Now we have a new dawn in our political history and Nigerians have great expectations from the new government led by Muhammadu Buhari. People want to have electricity in their homes, the unemployed want jobs and commuters want good roads. Citizens want potable water in their homes and many more. All of these boil down to availability of resources to finance development.
President Muhammadu Buhari and many other State Governors on assumption of ofice raised an alarm that they met empty treasuries! From East to West, North to South, across political parties, the story is the same all over. In Delta, a report from Sahara reporters on how the state was fleeced by the immediate past administration, described the mindless looting of Delta treasury as “Cyclone Uduaghan.”
Nigerians expect President Muhammadu Buhari to address the crippling economic situation in most states which was responsible for non-payment of salaries by several states. Shockingly too, even President Buhari cried out that he inherited an empty treasury from the predecessor. It is a big shame that politicians of the fourth republic, who were entrusted with public purse were so mindless to the extent that they and their cronies stole their states blind. In Delta alone, the new government is said to have inherited over N950billion debt from former Governor Emmanue Uduaghan. Sadly, if you go to post-Ibori Delta, you will not find any major projects that would warrant the huge sums of money purportedly owed by the Uduaghan’s administration. The implication is that the new governor Okowa’s administration is crippled from birth. With an overwhelming 16.5bn monthly wage bill to contend with and a monthly N7.5bn income from both the federation account and Internally Generated sources, coupled with the huge debt portfolio, what can an Okowa administration do for Deltans?
In Abia, Ebony, Plateau, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Enugu, Gombe, Bauchi among others, the story is the same. The new Bauchi Governor had to even go to the extent of recovering 21 vehicles from the wives of the former governor Isa Yuguda.
They fraudulent political office holders used all sorts of fronts, tactics and means to steal almost all revenues accruing to their states. It is also a truism that the immediate past federal government officials and states government officials collectively stole over $500billion in the past eight years! This is just unacceptable to Nigerians. The culture of impunity to loot public treasury must be stopped. Perpetrators must be investigated, looted assets traced, tracked and repatriated to Nigeria to finance development
It is heartwarming to note that President Muhammadu Buhari, recently in Abuja, vowed that billions of dollars stolen from government coffers by past government officials would be recovered by his government. This was at his maiden meeting with state governors at the State House. Buhari said what happened in government in the recent past was worse than what happened during the Second Republic which led to the overthrow of the Shagari administration, but assured the governors and Nigerians that he would do his best to restore sanity to the system.
President Buhari also said that his administration has received firm assurances of cooperation from the United States, United Kingdome and Switzerland as well as other countries on the recovery and repatriation of funds stolen from Nigeria by mindless politically exposed Nigerians.
Going forward, President Muhammadu Buhari must reinforce the operations of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFCC) and the Nigerian Police and overhaul their operations as a matter of urgency. Government must also provide them with clear mandates and targets within this period for looted assets recovery. Buhari should also go ahead to sign into law the Proceeds of Crime Bill passed by the 7th National Assembly Bill before their exit and work to have the Mutual Legal Assistance Bill passed as well all as these would help to strengthen the democratic institutions and operations of anti-graft agencies of government to combat graft in the country. The agencies should be properly funded and well equipped to function most efficiently and effectively.
Buhari must go ahead, and very swiftly too, to pursue all the suspected treasury looterss and economic thieves and chase them even beyond the shores of this land and recover all looted assets as promised Nigerians. We imagine that if we have $500billion today what we could use that to achieve. At least, that amount would guarantee uninterrupted power supply and fix our railways and roads within the shortest possible time. This would also create jobs and ultimately create wealth direly needed by nation.
President Buhari should also make all apprehended treasury looters face justice. The guilty among the suspects should be sent to jail to serve as a deterrence to the new governors, who are today shouting that they inherited empty treasuries so that after their tenure, they too, would not be tempted in any way to leave empty treasuries.
All those who served as Ministers in juicy ministries under President Goodluck Jonathan who have fled the country ahead of the swearing in of Muhammadu Buhari as President should be repatriated to the country to face the music. The likes of Dieziani-Allison Madueke, Femi Fani- Kayode, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Mike Onolememen and a host others in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) must be brought back to answer for the looting of the nation’s treasury.
Nigerians are pleased to note that President Buhari announced the setting up of a committee under the leadership of the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo to look at the Excess Crude Account and see what can be shared immediately to cushion the effects of the economic crunch on the states. This is quite laudable, and we also encourage the President to pick the Bills of State Governments that invested huge sums of money fixing federal infrastructures that were hitherto in dire straits before now. States like Edo, Lagos, Rivers, Anambra and others had taken steps to fix a couple of federal roads that needs reimbursement during this austere times.
Also, we encourage Mr. President, members of the National Assembly and the Judiciary to consider slashing their salaries and allowances to reflect the financial mood of the nation. It will be foolhardy for current office holders to be coasting home monthly with mouth watering millions of naira monthly while a large number of Nigerians go to bed daily with empty stomachs.
• Mr. Dan Owegie is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State.
