WHILE still campaigning as a presidential candidate in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari promised that if elected, he was going to wage war against corruption among several other promises. As a former military leader, many Nigerians could still remember his ‘War Against Indiscipline’ policy; thus they saw him as one who could deliver on the need to deal with corruption which had given the country a bad name in the comity of nations.
Since he got into office, the administration’s war against corruption has faced scrutiny from diverse section of Nigerians who hold different opinions about the policy and its effectiveness.
However since the ‘war’ began, the government claimed it has recovered not less than $10.3bn in looted cash and assets. About $85 million was recently recovered while another $330 million is expected next year as part of the unending discovery General Sani Abacha loot.
With the total amount running into trillions of naira many Nigerians have been wondering what the federal government is planning to do with the huge allegedly recovered loot when there is so much around the country calling for attention, even as the country’s debt kept mounting by the day.
Dr Jonas Okonkwo, a university lecturer is satisfied with the administration’s anti-corruption war and does not expect the money to go into wrong hands given the antecedents of the man in charge. However, he would love the administration to use the recovered loot to site projects in each of the geo-political zones of the country.
“The best bet would have been free education at all levels, but because of the cost implication of continuity, it is better for the Federal Government to use an exhaustive project approach which means one project in one geo-political zone.
“So, each geopolitical zone should have well-standardised international airport courtesy of the recovery of the looted funds. Where the funds still remain, we should be looking at one international cargo airport in each of the zones,” he said.
Just like Dr Okonkwo, Mazi Ifeanyi Eze a top member of Ohanaeze Ndigbo is afraid that the recovered funds may find its way into private pockets though he did to expect it to happen. He also would like to see the government use the money to fund projects in education and infrastructure.
A cleric, Rev Gideon Maduabuchi believes that the fund is better used to develop agriculture, power and human capital which he said other countries like China and Israel had done and today they are reaping the rewards. Today the efforts have placed these countries ahead of many others.
A budget of deficit and politics of loot recovery
A chieftain of Lagos State All Progressives Congress (APC) and former secretary to the state government, Chief Olorunfunmi Bashorun, believes that there is a very high deficit in the 2018 budget. Therefore the recovered loot should be used to address not only problems of roads and power; it should be used to address the high deficit in the budget.
“This year’s budget that has a very heavy deficit; they should use it to reduce the naira deficit which they said would be sourced from the internal loans; they should use it to reduce the internal borrowing and they should specifically apply it to areas such as road and power which ought to be addressed,” he said.
The Secretary General of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Sehinde Arogbofa, agrees with Chief Bashorun on what to do with recovered loot.
According to him, since the money belongs to Nigeria and Nigerians, it should be used to finance the budget and basic infrastructural facilities, especially road and power.
He said rather than keeping the money in a special account, the federal government should use the funds “to reverse the problems in education, healthcare, social services, infrastructure and, indeed, quality of life.”
A former commissioner for environment and governorship aspirant in the 2016 governorship election in Ondo State, Sola Ebiseni, a lawyer, has a different view. To him the whole thing about loot recovery is political. He would rather have the government return the loot to “appropriate quarters.”
“Like everything Nigerian, the so-called looted fund is political. In the first place, the questions to ask are: who are the looters and what are the sources of the loot? Remember, Nigeria is a federation, how do you explain funds allegedly looted in a particular state being refunded to the federal government.
“The much-celebrated Abacha loot is probably from the federation account or the funds looted from the NNPC. My take is that let the source of looted funds be first identified; in which case, the funds looted from states be returned to the appropriate state and the rest to the federation account and subsequently treated accordingly.
“It is monumental fraud to return to the federal government, money sourced from either the states or NNPC which ought to have been part of the federation account or looted directly by the military junta,” he lamented.
The views of Fola Amure, also a legal practitioner is in tandem with that of Ebiseni except that he wants the focus to be on the punishment of offenders so as to serve as deterrent to others.
According to him, “The institution of government must be strengthened to make it very difficult for funds to be looted. It is because perpetrators were not punished that the looting became the order of the day.
“If stringent punishment is meted to looters, people will find it very uneasy to loot or compromise their position whenever they have the opportunity to loot.”
For Comrade Moshood Erubami, President Voters Assembly and public analyst, the federal government should explain to people what has happened to their money, noting that using the looted fund for social services for which they were meant initially was the best option. He added that alternatively it could be placed in a dedicated account to be released for people-oriented projects.
“The looted funds recovered and being recouped must be spent in the best of ways and on need-driven projects to regain the integrity of the president and his government. This is because money that was looted was originally appropriated and was meant to be spent on a project before it was diverted into private pocket.
“Now that the money has been ambushed through anti corruption efforts, spending it on another project or programme is an action towards democratic alternative usage. It could therefore be pushed into the economy through budget appropriation so as not to instigate self-inflicted inflation,” he explained.
For Bello Abdulai, journalist and social commentator the looted fund should be used to fix the Ajaokuta Steel Company since that is the way forward for sustainable development and wealth for the country. Moribund power plants, including the economy, according to him, should also be fixed.
“Since the projection is that by 2040, many cars will no longer use petrol, we should use the recovered loot to revitalise the Ajaokuta Steel Company as part of measures to diversify the economy from oil,” he said.
Comrade Omobude Agho, civil society activist, believes that job creation should be the focus of the application of the looted funds. This he believes could be done through enhanced agricultural practices which would in turn employ more hands and thus food production would be increased to feed the teeming population of the country noting that Nigeria has no business importing food.
“Since the recovered loots were originally funds put in place for the development of the country, they should be ploughed back into the economy. We should use the recovered looks to shore up the 2018 budget of over N8 trillion. The recovered loot should not be re-looted so that Nigeria can work again.
“In particular, the money should be used for Human Capital Development. Nigeria, as a country, does not have any business importing food. We have every right to export food. So, government should use the recovered money to boost agriculture and the production of food.
“By so doing, they would have created employment for the teeming youths. Government should focus on agriculture. India is in medicine and China is in technology. The world needs food and Nigeria should be known for agriculture and food production,” he enthused.
As Nigerians await what the Buhari government may do with the recovered loot, there are also many skeptics who do not see anything good coming out of it. For this category of people, it does not make sense for the country to be in possession of such a huge sum of money and still be in debt. However, with two-and-a-half years gone in the life of the administration the next one year would determine the direction to which it would want to channel its newly-found fortune.
and then