Ewolewoo!!

A permanent secretary or Director General in a federal ministry on a monthly salary of 350,000 naira but has several accounts. He has about 200 million naira in Bank A, 300 million naira in bank B, 180 million naira in Bank C and 400 million naira in Bank D with many other domiciliary accounts too numerous to mention in various banks.  You want this individual to come for BVN and attach all the accounts? Mbanu!! He/she would dodge it.

A politician who has not done any other business in his life apart from politicking yet he is a billionaire and you are telling him to conjure all his various secret accounts into a BVN bundle? He would find a way to dodge it. How does he explain the various hundreds of millions in his various accounts? How? As a politician you are a marked man; so if you cross the paths of anyone more powerful than you, then you would understand that your bank accounts are not only for your eyes. “Others” can view them without your knowledge and with BVN it is easy to tie you to those accounts. Politicians would not want it I can assure you.

The BVN mantra has now been extended to the forex trading too. People dealing in forex are somehow  required to get bring their BVN along. You know that would be tight. We operate a peculiar economic model in Nigeria where the sources of any funds should never be asked if you want to survive. Any attempt or system nomatter how “coated”  that is being perceived to inquire about sources or identity of the money-man is always fought against I tell you. We are in a different world where our economic model needs to be studied differently from the conventional economic model being studied in schools.

We have an economic model that still recognises that there must be “fuel subsidy payment to marketers” even at the period of very low crude oil prices. If you remember what happened in January, 2012 when GEJ removed the so called fuel subsidy and there were protests against him. Then, the crude oil price was hovering around $120/barrel. Right now, we are all in prayer houses that it shouldn’t fall below the $41-44/barrel range. Yet oil marketers are still telling everyone that cares to listen that they want to get their subsidy payments. Is that not confusing?  They got subsidy claims when the price was high yet they still want subsidy claims when the rice is so low? That is the model of economic “abracadabra” that we are following.

You now  want the people benefitting from such scam to go for BVN? They would do everything to circumvent the system. That is a fact. The complications in all the confusion going on is this: dirty money seems to be fuelling the system as we speak. The system is being oiled by the “corrupt  money” without legitimate sources. The system has relied on this kind of funds for too long that everyone now takes it as normal. For example, once you stop unexplained sources of forex into the system, the resultant effect is that banks sack their workers. Once you regulate the way people can access the accounts they cannot defend all manners of non-payments is injected into the system.

The BVN has unfortunately exposed the unhealthy nature of our economy where what drives the economy is not the industrial sector or any other legitimate concerns. The economy is driven mostly by funds acquired in corrupt manners.  This needs to change!!

I support the introduction of the BVN. However, the challenge to the BVN’s introduction would not come from the ordinary Nigerians. It would come from the same people who believe that secrecy is the watchword in their unexplained acquisition of wealth.  Unfortunately for all, they run the system and people have come to “accommodate” their styles.

Can CBN survive this? Time would tell…..Ewolewooo!!!