It is no longer news that the government of President Muhammad Buhari has recovered some of the nation’s assets looted by corrupt Nigerians. While it is important to commend the government for such a giant step, it is also imperative for the APC led government to work out strategies to manage the resources recovered to avoid re-looting the funds.
While I may support the argument that it is premature to begin to name names of some persons who have returned some of the Nation’s asserts. It also becomes very difficult to know who and who stole what and from which vote as to determine what the money will be used for. For instance, if you recover assets from a past governor, do you return it to the state where it was stolen from? Again, if the money is stolen directly from the nation’s resources, do you return it to the Federation Account to be shared by the three tiers of government or what?
We have also seen situations where funds meant for projects and welfare of the staff of MDA’s are stolen by some Directors, Permanent Secretaries and Ministers, when such funds are returned, how will they be managed?. Will the government return them back to accomplish the purpose for which they were first appropriated or what?
I think the move by the Finance Minister to relocate some MDA offices to recovered looted properties is a move in the right direction, as it will reduce expenditure on rent of offices paid yearly by government. As she rightly pointed out the average annual expenditure on rent (by MND’s) for a three year period of 2012 to 2014 was N3.55 billion.
It is an international best practice that public funds are not handled in secrecy; it is handled with all sense of transparency and integrity. Hence, this government must be seen as handling the nation’s looted resources with care and in a transparent manner. Therefore the government must come out with a clear strategy to managing these funds for the betterment of the generality of Nigerians who have been short-changed over the years by corrupt individuals. The government must meet with some legal experts to reconsider the option of naming the names of the persons who returned these assets as to determine what to do with them or where to return them. Perhaps the government can as well establish a commission or a body of persons with integrity to effectively manage these asserts separately so that Nigerians can measure the impact of the policy.
ROLAND UWAKWE
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