Corruption has a significant impact on Nigeria’s finances, impeding the country’s ability to grow and develop its economy and infrastructure, as well as limiting the government’s ability to provide essential services to its citizens.
It can take many forms, including embezzlement, bribery, and kickbacks. These practices have the potential to raise the costs of government projects and contracts, as well as divert public funds to personal accounts.
The Human Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre reported over the weekend that Nigeria lost N1,623,584,000,000 and $825,679,500,000 to corrupt officials between 1999 and 2022.
The shocking revelation was made during a press conference following the public presentation of a publication titled “Impunity Galore: A chronicle of some unresolved high-profile corruption cases in Nigeria.”
Its Chairman told reporters that the title was coined after extensive research on recent events revealed that impunity has continued unabated.
He said: “In many of the cases, it is either investigation was not completed, committee report not made public, white-paper not released or there is clear sabotage within and or outside government.
“It is also noteworthy that the cases listed in this chronicle are not exhaustive and the selection has not been discriminated in any manner.
We have only done our best to report on such high-profile cases as much as we can find stories about. So, even if we overlooked some, we should be able to update them in the near future.
However, we have done our best to cover the majority of the ground.”
According to Suraju, the document is a compilation of corruption cases being investigated by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and relevant National Assembly committees.
“The collection is centered on cases between 1999 and 2022,” he clarified.
The Executive Secretary, Sulaimon Arigbabu, observed that the petitions and legal action being executed by the organization were to help to keep these humongous cases of graft evergreen in the memories of Nigerians.
“So, we try to keep a public view on the issues of corruption that had either suffered in the legal process or with this latest work, we are doing those issues that didn’t make it through the court process and some that didn’t go there,” he explained.
