Looting : An Impediment to Development

The Kaduna state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria(CAN), through its secretary, Rev. Sunday Ibrahim, had in August, 2015, called on the state Government to ensure  the prosecution of any public or civil servant found wanting ; in its quest to rid the state civil and public service of corrupt practices.

According to Rev. Ibrahim, prosecuting corrupt officials is necessary to rid the state of those who enriched themselves at the expense of the government and people of Kaduna state.
”I believe that there are people that may not be working in this state and are still collecting money from the government coffers. Just like we have been hearing that one person is collecting the salaries of 10, 15 or 20 and above. People that are not working with the government but they are collecting salaries from the Kaduna state government, or people that are ghost workers but they collect money. We have heard cases whereby somebody died for a long time and then someone else is collecting the money and the families are not getting the money”.
”I plead with the government, whosoever is party to it, the government should bring the person to book, irrespective of his religion, his family background and who that person is”, the CAN secretary had stated.
Interestingly, this represents the situation of things in the three tiers of government in Nigeria. ”Cosmetic ”wars” and ”fights” are the order of the day, closely trailed by sponsored  roadshows and rallies, to distract attention from issues of ”urgent  national attention”.
Of note, is that fact that about $460 million was allegedly looted by the former military ruler, late General Sani Abacha, and was with held in foreign accounts, while part of it was released to the country.
In 2000, Mohammed Abacha and Abubakar were charged to court for allegedly acquiring N21, 705,000 billion and $315,649.500 million all totalling about N50 billion state funds, between 1995 and 1998.
The Federal Government and the Abacha family had to enter into a deal before the family returned to the government, the sum of N1.2 billion out of an estimated $1.5 billion allegedly looted by the late Head of State. Mohammed, the scion of the Abacha family in early 2005,  prayed an Abuja high court to uphold that no civil or criminal proceedings be commenced against him, in respect of stolen funds which he had forfeited  to the state.  He said that under the forfeiture of assets Decree No. 53 of 1999, his family had returned 625, 263187,19,75,305,886.93 pounds sterling, N100,000,000 and N250,000,000 to the government and therefore entitled to the provisions of the said decree.
Curiosly, Justice Amina Adamu Augie stated that the property ordered forfeited was acquired corruptly and illegally, which means that they were supposedly forfeited as proceeds of crime, the forfeited property became vested in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, free from all encumbrances, according to Decree No. 53 of 1999.
In 2005, a news magazine reported that ”the regime of Abdulsalam Abubakar also allegedly pillaged the nation’s treasury during his 11 months rule as the Head of state. He allegedly siphoned several  billions in both local and foreign currencies, including $40 million that was contributed by multi national companies.
For the late Sani Abacha’s self succession bid, members of the military high command were to be given $500,000 as parting gift, but Abubakar was said to have given out $50,000. The eight year military dictatorship of Ibrahim Babangida, saw the nation losing over $24 million oil windfall, which has remained unaccounted for. The regime also took Nigeria through several ”laboratory powered” political programmes, which ended up as ‘experiments”, but with billions of Naira down the drain. Nigeria’s brief Democratic experience between 1979 and 1983 under President Sheu Shagari also took the country through a cycle of huge financial losses, in fraudulent rice importation and unexpected ”white elephant” projects.  During former President Oulsegun Obasanjo’s tenure, , form 1999 to 20007, the government’s anti-corruption war, sought several political office holders and appointees, as many of them were forced to return millions of Naira acquired through corrupt enrichment.
In the present time, the current travail  of the nation and unending economic hardship may tarry for as long as the nation’s resources, which have been looted remains between players in the immediate past and present administrations.