Nigeria is in the vortex of an embarrassing cash for guns scandal following the recent arrest of two of our nationals and an Israeli at the Lanseria Airport in South Africa with $9.3 million cash loaded in three suitcases. A spokeswoman for the South African Revenue Service (SARS), Marika Muller, said the money, which was flown from Abuja into South Africa aboard a small business jet, was detained because it was undisclosed, undeclared and well above the prescribed legal limit for cash coming into South Africa.
The three men who brought the money to South Africa were reported to have told the country’s authorities that they came to purchase arms for Nigeria’s security agencies. They tendered an invoice originating from a certain “Tier One Services” to a Cyprus-based company for “helicopters and armaments” intended for use in Nigeria.
The Federal Government’s response to this bewildering incident is almost as ugly as the scandal itself.  That it came in the form of a press release is bad enough. The anonymity of the statement further suggests that all is far from well on the transaction.
The unnamed FG spokesman said the transaction was legitimate and the government has released data and documents on the deal to the South African authorities. How legitimate could this transaction be when the South African government was not even aware of the movement of such a huge sum of money into its territory, contrary to its laws?
The statement by Nigeria’s Federal Government seems to imply that the release of  the private jet indicates that everything  is fine with the transaction.  But, the South Africans had nothing against the plane. It also said that the technical details of the transaction had been given to South Africa, but, the South Africans have already tagged the incident a classic case of money laundering.
The Nigerian government is apparently trying to make light of this unbecoming incident, describing it as a slight procedural error, and trying to make the issue of the importation of arms sound so mysterious and technical. According to the government, “there was procedural error at the airport, the team did not declare the $9.3 million contrary to the aviation and customs law in South Africa.  So, there was an oversight on the part of the delegation that went to complete the transaction.  Nigeria is trying to complete the formalities and we are confident that the cash will be released for the purpose it was meant for.”
The government source added: “movement of cash for strategic purchase of security equipment by intelligence services is not new, it is a global trend.  The FBI, KGB, MOSSAD and others do it.”
But, the longer the government’s explanation, the less persuasive it became.  The failure to declare $9.3 million was an oversight in a mission like this?  What else were they thinking about?  The three men under investigation are a delegation?  Whose delegation?  A credible delegation for a deal like this would be two-star generals or their equivalent in any branch of the service for which the arms are being sourced.
Worse still, there was apparently no transaction to complete.  The invoice  brandished at the airport by the three men has been declared questionable, while the so-called supplier of the arms is reportedly by law not authorised to enter into agreement regarding the sale and or rental of military equipment in South Africa.
The optimism that the cash will be released is far-fetched.  The South African National Prosecuting Authority has been reported to have obtained a court order to confiscate the cash.
It is also not true that the movement of cash by intelligence services is  the global trend.  That is counter-productive.  In Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States probably did so because the financial services in those countries had collapsed at the time.
This incident raises so many questions about the integrity of the Nigerian government and our security services. It also raises serious concerns about policy issues and the competence of government officials involved in the transaction.
The Boko Haram insurgency in the country is bound to be used as an excuse for all manner of irregularities in the country. We hope this is not one of them.
Even if you could keep the government of South Africa in the dark over an arms deal like this, and you cannot, what about informing and involving the Nigerian embassy whose primary duty is to smooth things for Nigeria?  Why couldn’t Nigeria’s intelligence officials reach out to their South African counterparts?  Why were the beneficiaries of the so-called transaction, who must be paid in cash, not notified to arrange to pick up the cash? Why was the transaction not registered with the appropriate authorities as required under South Africa’s laws?
Sadly, the world, at the best of times, places Nigeria among the most corruption-ridden countries of the world.  This incident has again lent credence to that perception. The Federal Government’s effort at damage control in this matter is too little, too late.  It has to make a clean breast of the entire transaction. The earlier, the better.

FG must come clean on $9.3m scandal