OPINION: OUR MONEY IN THEIR HANDS

By Femi Abulude

This is the era of abandoned money. What we were used to in this part of the world were abandoned projects and abandoned children. The various uncompleted projects were caused by unscrupulous politicians, who after collecting the lion share of the contract money from the contractors, rendered them incapacitated. The projects would be abandoned mid way and the story would end there, because all the people concerned and those that were supposed to supervise or approve the projects had been compromised.

The issue of abandoned children is about unprepared mother, who suddenly found out that she was pregnant, could not abort it, and went through the pregnancy and delivery, then abandon the baby.

Somebody said the last civilian regime was like the days of Jackals, it was the buccaneer era. The common wealth of Nigeria has been squandered and shared among the people in authority. When the party was over, the hapless nation was left in limbo. Economy recession took over; the poor masses that had been famished already are told to tighten their belts on waist less hips. The money is now hot in their hands. Somebody said somewhere that if Nigerians had not voted them out at the last general elections, Nigeria would have stopped existing by now. Morbid as this sounds, it seems to be the home truth.

In the real sense of it unfortunately between the last regime and the present one in power, the dramatis personae have not changed much. Apart from the president, Mohammadu Buhari and his vice, Yemi Osinbajo, the political players are still the same. Visit the senate, you will see majority of the former governors, ministers etc. The same thing goes for the characters in the House of Representatives. This is the reason why Buhari war on corruption has been a herculean task. Corruption is fighting back seriously and Buhari’s slim and frail structure cannot withstand the onslaught, hence, his frequent visits to the hospitals.

One thing is going for the nation though. The stolen money is hot in the hands of the looters. They could not keep it in the bank, could not transfer it abroad, could not keep it at home and could not donate or give it out as gifts. If you want to open an account in the bank now, they would ask you if you are a politician or related to politicians. The noose has been tightened on them, hence the decision to abandon these huge sum of money anyhow and anywhere. There is no where they could not hide the ill gotten money. The most absurd is the cemetery. When I first heard this, I thought it was an exaggeration. Pictures don’t lie; the operatives of the EFCC were shown exhuming loads and loads of money from a cemetery.

The money is too hot in their hands and they are bringing it out. I hope the money would not end up in private hands again.

We thank God that the lost money is coming out; my prayer is that accountability will prevail. The money belongs to the masses, let them benefit from all these. The lost money abandoned and the ones traced abroad should be spent judiciously, they are our common wealth.