Unending loot recovery: Is Nigeria a den of robbers?

“I weep for Nigeria my country for suddenly turning itself to den of robbers armed with either lethal weapons or pens; a country where petty thieves, who stole foodstuff from market to satisfy their hunger, were thrown into jail whereas some of the grand thieves, who looted our national treasury, are still walking as freemen and women on our streets. And so may God help and save us from these brazen acts of social injustice”.
The above lines were dropped in my heart to open this article having been inundated with news of jaw-breaking loot recoveries by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the last three months or so.

It all started with how the EFCC were recovering the loot carted away and allegedly hidden in soak-away, ceiling or under-ground tanks by some retired military brass who served in the immediate past Goodluck Jonathan administration. Apart from cash in both local and foreign currencies that were retrieved from these indicted service chiefs, some of the properties traceable to them were also confiscated by the state either as a form of plea-bargain or until the cases are finally disposed off by the courts.

But the nation does not realize that more shocking discoveries could still be on its way until the federal government Whistle-Blower policy to encourage members of the public to come forward and secretly provide tips on where these slush funds are hidden. The policy provides a reward of 2.5% and maximum of 5% of such recovered loots to be given to the Whistle-blower. And this reward system has paid off so far. Since the announcement of this reward system, the nation has almost lost count of various sums of loots in millions of local and foreign currencies that were abandoned either at the Kaduna airport or a shop complex in Lagos.

The list goes on from the outrageous ones to the ones that are difficult to believe.  Prior to this policy, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, reportedly said that the EFCC has uncovered some loots hidden in a farm around Abuja. He did not provide any further information as to how much was involved and the suspected owner of the money. Neither were the photographs of such an operation provided by the EFCC. Apart from stories of cash that were hidden in empty over-head tanks and other unbelievably improvised vaults by these suspected looters there was rumour that a former principal officer of the Senate allegedly burnt some hidden cash when he discovered that the lid has been blown-off and the money could no longer be hidden. As if these shocking stories were not enough to a nation that is still battling to come out of economic recession, another suspected loot of about $43million was discovered in a residential building in Lagos.

It could have been recovered without much funfair but for the controversies and denials surrounding the true ownership of this whopping hard currency.
However, we are on the same page with President Muhammadu Buhari, who ordered that the “orphaned money” be confiscated and kept in the custody of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). And here lies the shame of a nation where monies that should have been invested in providing jobs to our teeming unemployed graduates are hidden away.

Recently a young couple lost a bouncing baby boy to the cold hands of death after his delivery just because his parents could not afford N30, 000 deposit for oxygen that could have supported the respiratory system of the lad moments after he was born. Despite the couple’s loss, the private hospital was still expecting them to offset N5, 000 for medical treatment. This particular tragedy that befell this couple and many others was aptly captured by a Yoruba adage that “A e lowo lowo, so omo aaye si koro, meaning it is lack of money -poverty that throws a living child into a grave”.

Of course I’ve earlier sent to the couple the modest financial contribution that God enabled me to make before the birth of their. In the same vein, this is a country where many others are dying of preventable diseases. And it is the same country that outrageous sums of money in both local and foreign currencies are being discovered including this “orphaned” $43m
According to the United Nations, nearly five million people in North-east are desperately hungry and risk starving to death this year if they do not receive food. “This wrought caused by Boko Haram could drive even more Nigerians to flee the country to Europe via the Mediterranean sea, unless the international community ramps up supports and funds,” according to Ayoade Alakija, Nigeria’s humanitarian coordinator.

While we agreed with the position of Mr. President on this controversial newly recovered money, we want the Federal Government to put it into a judicious use by establishing mother & child care centres in each local government area all over the country to prevent the kind of calamity that befell the couple whose story was narrated above. In addition, this $43m and other abandoned loots, whose alleged owners have disclaimed, can also be used to set up rapid/quick response scheme where accident victims could be rescued and attended to within 15 minutes of such road mishaps. This will go a long way to save the precious lives of accident victims on our roads. And these two noble schemes can be copied from Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, immediate past Governor of Ondo State.

The Federal Government should keep politics aside and copy good systems/schemes that can drastically reduce high mortality rates at infancy among the poorest of the poor who may find it difficult to afford or finance the medicare bills of the pregnant women that are ready to deliver their babies..

On this note, we found some wisdom which can also serve as a food for thought for all of us in the following quotation credited to Harward Zinn: “Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while jails are full of petty thieves…(and) the grand thieves are running the country”.
And with our circumstances as Africans, can anyone agree less with Zinn?

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