Caging The Looted Funds In Nigeria

It is not an exaggeration to
say that Nigeria is swim
ming in corruption as the blind can see and the deaf can hear.
Our pages of newspapers are flooded with very astonishing headlines on corruption and looted funds. One of  such was  in April 2015 which reads; Swiss government  closes door to looters’, which means  that Nigerians are ferrying money to Switzerland and other parts of the world on daily basis.
Why is the international community with all its investigative prowess still fail to track down these monies before they get to their   destination? It was also reported that a Nigerian bank chief looted N1 trillion naira. Those who harbour these stolen monies  are Dubai, London, USA among others.
Also, on 23 April 2015, the President, Gen Muhamadu Buhari said “if you’ve looted Nigeria’s  money you  must return our money;  this is an indication of the return of War Against Corruption. We are also aware  that the Swiss  government has returned most of the looted funds between the administrations of President Obasanjo and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
Surprisingly, the Abacha looted funds returned by the Swiss government was as a result of high diplomatic dialogue between  the two countries not minding that it was re-looted as it was not properly accounted for.
On the Nigerian debt profile from the days of independence, the former Coordinating Minister and the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala should explain how the Paris Club  cancelled the Nigerian debt under the Obasanjo administration because the  surgery of corruption should be the recovery of stolen money, simple. It was also reported that EFCC recovered  N4.3 billion and $11 billion in asset within the period  under review, one is from fuel scam and the other is through plea bargain.
To be precise, in China, former security tsar, Zhou Yongkang, was charged for corruption case. The China’s corruption conundrum was a celebrated one. It is important to note that curbing corruption  in the  banking  sector is very  critical to economic recovery as most bank staff contributed to the menace in Nigerian banking.
This political  corruption has vehemently stagnated our collective gains thereby making Nigeria a poor nation. Corruption in the country take the form of  bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, graft and embezzlement, among others. Other forms of corruption are repression of political opponents and police brutality.
Bribery alone is estimated to involve over one trillion US dollars, annually,  while  Nigeria’s involvement in corruption has grown  to a very alarming proportion. This  facilitates other criminal  enterprises such as drug trafficking, money-laundering and human  trafficking etc. In particular,  corruption in business of government  must be mentioned and effectively tackled.
There are Nigerians that have over the years joined  others to seek solution to  this  great evil. Such persons are Prof. Wole Soyinka, a Professor of Economics and Director of  the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, Paul Collier, an international economist and  macreconmist analyst, Dr. Dambisa Moyo, among others. Prof Soyinka has once described corruption  in Nigeria as a metaphor, a monumental damage  which plans to cripple government.
Many thanks to late Prof. Dora Akunyili who stood her ground to sanitize the drug industry in Nigeria. We must join the train to get rid of corruption by tackling it headlong without delay.
Nigeria must adopt a radical anti-corruption measures in favour of the citizenry. In August 2013, National daily highlighted a plethora of unresolved high-profile cases of corruption and the court cannot extricate  itself from the nightmare.
Frankly speaking, the quantum of stolen money in secret bank accounts that are in  circulation is high. The way out of this mess  is for President Buhari to change all the Nigerian currency with the aim of caging and monitoring properly the level of money  individuals and companies will change as banks will be monitored in order to police looted funds.
Most importantly, until Nigerians stop celebrating the looters of our public funds, the fight against corruption will never be a success. These high cases of corruption can be traced  to the post- Nigeria independence era, even though it was in a small scale. However the oil windfall under President Ibrahim Babangida  facilitated this muster.
There are landmark cases of corruption that disappear into thin air because those involved are highly connected, especially  the fuel scam.
The mindset  of most  Nigerian in offices  are geared towards outright stealing in the name of “This is my chance”,  that is why the magnitude of corruption in Nigeria is so high  that one gets hypertensive  because of the volume of lost  money  from the system.
We as a nation must prepare to make the sacrifice to end corruption from the system as urged President Muhammadu Buhari  to speedily appoint  a serious-minded person as the arrow head  of the EFCC.
It will no longer be business as usual as when  you are caught and properly investigated, the law will take its cause. This rate of corruption cannot be condoled in countries like China, Indonesia and even India.
Dukor wrote from Port Harcourt.

Pius Dukor