The misused N1.2 trillion

There is no end to the engulfing menace of corruption, perfidy and official mismanagement in Nigeria. From outright looting of pension funds, subsidy scam, unspent budget phenomenon to pen robbery across all the tiers and levels of government, stealing has become our national anthem. It is now a daily routine in the country. Given revelation after revelation of how those entrusted with the management of the national economy have abused and misused the people’s mandate, Nigerians are no longer shocked. But when will this brazen act of official looting of our national patrimony come to an end? A report of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, presented to the Upper House of the National Assembly last week, has revealed that the Federal Government under three successive administrations between 2002 and 2012 grossly abused and mismanaged funds from Nigeria’s Special Funds Account to the tune of N1.2 trillion. The administration of Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan stand indicted in that order.

We consider this a grievous betrayal of the nation by elected chief executives. For an executive arm of government entrusted with the management of the national treasury, weaknesses of the magnitude highlighted in the report cannot but impact devastatingly on the material well-being of the society and its developmental projections. It is a proof of a terrible flaw in the management of the national economy. It also shows that there is no credible accounting system in application at the federal level and a manifest lack of transparency in the system. What is more, if the National Revenue Account is in such a mess, we can imagine why Nigeria is consistently adjudged one of the five most corrupt countries in the world. Again, it has been established that in no few cases, the necessary feasibility and viability studies which government must require before financing any projects are perfunctorily undertaken and this implies that it has on its records some white elephant projects which continue to appear in the budget every year.

Added to this is the contention that the economy has for long been carrying the burden of a heavy and needless bureaucracy. A necessary corollary of this is that budgets are never executed to the letter as even government officials have had to express openly that budgets are hardly implemented. With this scenario, it is apparent that the anti-graft war of the Federal Government is nothing but a ruse. If the government itself is not transparent enough, how can it control other sectors? It has always been quite natural to match control with participation since no law and ethics exist to the contrary. While it is conceded, and conceded it must be, that the capitalist option to national development is an incentive to corruption, the view must be maintained that the incompetent and misguided attempt at importing economic policies that have proven to be failures elsewhere have been an additional impetus to the rogue instinct of Nigerian leaders.

We insist that all efforts to resolve the expanding problem of immorality in the land will come to naught if crass materialism continues to hold sway. That our country has consistently been adjudged among the most corrupt nations in the universe is not something to rejoice over. Instead, it should dawn on us that such phenomenon contributes to the moral and ethical devaluation of every Nigerian. Yet it is very sad to note that corruption in high places has never been as high as it has become of late. Government has consistently refused to release capital votes as at when due to create room for cutting of corners. It is regrettable that the anti-graft agencies, overtime, have lent themselves to pursuits that called their integrity into question, resulting in a devastating wind of public disapproval. With repeated acts and pronouncements that reinforced public suspicion of partisanship, the agencies gradually lost the moral force to prosecute the anti-corruption war to the satisfaction of Nigerians.

As a body of representatives of the Nigerian people, the Senate has a responsibility to salvage the anti-graft agencies, put in place to halt the menace of economic and related crimes that retard our development as a nation, but which have been subjected to perceived levels of abuse. The anti-graft bodies must be accorded an appropriate level of independence by insulating them from executive control. This will come by way of removing the task of the appointment of key heads of those agencies from the executive arm of government. Again, the National Assembly must be seen to be performing its oversight functions over the Executive branch of government. This would go a long way to add greater credibility to the process and enthrone checks and balances in the system. Above all, the Jonathan administration should commence the process of probing the Obasanjo administration to prove its credibility and innocence.