Recovering Nigeria’s stolen wealth

President Muhammadu Buhari last week said that past officials of government who looted the treasury but felt that they had been forgiven their sins should perish such thoughts, insisting that all stolen monies would be recovered. At a meeting with state governors in Abuja, Buhari vowed that funds stolen by government officials who abused their offices in the recent past would be recovered as well as systemic leakages stopped.

“There are financial and administrative instructions in every government parastatal and agency. But all these were thrown to the dogs in the past. Honestly, our problems are great, but we will do our best to surmount them. The next three months may be hard, but billions of dollars can be recovered, and we will do our best,” he told the governors.

In the president’s reckoning, the days of impunity, lack of accountability and fiscal recklessness in the management of national resources are over in Nigeria, while payments of national revenue into any account other than the Federation Account is an abuse of the constitution.

We are in total support of Buhari’s resolve to recover the stolen funds. We believe that such recovered funds, if properly managed, would go a long way in resolving the myriad of woes that Nigerians have to grapple with daily in areas of housing, infrastructure, etc.

We are not in any doubt that, given his pedigree and antecedents, Buhari would make good his promise and ensure that these monies, when recovered, are channelled for developmental purposes. But he cannot do it all alone.

We, therefore, urge the Buhari government to urgently strengthen all the agencies that may be relevant in this drive for recovery of the country’s stolen wealth. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), the Police, the Department of State Services (DSS), the judiciary, among others that are directly involved in ensuring that culprits are apprehended and that wherever these monies are kept they are traced and retrieved should either be overhauled or restructured with a view to giving them enough teeth to bite.

Some of these agencies have in the past been accused of compromising their positions or have been used as mere pawns in the hands of some government officials. This must stop. It is our belief that it is only when Nigerians are convinced that these agencies are alive and manned by credible people that they would lend their cooperation to them.

Besides, there is also the need for the government, as it prepares to make appointments, to look for credible Nigerians of high repute and unquestionable integrity who would buy into the vision and mission of the president and work with him to actualise his laudable purpose for the good of Nigerians. This could be achieved by ensuring that nominees for ministerial appointments are subjected to thorough screening by the relevant authorities, including the National Assembly. A situation where some are allowed to ‘take a bow’ and leave the hallowed chamber should be discontinued. It must not be business as usual.

Furthermore, considering that virtually every dollar of the looted wealth from Nigeria is stashed away in some foreign bank, the president should ride on the back of the good rapport he enjoys with the governments of the G-7 and other foreign governments to make a case for the repatriation of Nigeria’s monies in foreign accounts. It is by so doing that the war against looters of our commonwealth will be fought and won. Anything short of this might be an effort in futility.