Nigeria’s finances are significantly impacted by corruption, which also limits the government’s capacity to deliver basic services to its people and the nation’s ability to expand and build its infrastructure.
Corruption can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including as theft, bribery, and kickbacks. The price of government projects and contracts may increase as a result of these actions, and public monies may also be diverted to individual accounts.
Over the weekend, the Human Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre reported that between 1999 and 2022, corrupt officials cost Nigeria N1,623,584,000,000 and $825,679,500,000.
The alarming information was revealed at a press conference held after a book titled “Impunity Galore: A Chronicle of Some Unresolved High-Profile Corruption Cases in Nigeria” was unveiled in front of the general public.
According to its chairman, the title was created after in-depth analysis of previous events indicated that impunity has persisted unchecked.
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.
