• ‘Funds going into private pockets since 1999’
• Minister says anti-graft war not against political foes
DESPITE the huge increases in the country’s yearly budget in the past 17 years, the poverty level among Nigerians, rather than decrease, has worsened, the Federal Government has said.
The government also said its fight against corruption was meant to count the cost and not to vilify anyone.
Speaking at a meeting with journalists in Lagos yesterday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed that Nigeria’s national budget increased from over N900 billion in 1999 to over N6 trillion in 2016, adding that at the same time, poverty also increased almost by the same proportion.
“The reason is not far-fetched: appropriated funds mostly ended up in the pockets of a few. When funds meant for construction of roads are looted, the end result is that the roads are not built and the people suffer and even die in avoidable road accidents.
“When the money meant to provide electricity is looted, we all are perpetually sentenced to darkness. When the money meant for healthcare is pocketed by a few, we are unable to reduce maternal and infant mortality. These are the costs of corruption.”
He said this manifested more in a comparative analysis of the number of ‘Dasukigate’ beneficiaries and the amount they collected from the office of the National Security Adviser in 2015 on one hand, and the list of projects and amounts across the nation in the zonal intervention project of 2015 appropriation act.
The implication, he noted, was that the amount received by 21 individuals and companies was more than the 2015 zonal intervention projects budget by N2.829 billion.
“The value of what beneficiaries of Dasukigate contributed to development is zero, compared to how the lives of Nigerians would have been transformed, poverty reduced and livelihoods improved by the zonal intervention projects which – as we have shown – would have cost N2.829 billion less than Dasukigate,” Mohammed added.
The minister denied claims by critics that the government was dwelling too much on the war against corruption to the detriment of other areas of governance, saying that the situation was very grim and had to be tackled squarely.
He said that the objective of the war against corruption and particularly the sensitisation campaign embarked upon by the government was not to denigrate anyone or group but to count the cost of corruption in the country.
His words: “Our response to that is that indeed, there is nothing like dwelling too much on this war. The situation is very grim indeed, as far as corruption is concerned. That is why the Federal Government is embarking on this sensitisation campaign. Our approach – which is to count the cost of corruption– is not to vilify anyone but to use facts and figures to give Nigerians a sense of what corruption has done to their lives.”
Despite huge budget government laments poverty
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