The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu recently told the House of Representatives that the agency recovered a whopping N4 billion in two weeks. This include the $9.750 million and £750,000 recovered from the residence of a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
Recently, on this page, we said that Nigerian public officials steal what they don’t need. This mind-blowing revelation is another proof of it. It is also proof that this country of ours is very rich. Otherwise, with the level and extent of roguery that is going on, the nation would have gone bankrupt. Those behind the stupendous looting were out to save for their generations yet unborn. Otherwise, why take out those huge sums of money?
How many ministries, departments and agencies of government have that volume of cash as their annual budget? But that is just a bit of what some individuals, who had decided to shut down their consciences, made away with in one haul.
We are sure that when the EFCC probes even deeper, something more outlandish will probably be unearthed. Before now, there was the $2billion armsgate and the seemingly endless Diezani Allison- Madueke saga.
Who knows what is likely to be found in other departments of government about how public servants in positions of trust and responsibility made a fool of the nation as a whole.
One significant revelation is that it is not enough to crucify only the public officer who may be the target person in situations of the graft. It is evident that such high-profile looting often always involves a syndicate arrangement that may extend to the relations of the former office holder.
It is a further affirmation that stealing of public money of that magnitude is possible only with the active connivance of like-minded thieves in strategic institutions.
It is obvious, in our view, that the government is anxious to get the nation out of its present economic quagmire and would, therefore, cherish access to any money it believes can be used in that rebuilding process. In that mental state, it may be in a hurry to lose interest in the case as soon as the money is returned to the public kitty. This might entail that these thieves could be allowed to walk away free with their reputation intact.
That, in our opinion, will be an improper approach to it. The authorities must punish the act of stealing for the lesson it tends to teach. The recovered item, in this instance, the money, will serve as an exhibit during the trial to be used to implicate, prosecute and jail them. There must be a price to be paid for the betrayal of public trust, for getting involved in an odious manipulation of officialdom for one’s pecuniary gains.
The pains the act inflicted on the psyche of Nigerians who were also denied the benefits derivable from the prudent deployment of that resource must be assuaged by making the perpetrators have their day in court. Anything short of that will stymie, if not jeopardize, the course of justice and even give the impression that malfeasance can be rewarding. It will be a misrepresentation of the inherent and noble intentions of the anti-corruption campaign.
To imagine that, in some instances, this huge sum, as in the case of the former NNPC chief, was stashed away in cash in containers in private residences. It points a finger in the direction of the security agencies who may have given the needed security cover for such illicit transaction to have been carried out without hitches. They, too, must be held to account.
We suggest that government ought to summon the courage to bring all those connected, even if remotely, with these crimes to justice. That, we are certain, will send out the right signal that betrayal of public trust will never again be condoned. We also commend the EFCC leadership for their efforts and urge them not to be deterred by the antics of a few insistent on demoralizing the agency.
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