ALLEGED increase in the money suspected to have been stolen by some Nigerian government officials and kept in foreign accounts from $50 billion in 1999 to $170 billion in 2003 may have persuaded President Olusegun Obasanjo to soft pedal on his campaign for debt forgiveness by Nigeria’s foreign creditors.
A World Bank document, said to have been made available to the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Finance, reportedly indicated that the amount allegedly being stolen by government officials was on the increase.
Consequently, security agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), were said to have been mandated to unmask government officials involved.
Those fingered, according to the document stumbled upon by Sunday Vanguard in Abuja last week, included officials both at the state and federal levels.
Obasanjo and the minister of state for finance, Mrs Nena Nneadi, had specifically accused state governors of stashing abroad funds belonging to their states.
Obasanjo and Nneadi refused to disclose names despite protest by many governors who affirmed their innocence.
But, according to a senior official in the federal ministry of finance who spoke with Sunday Vanguard last Thursday in Abuja, the President felt scandalised by the details in the World Bank document that he resolved not to pursue the issue of debt cancellation by the country’s creditor nations.
“When the President was shown the document by the minister of finance, he was thoroughly scandalized that his campaign for debt cancellation cannot be taken seriously because two government officials can conveniently settle Nigeria’s foreign debt.
If you notice, the government has soft pedaled on the campaign for debt forgiveness of cancellation,” the official told Sunday Vanguard. The official added that the document was received about the time the minister of state for finance accused state governors of siphoning state allocations abroad. “The minister had a full presidential approval to make that statement.
The essence was to stimulate indigenes of the various states to begin to hold their governors accountable for the money they have been receiving from the federation account. Unfortunately, the issue was politicized and nothing came out of it” the official emphasised. He however revealed that all the necessary security agencies including the EFCC and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) have been mandated to collaborate with their counterparts in other parts of the world to ensure that those perpetrating the acts were brought to book even after their tenure. “The president is serious about this and the security agencies are working to unravel those who are perpetrating this heinous crime against the people.
If they have immunity now, they will not have immunity after their tenure. We hope that those that would take over from the President would be committed to fighting corruption too,” the official said. The document is in two volumes. The pre-1999 era and the 1999-2003 era. The official disclosed that government might be tempted to leak the document if there is no remarkable improvemennt on the part of government officials.
