Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who replaced Goodluck Jonathan last summer and swore in his cabinet in November, has tabled two financial crime bills. One of these seems to undermine the influence of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission.

The proposals are in the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Bill and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill, which are now before the National Assembly.

The current Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act is administered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, whose offices were once fire-bombed by disgruntled criminals. The new money-laundering bill proposes to set up a Bureau for Money Laundering Control, a second office to co-ordinate the country's AML efforts, presumably because the new regime is disappointed with the EFCC's performance. The president (a former military dictator who has 'gone democratic') says that if the bill is passed, the new body will be independent in the discharge of its functions and responsibilities. Commentators can take this as they choose.

The text of the new bills have not been released to the public yet. According to the Nigerian Daily Trust, the money-laundering bill proposes to make any bank that is found guilty of laundering money liable to a fine of not less than 25 million naira (£70,000), with any guilty "designated non-financial business or profession" (DNFBP, the Financial Action Task Force's term for a 'gatekeeper' such as a lawyer or accountant or notary) having to pay at least 10 million naira (£35,000). It also prescribes three years' imprisonment or above for any anybody who fails to report people who are involved in money laundering. In money-laundering terms, the other bill is aimed at mutual legal assistance, whereby an enquiry or request for asset-freezing in one country is answered swiftly and well in another, a subject on which the Abacha saga proves Nigerian law to be very weak indeed.