Nigeria Isn’t Broke – Editorial

Nigeria’s Minister of Budget and National Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, the other day declared that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government was facing a serious revenue deficit, as “there’s no money anywhere in the country, the government is just managing to pay salaries.” To many Nigerians, the alarm raised by the Minister is a lone voice in the wilderness, because the country’s economic quagmire is self-inflicted.

Past government officials have been accused of stashing away huge amounts of money from the public treasury. However, the incumbent government appears unwilling to probe these allegations. Regrettably, rather than go after treasury looters, the government is happily walking the country into deeper debts as it concludes plans to borrow N26 trillion in three years, in line with the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).

But Bagudu’s assertion isn’t the rhetoric often heard from government officials in recent times; It is not often that officials of the current government speak in the manner he did. While giving highlights of Nigeria’s participation in the 2023 meeting of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Marrakesh, Morocco barely a week ago, Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, told journalists that “the narrative is that we (Nigeria) are now at the forefront, almost number one on people’s list when they want to look at where to invest.”

It would be textbook hypocrisy and paradoxical for an insolvency alarm to come from what has been described as the most bloated government in Nigeria’s history and one that approved the purchase of N160 million foreign SUVs for each of the 360 members of the House of Representatives at a time the Naira has suffered over 40 per cent loss in value.

It calls for wonder how the Budget minister could speak with such a straight face given the profligacy already seen in the early goings of the government. For instance, that Nigeria spent a whopping $507,384 (N390.7 million) on hotel accommodation for the President and his aides at the luxury St. Regis Hotel from September 16th to 23rd when they travelled to New York for the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session is a report Nigerians would be willing to see the federal government deny.

Be that as it may, critics readily point to the unwieldy appointments and big bureaucracy to show that the federal government is not interested in being as austere as the time demands. Others would even list the first son, Seyi Tinubu, being flown on a presidential jet to watch a Polo game in Kano as another indication that his father’s government is living in an alternate universe. Prime Business Africa recalls that the Buhari government was at inception able to recover looted funds by sheer huff and puff. Corrupt officials of the previous government were said to have surrendered their loot even before the government’s anti-corruption hounds were unleashed on them. President Muhammadu Buhari said as much when he disclosed in Tehran, the Iranian capital, that those who looted the country’s commonwealth under President Goodluck Jonathan were voluntarily returning what they stole from the public treasury. He said at the time: “Some of them (treasury looters) have voluntarily started returning something. But we want all… We will tell Nigerians to know those who abused trust when they were entrusted with public funds. So, the day of reckoning is gradually approaching.”

If only the current administration had blown this hot and threatened those who mindlessly helped themselves with public funds under Buhari, Tinubu’s government would have been receiving billions of looted funds by now. Unfortunately, it appears to be carrying on as if the government that handed over to it was populated by saints; yet, Nigeria’s corruption perception index (CPI) worsened to 24 in 2022, from the 27 it scored in 2014. The CPI, which ranges between 100 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt), is used by Transparency International to measure the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts.

However, this index is nothing compared to the unrestrained pilfering of Nigeria’s commonwealth by many heads of ministries, departments, and agencies under Buhari. It was as if most top civil servants were competing as to who would line their pockets the most. The Accountant-General of the Federation at the time was involved in a N109.4 billion fraud scandal. There were reports of the court ordering the suspect, Ahmed Idris, to temporarily forfeit to the government including the sums of $899,900 and N304,490,160.95 as well as 15 properties in Kano and Abuja.

The Buhari government was also indicted by documents from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) which showed that over US$15 billion of oil revenues, and N200 billion budgeted to repair the refineries are missing and unaccounted for between 2020 and 2021. Still talking about the devil-may-care corruption that went on under the past government, $4 million was found by the 9th Senate to have been paid to a lawyer in 2019 from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) for undisclosed reasons. The lawmakers asked the then Accountant General of the Federation to supply details of the lawyer who was paid the $4 million from the already depleted ECA and the nature of the job done. The office of the AGF is still struggling to come up with the information.

READ ALSO: PBA Editorial: Nigerian States Must Stop Borrowing To Pay Salaries

One of the officials, the Minister of Justice/Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, reportedly doled out brand new 14 Mercedes Benz, eight Toyota Prado, four Toyota Hilux and four Lexus LX SUVs to his supporters as a governorship aspirant in Kebbi State. Legal fees worth about $16.9 million were said to have been paid out to the federal government’s new lawyers under the former Attorney-General for the recovery of the loot traced to the late Sani Abacha. This was after a Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, hired and fully paid by the previous government to help in the recovery, had completed his brief. Although Monfrini declared that fresh lawyers were absolutely unnecessary because he had concluded all legal work, Nigeria proceeded with the new lawyers and the bazaar!

Then, there was the scandalous School Feeding Programme where (even with the COVID-19 lockdown which led to the shutting down of schools) pupils were fed at home with billions of Naira! In the same vein, Nigerians won’t forget how the Aviation Minister at the time, Hadi Sirika’s Nigeria Air project became a pipe dream. After inaugurating Nigeria Air in 2018 without any plane, operating license or management in place, all the country got on the eve of the administration’s departure was the hiring of an Ethiopian Airlines plane temporarily fitted with the logo of Nigeria Air. The aircraft returned to Ethiopia the next day and the Nigeria Air logo was yanked off.

These instances are to mention but a few of the financial malfeasances that were rampant under the immediate past government. Therefore, it makes no sense for the Tinubu administration to claim to be broke while demonstrating unwillingness to go after persons who looted the country blind while occupying government offices. Even if the President considers these alleged corruption cases untouchable because those indicted are members of his party, he should at the very least push for a plea bargain where they would return what was stolen.

Unfortunately, therein lies the albatross for Nigeria when a party succeeds itself in power. But at a time when the economy is at the cusp of kaput, the need to keep the country afloat should supersede party affiliations. Beyond the need to free up badly needed funds, Prime Business Africa believes that investigating and prosecuting corrupt officials of past governments will serve as a deterrent to those currently in office and make them mindful of their own day of reckoning! It is our considered view that probity and accountability must be instituted in the system to discourage the sort of wholesale corruption that starves the country of resources.

Prime Business Africa Editorial

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