A South African online media outfit, Mail and
Guardian Africa, came after Nigeria on Tuesday,
saying, “The money ‘eaten’ there is bigger than
the Gross Domestic Product of 38 African
nations.”
If the stolen fund it estimated at $50bn were a
country, the online medium reported, it would be
Africa’s 11th biggest economy.
“Some estimates put the ‘lost’ funds at $50bn. If
it were a country, it would be Africa’s 11th
biggest economy, at par with Tunisia’s entire
GDP and larger than the economic output of
Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Ivory Coast or the
Democratic Republic of Congo,” the online report
said.
It quoted a Nigeria’s transparency watchdog as
saying that the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation diverted more than $30bn oil revenue
since 2009. This figure, it said, was bigger than
the annual production output of “half of the
nations in Africa.”
Mail and Guardian Africa said the financial
shortfall caused by the theft, added to the falling
prices of oil, had put Nigeria – a country where
“about two-thirds” of the population live on less
than a dollar per day – in a financial strait.
For Nigeria’s investment in the NNPC, the report
said, the country had gained nothing but terrible
disclosure records and absence of
accountability.
“For all its importance to Nigeria, the NNPC is
largely inscrutable. It had the worst disclosure
record among 44 energy companies analysed in
a 2011 report by anti-corruption non-profit
organisations, the Transparency International and
the Revenue Watch Institute.
“The NNPC consistently denies any wrongdoing.
Allegations of missing funds go back as far as
when President Muhammadu Buhari was a
petroleum minister,” the post recalled.
While it admitted that the country’s oil sector
needed an urgent reform, the online news
organisation said history was not on the side of
Buhari’s push to split the corporation.
It described the NNPC as the largest
government-owned company, saying Buhari may
not succeed in his plan to unbundle it. Arguing
that the establishment was synonymous to
corruption, it recalled that it had faced
allegations bordering on financial frauds since
1978.
“A Lagos-based newspaper reported in 1978, a
year after the NNPC took its current name, that
the company failed to remit an equivalent of
about $3.5bn it owed the treasury. In the 1990s,
a military-sanctioned investigation discovered
that $12bn oil revenue was unaccounted for
under the regime of Gen Ibrahim Babangida
(retd.).
“The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative said, at least, $23.2bn due to the
government was not deposited into the
federation account from 2009 to 2011. Recently,
the then-Central Bank of Nigeria Governor,
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, alleged that the
corporation retained as much several billions of
dollars that was due to the government,” the
report said.
Back home, there is so much to read on digital
media about corruption, the pains it has inflicted
on the masses and how it could be tackled.
Recent media reports on government’s plans to
probe key past public projects and investments
merely fuelled the online discussion.
The government revealed that it was scrutinising
bank accounts where the stolen funds had been
kept. Following the statement, bloggers and
social media users have been urging government
to also look into highbrow mansions in Abuja,
Lagos, Port Harcourt and other major cities.
In recent times, several hashtags drawing
government’s attention to such houses have
been trending. The stolen money, according to
social media posts, could be hidden in houses
belonging to relatives, wives and concubines of
former public office holders.
Blogging on this on Tuesday, one Chukwudi
Enekwechi said, “Recently, a huge sum of money
was being frittered away by relations, concubines
and wife of a politician. Even more interesting is
that locations where such money is hidden are
listed online. For example, Lekki Phase 1, Ikoyi
and Victoria Island, Port Harcourt, Maitama and
Asokoro were mentioned.”


http://www.punchng.com/i-punch/stolen-funds-south-african-online-platform-mocks-nigeria/

Ok

Na lie?

So should i b runnin now or wot

In the interest of peace and tranquility, Buhari must account for the $3.5 billion stolen in 1978.

because this is from South Africa Now Nigerians will say its a lie, the kind of money embezzled in this country is enough to build another country 2 times better than Nigeria

This is not news.
And the estimates are low.

The amount of money stolen 'legally' or 'diverted' from the original plans it was disbursed for is alarming.

One of our lectures on school, who once worked as a special adviser told me about the way money is shared. My ears stung.

PassingShot:
Na lie?

You took it out of my mouth

But that's the truth.Thank God for PMB.God will replenish all the years the cankerworms(PDP) have eaten.

the only lies I see there is the amount stated.. what is 50billion, we are talking oh hundreds of billion.

Ahh they r so wrong.......polithiefcians don loot pass that amount na

bonechamberlain:
the only lies I see there is the amount stated.. what is 50billion, we are talking oh hundreds of billion.

More like $500 billion if you ask me.

But the thing is that if this information had been from radio Biafra, it have would have been attacked.
Fact is that the zoo has a monster company called NNPC that is like a bottomless pit - a dark box- that is beyond scrutiny, probe, or accountability.
Don't be surprise if Nigeria's entire system of government collapses if there be any searchlight directed at this monster "company".