The story of recovered looted funds is no longer new. At various stages, huge amounts have been announced as either stolen, looted or recovered.
During the immediate past regime of  president Goodluck Jonathan, humongous sums were reportedly recovered, especially from the Abacha stash. As he was canvassing for the vote of the electorate in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari made the issue of looted funds a campaign point, promising to make known the culprits and the amount recovered .
In line with that promise, one year into his regime, the Federal Government announced the recovery of a whopping sum of N3.4 trillion in cash and assets from looters in the country in tweleve months.
Subsequently, there have been other recoveries made from political office holders and some top personalities in the country. Just a few weeks ago , the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed that the sum of $151 million and another N8 billion looted funds were recovered from three sources through the whistle blower policy recently introduced by the Ministry of Finance. That excludes the $9.2 million cash recently recovered from a former General Managing Director of NNPC, Andrew Yakubu.
The sweeping recoveries that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) claims to have been making since the introduction of the whistle blower policy is mind-blowing.
To think that such reckless stealing has been going on in a country that claims to have laws and yet, there is hardly any successful prosecution, not to talk of conviction, is simply incredible. In  civilized climes, many of the culprits would have been facing the wrath of the law by now. But ours is a country where conscienceless, opportunistic elite, after stealing the states and the nation blind, are welcomed with parties and state banquets.  But an ordinary person caught stealing a goat spends years in prison.
One finds it a bit worrisome that despite the huge sums said to have been recovered, the economy of the country is still in a very bad shape. We still hear the Federal Government seeking loans from international lenders, including the World Bank and the African Development Bank to meet budget shortfalls and fund badly needed infrastructural projects.
One must not be an expert in economics to reason that if you claim to have over 3.4 trillion naira, there is no justification for borrowing 2.2 trillion naira, an amount far below what you have.
The question then is, where are the recovered loots? Is the recovery a mere propaganda as many people have insinuated?
Last year, Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof Itse Sagay, disclosed that despite recovering stolen Nigerian money, President Buhari might not be able to spend the monies on urgent needs of the country due to some legal issues.
Speaking with newsmen he said, “Regarding the funds frozen under the interim forfeiture, the Federal Government can’t touch it for now because certain cases have not been concluded and the forfeiture is interim because technically, the court can order the release to the owners if the occasion demands it, but if it goes the other way, there will be permanent forfeiture order and that is when the properties would accrue to the government and therefore be used for the benefit of Nigerians.”
But if I may ask, how long will it take for these bottlenecks to be sorted out? Eternity?  The truth is that Nigerians legitimately deserve to know how the Federal Government had spent or intends to spend the recovered monies.
Should the government have sufficient reasons not to plough the recovered loot into the budget as has been severally suggested, why not invest it in non-oil sectors of the economy, particularly agriculture and solid minerals which are key areas needed to drive the economy and create jobs?
Today, Nigeria has become a dumping ground for all kinds of edible  commodities from all parts of the world, including packaged garri from India. I’m sure the $9.2 million recovered from Yakubu can turn around the agriculture sector and save us from this shame. What about building world class hospitals, equipping our schools, empowering small scale industries with part of the recovered loots? Also, the power sector will witness a massive improvement if a reasonable percentage of these monies is genuinely invested in it. Indeed, the recovered loots are enough to revamp the economy if properly and judiciously utilized.
Most importantly, it is high time the government began the arduous task of putting institutional frame-works that will discourage corruption. There are a lot of loopholes in the system that make it possible for political office holders to steal public money.
Yakubu said the $9.2m found in his house came as gifts from people. Painfully, that might be true because the system made it possible. Corruption will always thrive in a system that deliberately prices essential, scarce commodities like petroleum products below market prices. The mess going on with the CBN forex policy will also  explode by the fullness of time. The operators all know that the system is faulty and they are happily manipulating it.
Conclusively, as long as those involved in the primitive, mindless looting of the treasury continue to go scotfree, we will continue to have more of such looters.

Calista Ezeaku