THE FAST GROWING ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES IN NIGERIA

THE FAST GROWING ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES IN NIGERIA 

One of the major cankerworm that hinders development and stands as a stumbling block for continuous growth of a nation is corruption. Corruption is popularly defined as the characterization of our national culture.

Economics according to Adams Smith (1776) is defined as an inquiry into nature and causes of wealth of a nation. It is the state of a country or region in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services and the supply of money.

Finance is defined as the management of large amount of money by government or large companies.
          Crime is defined as an offence against an individual or the state which is punishable by law.

Economic and financial crime has been one of the major cankerworms that have eaten up the whole system of the economy, thereby causing retarded growth and development, and nurturing a kwashiorkoric and a lame systematic economy. The rate at which economic and financial crime is going in our society is rather irreversible and causing lots of damages than repair.

The issue of economic and financial crime in our society today has been one of the long existing problems the whole system of the economy has been confronting. Lots of strategies and plans have been implemented to curb this long existing dilemma but to no avail. It keeps waxing stronger and stronger by the day.

Our present society today is full of different economic and financial crimes, they are numerous and countless in their numbers, and they have eaten up the economy of our local government, state and country, thereby leading to unproductivity and retarded growth in the economy, making government unaccountable, which results to embezzlement of funds and shortage of growth in the economy.

Scam another name for cyber crime in our society is the latest and the present in our society. This is very common among the youths of today, turning thousands of youths into vagabonds and making them unproductive to their society and themselves. This present disease has shifted the focus of the youths from pursuing after realistic goals and careers that will enable them to contribute to national growth and development, that would make them responsible to themselves and to positively impact and immensely contribute to economic development, but allowing themselves to become tools for evil , and engaging in dubious activities.

Money laundering is another ravaging problem confronting our present society, which is the illegal transfer of funds that is meant for the development of all sectors of the economy from a country to another country, most commonly practiced by some individuals in different administrations of the economy both in the state and in the federal level. Different agencies like EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) and other agencies like ICPC have been introduced to eradicate these problems but it seems to be getting worse day after day, even with their complimentary effort in reducing the rate of economic and financial crimes.

Drug trafficking is also one of the day to day activities today in our society, that has turn many individuals useless to themselves and society. A lot of disciplinary measures have been introduced but it seems not to be working, drugs have a lot of negative and consequential effect on any economy and the effects are numerous both to the economy and the people of that particular country.

Illegal travelling document is another problem, whereby many go into different countries of the world with illegal / fake traveling documents and when later found out; such people are deported back to their countries thereby giving the country a bad image internationally.

Illegal printing of the Nigerian currency is also one of the many crimes that some individuals who are not authorized or given the legal license to print currency go into this illegal act, hereby violating the law.

All of these and many more are the economic and financial crimes in our society today. They are all enemies to the economy and they are the causative agents of all the underdevelopment and shortage of growth in the economy and can only be eradicated if the citizens and government can emulate the good policy of honesty as its legacy in the provision of basic and social amenities like good roads, good hospital care system, good educational system, good security services and provision of good jobs that will help in reducing the rate of unemployment in the country. It will also enable the citizens to contribute to national development and growth and so on. If all of these are provided and the government is accountable, that will build confidence in the heart of the citizens, and make them believe in the ability of their leaders to carry out their set goals, thereby creating stability and accelerated development in the nation which will help in eradicating the rapid and fast growing economic and financial crimes in the nation.


Written by:
Amusa John Tolulope