Debit better pass credit alert?   

At the weekend, I joined millions of Nigerians in expressing surprise, awe, amazement, puzzle, incredulity, shock and bewilderment having read the “alarm” raised by former Vice President and African Democratic Congress [ADC] presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, Waziri Adamawa, that he received a credit alert from an anonymous person or persons that paid money into one of his private accounts.

The statement, signed by Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication Phrank Shaibu, said it was raising alarm over “a suspicious credit alert” the Waziri received even though“neither His Excellency nor his campaign solicited, authorised or has any knowledge of the individual or entity behind the unauthorised payment.” The credit alert, Shaibu said, had thenarration “Contribution Electioneering Campaign,” but that the circumstances surrounding the transfer are deeply troubling to Waziri.

Why should a credit alert be “deeply” or even mildly troubling to anybody? In Nigeria today, millions of people are standing by their phones every minute, hoping to see credit alerts from employers, customers, parents, children, godfathers, kinsmen, political masters, boyfriends or even from people who made a mistake while in a hurry to input account details. I know a man who hurriedly withdrew money that was paid into his account even though he did not know the source and suspected it was a mistake, but by the time the sender contacted him, he had already spent the money, and said he thought it was from his son. One woman said on social media last year that a credit alert is the best cure for headache and migraine, that it acts faster than Panadol Extra or even Cataflan.

Shaibu said this credit alert is “deeply troubling to His Excellency [because] the account is a strictly private one whose details are not in the public domain. This raises a fundamental question: How did unknown persons obtain the confidential banking details of a private citizen? If the private banking information of a former Vice President and a leading presidential candidate can be accessed and deployed for reasons yet unknown, then no Nigerian’s financial privacy is safe. Even more disturbing is the suspicion that such confidential information may have been obtained through persons with privileged access. If established, this would amount to a grave abuse of power capable of exposing the account holder to kidnappers, terrorists, bandits, fraudsters and other criminal elements.”

Ranka ya dade Waziri, if you think a credit alert is deeply troubling, what will you say about a debit alert from an equally unknown source? Let me tell you a story about what I went through recently. This year’s Id-el Kabir fell on Wednesday, May 27. Given the spiraling cost of rams, I had been saving money to buy a ram or two, just in case I did not get a free ram from any of my benefactors. When I woke up early morning on May 25, the first thing I did was to check my account balance. Around 10 am, I received a credit alert of my month’s salary, which made me very happy.

Ten minutes later, the smile on my face evaporated when I saw a debit alert of one and a half million naira, said to have been withdrawn from a POS. I immediately reached for my wallet, and the bank’s debit card was intact inside it. How could money be withdrawn from a POS when the card was safely with me? Minutes later, another debit alert arrived, this one of half a million naira. I raised alarm; my family members urged me to rush to the bank and block the account. I was about to, but then I relaxed because all the money in the account had been cleared, so there was no need for hurry in blocking the account.

I spent the whole of that afternoon, the next day and many more days over the next week at the bank, also “one of Nigeria’s leading commercial banks,” as Shaibu’s statement described their offending bank. The account was blocked; I did Sallah with a blocked account [even though there was nothing to withdraw from it] but the stolen money was never returned. After a week’s “investigation,” the bank told me that there was nothing they could do, that my debit card was used to withdraw the money. My protestation that the card was with me and no one else knew the pin was brushed aside.

I was then advised to report the matter to Central Bank’s anti-fraud unit, which I did. CBN found the account into which the money was paid; found that it was fraudulent because it was a student account in Taraba State that was not supposed to receive more than 50,000 at a time but that the [this time, small] bank allowed two million naira to be transferred into it. I heard that CBN ordered the bank to refund my money, but up to now, nine weeks later, I have not received a kobo.

That was why I was puzzled by this complaint from Waziri, that he received a credit alert. Me, if I had received a credit alert instead of a debit one, would I have spent so many hours in the banking hall, made so many phone calls, sent so many SMS, emails and WhatsApp chats, issued a press statement or even escalated the matter to CBN? If CBN does not solve this matter soon, I intend to find my way to EFCC and Police Headquarters. At least they should apprehend that Taraba student and make him cough out the money.

With respect to Waziri Atiku’s alarm, I am even wondering; could it be that the money was sent by one of his genuine supporters, in order to help him offset the stupendous costs of the upcoming campaign? Sure, Waziri has a lot of such dedicated supporters, having been running for President for 34 years now, before three quarters of today’s Nigerians were even born. We understand that he himself never solicited for funds, at least not publicly. But then, it was not such a long time ago that Muhammadu Buhari publicly solicited for Nigerians’ help during his fourth run for the Presidency, after three unsuccessful earlier attempts. That year, in 2014-15, tens of thousands of poor Nigerians bought recharge cards and sent their widow’s mites to Buhari’s campaign. Looks like some people are now thinking that look, Waziri ran for President six and a half times since 1993 [the half time was in 2003, when many PDP governors urged him to challenge president Obasanjo but he declined]. Which still earned him the former president’s life-long enmity.

Remember the old woman from Argungu in Kebbi State, Mai Talle Tara, who in 2014 sold her entire kitchenware and foodstuff for making and selling bean cakes and donated one million naira to Buhari’s campaign? Why wouldn’t an Adamawa seller of sour cow milk do the same to Waziri today? Adamawa women are very compassionate; she will say, our brother has been trying many times to get this seat, I must donate all my life’s savings to help him get it this time. Waziri also has solid in-laws in Yorubaland and in Igbo land. They too are very compassionate, and they will sell every akara, gari and akpu to help him realise this what looks like a final throw of the electoral dice.

But of course, the old political warhorse that he is, having been in Nigerian politics since he teamed up with General Shehu Yar’adua in the late 1980s, having seen every trick and treachery that there is in Nigerian politics and having known a lot more tricks in his earlier life as a Customs officer, Waziri Atiku will not overlook the possibility of tricks and traps even in a normally welcomed credit alert. And indeed there could be. Only last week, EFCC did an anticipatory blocking of Osun State Government accounts in order to prevent Governor Adeleke’s Accord Party from undertaking vote buying ahead of this week’s elections. The manoeuver was so visibly partisan political that President Tinubu said he was embarrassed by it and ordered EFCC to roll it back. Waziri must be thinking that EFCC or DSS could soon come after that credit alert and allege either intended money laundering or terrorism financing.

For millions of folks like me who are not running for any political office, a credit alert from any source is a most welcome news. What we fear is debit alert, even from a known customer.  Even if a credit alert comes from EFCC itself, many Nigerians will not think twice before they make haste and spend the money. Only money laundering? Many Nigerians will gladly wash, starch, iron and even dry clean naira notes if they can find them.