It is important to realize that President Muhammadu Buhari was twice unlucky having been condemned by fate to inherit difficult economic problems whenever destiny had bestowed on him the leadership of this great country. During his days as military Head of State in mid 80s, he was saddled with the onerous responsibility of rectifying the effects of multifarious vices he had inherited. These were legion as well as nondescript, and have largely succeeded in grounding the country, leaving it high and dry.
The economy was in a messy disorder with many state governors unable to clear accumulated salary arrears of teachers and civil servants, or settle many outstanding payments due to contractors and many service providers. General Buhari had to work hard to overcome that grim situation which threatened to impede the new junta’s rapid socio-economic development.
Now, during his second coming, thirty-one years after, as a democratically elected president, Muhammadu Buhari was again greeted with the same state of affairs and circumstances that characterized the corrupt and inept Second Republic he had rightly overthrown. Determined to succeed as he had done previously, he was set on applying the same remedy to the ailing economy and had also adopted the same measures he had earlier introduced in dealing with the forces that could hamper the progress of his administration.
He was not intimidated or deterred by the empty treasury he has inherited or by the low-morale of the almost dysfunctional civil service and moribund industries he had to contend with. He resolved to recover billions of dollars defrauded by thieving public officials, currently stashed in the vaults of foreign banks, in the inner recesses of various abodes or in the neglected farmlands located in the remotest localities.
Now, President Buhari has once again sent notice to treasury looters who served under Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to get prepared to be purged of the loot as he had relentlessly been coming after them. To that end he had been assured of active support from world’s superpowers in repatriation of funds that may be illegally consigned to their countries.
It is encouraging to realize the measures being taken by President Buhari are progressively restoring sanity, assuring Nigerians that the days of impunity, lack of accountability and fiscal recklessness in the management of the country’s resources are over. It was a pity Nigeria was reduced to that state by politicians, actively aided by civil servants who disregarded financial and administrative instructions and procedures in their dealings and transactions. To be precise, effective measures are currently being taken to plug the systemic leaks through which colossal amounts were siphoned.
Actually, the problems confronting the Buhari administration are enormous and varied, requiring strenuous efforts to be overcome.
From the onset, President Buhari has rightly pointed out that extremely difficult times lie ahead, but within that period billions of plundered dollars could be recovered because as it was, the federal government is leaving no stone unturned in the tremendously huge task that lies ahead. True to his words, remarkable success had been recorded in recovering substantial part of the looted funds even as some of dishonest officials and politicians have voluntary returned their booty so as to avoid shameful and embarrassing inquisition.
Now, faced with grim economic prospects resulting from the insurgency in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, and with virtually empty treasury, President Buhari has been prosecuting two options to surmount those distressing predicaments. First, he is quickly removing all complexities foisted on the country by the pervasive corruption which, even now tends to negate all his efforts to instill sanity into the polity, systematically embarking on wholesale recovery of looted funds from wherever they have been diverted to.
Because of the glaring successes he had recorded so far in that regards he had appropriately directed his attention to laundered money, stemming the infamous oil subsidy scam through which government assets were transferred to phony petroleum products importers, and through crude swaps with other producing countries.
The second option he had productively undertaken was the obstruction of sources for the stealing of public funds and in bringing to an end indiscriminate crude oil theft and illegal bunkering.
Finally, President Buhari’s fund recovery drive had effectively eliminated the subsidy scam which had wrecked incalculable harm to the nation’s economy. During the reign of Goodluck Jonathan over twenty-five percent of the nation’s budgets were devoted to paying doubtful subsidy provisions.
While hundreds of billions of Naira were paid to so-called accredited fuel importers, many still claim that billions of Naira was yet to be settled.
Against this backdrop, it could be rightly argued that the days of impunity, lack of accountability and fiscal recklessness in the management of our resources are over and any breach of the existing procedure would not be tolerated. The firm resolves of President Buhari this time around and his tenacity to recover the stolen billions of dollars from Nigeria’s coffers is really an important watershed in the life of this great nation.
