizens to fall into the mess.
Furthermore, public enlightenment programmes across our country and special pages should be established on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok to educate public about the negative effects of corruption. Radio and television programmes are also paramount in eradicating these habits: for example; people in rural areas mostly listen to radio to get information especially our local FM stations. Special programmes should be aired in international broadcasting stations such as BBC Hausa, BBC Africa , BBC pigin, VOA , RFI etc as well as the national ones like NTA , Sunnah TV, Arewa24 , Tauraruwa etc. Also,Templates, Magazines and Newspaper articles about these crimes should be generated. Series films with such theme, are to be produced and aired regularly by our popular stations.These will help in diffusing the setbacks caused by economic and financial crimes in Nigeria. Social media too should be urged to participate in educating the public. Songs should also be produced about those crimes like those of Dr Aminu Alan waka, Kano.
Subsequently, admonishment and sermons should be regularly delivered on the topic by our traditional and religious leaders. By mapping, these two categories are more closer to common man. The traditional tarnishing and spiritual punishment should be taught squarely and aired both on radio and television stations. This will also bring the meaning of the crimes to local citizens especially those with no Western educational backgrounds since natives languages are being used for the delivery of the talks.
Genuine and monitored youths empowerment programmes should be established. Most of the empowerment programs available in Nigeria lack good monitoring and supervision, people use to get supports from government but mostly misuse them and later relegate to their origin of unemployment. And today jobless graduates have become threat to well-being of national economy through engaging themselves in internet frauds but the empowerment programmes will help a lot in converting certified jobless graduates to productive ones.
Finally, strong policies of reward and punishment, promoting good child upbringing, establishment of courses related to these crimes, public enlightenment, admonishment and sermons by traditional and religious leaders and genuine and monitored youths empowering programmes will properly address the issue of economic and financial crimes in our great Nigeria by the grace of God.
Dr. Musa Auwalu Azare writes from Azare, Bauchi state.
