Money Flows in the Wrong Place

If you work for an underdeveloped country, you may wonder, "How is this country so slow to develop?" Well, I did so for good reason. The answer can help me to focus on what to do to help the country’s development. In case of Nigeria, the slowness of the development is open wide topic for discussion. There are overwhelmingly large numbers of the poor in the oil rich country that, no doubt, earns enormously. Wealth has not been spared to the poor. Then, who has gotten the money, where has it been, and how has it been used? Perhaps this will give us the clue to solve this country’s very poverty problems.（opening photo）

Spending a year since 2016 May as a non-profit organization, SWACIA’s Nigeria chapter chair person in Abuja was an eye-opener for the head-start. I used to understand vaguely in Japan the problem of "corruption" and "poverty" but staying in the country had me adjust my thinking no longer to meddle with the “myth.” Let me give an example, initially, a doctor invited me to come to Nigeria for collaboration. However, he introduced me to an immigration officer who charged extravagantly for issuing a work visa. I thought that the fees would be about $50 or $300 (USD) at most. However, he charged me a total of 800,000 naira (about $2500). Because my travel visa was expiring, I was forced to pay this but he refused to give me a receipt. In other words, there is no evidence that I paid. Being in shock, I started crying aloud in the immigration office. Then other staff members and their superiors all came down from upstairs to see me crying in the office. I kept crying for I felt awful experiencingsuch ill-treatment against NGOs who came to support their country. Donation (that I paid from) was illegally taken away by the civil servant! The doctor who invited me to Nigeria was indignant to my action and kept asking me “Why are you crying!?” Though he had deaf ears to all my description as tothe fraud. Later on I informed the Japan embassy in Nigeria. As a result, the Embassy abruptly canceled the support for the doctor's plan of the medical project. It was because the doctor introduced immigration staff who committed fraud. Despite that, the actual problem wasn’t resolved. I realized that government officials can destruct our NGO operation by illegally demanding against our NGO anytime in the future. Under such government, you may easily imagine the sufferings of the common people in the country.

The Federal Ministry of Interior Honorable Minister, Lt. Gen. Abdulraham Bello Dambazou (RTD) CFR Phd., the highest authority to control the Immigration, is said to never allow bribes and injustice. I wrote a letter to him. Immediately, I got an answer from him the very next day. I was invited by the general and directed to meet the Ministry of Interior, Honorable Minister Yasakai, who commanded an Immigration Bureau Director to arrest officials who committed illegitimate demand and to have them refund. He invited the staff who committed offense and the doctor who initially invited me. As a result, we discovered that not only one but almost all staff in the same department were involved in the corruption. Director said “they will not refund and we cannot fire all of them because that affects our immigration officeoperation.”

At that time, I was on the verge of facing visa expiration within a week. The NGO certificate issued by Ministry Of Budget And National Planning was required for visa renewal has not been issued, which I applied 2 months ago. It had seriously endangered my status to be on the ground. When I asked the civil servantswhy such delay had taken place, they answered that the virus was on the computer, not just one or two but almost all computers in the department. I asked why they did not purchase antivirus software. Their answers were shocking. He responded, “We fear for asking our superiors to purchase it.” They fear their superior but felt comfortable telling a stranger like me? Perhaps asking the superiors means to be sacked from the job? This can also mean that the funds were misused by bosses.

I was in trouble. I won’t be able to stay in Nigeria when my visa expires. As I brought this matter to Immigration Bureau Director, he said, “There was only one way to get the visa extension without leaving the country.” “If you collaborate with the doctor who invited you to Nigeria.” He was the very doctor who had last year took me to the immigration worker committed frraud. I have no interest in the partnership with the lawless people. Director said unemotionally, "Nigeria is a developing country, unlike your country, people aren’t prepared for justice. As you stay in this country, there will be more of “nonsense” in your view. It is impossible to change people’s customs immediately, but first, shouldn’t you start where you can compromise?” His words gave me a good food for thought. But to endure corruption and bribery, observing the money being poured into the wrong place may have unbearable consequences. It is a vicious circle of seeing the wrong-doing, pretending that you do not see it, and lying to cover up lies. It can mean to torment my Humanitarian conscience. Following this discussion, I flew to New York just before the visa expired in June 2017.

Even if the government commits corruption, I still have a great hope in Nigeria. Corruption doesn’t mean that we can never do good works on the ground. Because there are many good people in Nigeira even under the corrupt government. The Japanese language school we started a year ago still is running without me.

I recommend, if you are interested in working in Nigeria, that you should apply visa in your own country, not on the site in Nigeria. If you definitely need to change visa on the site in Nigeria, according to a trusted source, we should pay via remita directly to Treasury Single Account (TSA) without going through the government employees.　Remita is an e-Payments and e-Collections solution on a singlemulti-bankplatform.　Today, Remita is used by many individuals, public and private sector organizations that process over 500 Billion Naira worth of transactions on a monthly basis.　Adopted by the Central Bank of Nigeria for the payment and collections of funds on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria and used by all 22 commercial banks and over 400 micro finance banks, Remita has significantly assisted to revolutionize the e-payment industry in Nigeria. Remita also comes with an optional Payroll and HR solution for fullintegrated processing.Remita, developed by SystemSpecs, and voted many times as Nigeria's Software of the Year, is indeed a success story and a pride to Africa.

What does remita do for us? It makes payments from all our accounts in all banks on a single platform, receive funds through debit/credit cards nationwide, and automate our payroll and deliver payslips to all staff. It is available to any individuals, public and private sector organizations. Remita is a multi-channel funds collection platform that supports all types of Biller organizations. It can be used by educational institutions, insurance companies, e-commerce sites, utility companies, clubs and associations, religious organizations, Government agencies, Local and State Governments etc to collect various types of fees, charges and dues.Remita presents you with a “Push” and a “Pull” model to receive funds. The Push model empowers you to push an e-Invoice to your payers to empower them to pay you easily electronically.The “Pull” model empowers your payers to either visit your website and click a "Remita-Pay-Now" button or select you as a beneficiary atremita.net. Either way, they would be requested to complete a pre-defined form requesting for their details before proceeding to pay you easily electronically.

No doubt if civil servants charge whatever they wanted regardless their top management's command, the country would not develop, but go under-develop. Having this ramita system prevalent across the country, I say, wouldreducecorruption, threats, and frauds dramatically and stabilize its economy in Nigeria. Finally, in working in Nigeria as NGO, itis always advisable to look for allies who can faithfully manage your plan, give advice and help the poor collaboratively. We are planning the above case to be presented to the New ambassador of Nigeria to Japan Prof Mohammed Gana Yisa.