The federal government has said it is concerned that the many non-Nigerians in the diaspora are giving the country a bad name.
The government said plans are underway to harmonise the citizenship database for effective individual and corporate identity management.
The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, at the opening session of a three-day national training workshop on counterterrorism financing organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa, GIABA, said database harmonisation would ensure that Nigerians’ identities are easily verified anywhere in the world.
He said it would boost the war against money laundering and terrorism financing in the country and the West African region.
He said, “There are two things I think we must get right. Number one is what I call individual and corporate identity management.
“The identity of everybody in Nigeria must be seen. Identity fraud must be nil. It must be impossible for one person to open different accounts or to have an account in this name and have insurance in another name.
“We must make sure that if you are James Kelly anywhere, you are James Kelly everywhere. We must understand corporate identity, companies, entities, and people.
“It is essential. Not until we can get that will we be able to be ahead and forecast trends. If you cannot forecast trends or projects or predict, you will always be reactive.
“The era when somebody carries a Nigerian passport with a name, that same Nigeria goes to Gambia and gets a passport with another name.
He opens an account in Nigeria with a name; he opens an account in another country with another name.
“We arrested somebody some months ago. The case is in court. The person came to Nigeria with a Nigerian passport with a name, and when she wanted to leave, her British passport carried another name. Yes, that is what happened because the database, the passport biometric database of Nigeria, is not being shared with any other world.
“So, you can claim to be anybody anywhere else in the world and carry two different passports of two other countries with different names. And that’s what I tell people.
“I am convinced that the majority of the people giving Nigeria bad names in the diaspora, most of them are not Nigerians; they only carry Nigerian identity, and that is something we must solve. So, individual and corporate identity management solutions are very, very crucial.
“We must be able to harmonise that, at least at a regional level. That is the number one because no country can fight terrorism alone.
“We must come together. It has gone beyond a single domain. It is now a regional thing.”
In her remarks, the Director of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, Mrs Hafsat Bakari, said the workshop provided a unique opportunity for analysts, investigators, and prosecutors to enhance their knowledge and improve their techniques in tracing licit and illicit funds channelled to financing terrorism and building solid cases against terrorist financiers.
“Without funds and finances that enable their activities, terrorists and terrorist organisations would not be able to carry out the dastardly acts they do. Funds, supplies and other material assistance are therefore central to terrorists’ ability to operate, and that is why this workshop by GIABA is critical,” she stated.
In his address, the Director-General of GIABA, Mr. Edwin W. Harris Jr., said the organisation would continue supporting countries in the West African region to strengthen their capacity to fight money laundering and terrorism financing.
GIABA is a specialised institution of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), responsible for facilitating the adoption and implementation of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Financing of Terrorism (CFT) strategies in West Africa.
