Nigeria has continued to grapple with economic distress, desperately needing funds for obligations to ease the economic hardship on citizens as constant argument on whether the country is really broke remains unclear.
Amid the controversy is the looted fund by notable Nigerian leaders, some of which includes former military ruler Sani Abacha, among others.
According to a release by the World Bank, the looted money was discovered in foreign banks and has several Nigerian names as depositors in London, Swiss ($) USA ($) and Germany.
As at 2022, the total amount of looted funds recovered from the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha in the past 24 years was put at $3.65 billion.
Recently, A repatriated fund of $52.88 million was linked to a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke which stemmed from the forfeiture of the Galactica assets linked to Alison-Madueke and her associates.
The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills, led a delegation to sign the Asset Return Agreement at the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, signed the agreement on behalf of the federal government, highlighting the importance of this achievement in President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to combat corruption.
Many Nigerians have repeatedly expressed concerns about the true state of the recovered loot and its transparent utilization especially as the government trips around the globe to borrow funds to run the country.
Professor of Politics and Governance, Professor Kenneth Nwaeke, asserted that the funds have no impact on the quality of lives of average Nigerians as there is usually continuous looting.
Former Federal Lawmaker, Senator Abubakar Yusuf, queried the Nigerian banking system, noting that they are culpable in the looting.
Recall in August 2020, that the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) sued former President Muhammadu Buhari over failure to “disclose information and documents relating to the names of people from whom N800 billion in looted public funds have been recovered, specific dates of the recovery, and details of projects on which the money has been spent.
It should be noted that the looted funds were never declared missing before being recovered and it has raised a lot of fundamental questions about the public financial management and accounting systems.
Report also has it that the government has never declared any funds missing and nobody has been prosecuted on account of public funds traced to foreign countries, which further generates concerns about sanctions and measures put in place to curb looting.