An expanse of land of about 150,500 square meters on which 753 duplexes were fraudulently built by an alleged former top brass of government was recently seized and forfeited to the Federal Government by the order of a court. The final forfeiture granted on December 2 by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie was a sequel to an interim forfeiture earlier granted to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by the same judge on November 1. The implication is that in the intervening period between the interim and final forfeiture orders, no one came forward to lay claim to the estate containing 753 duplexes!

Unsurprisingly, EFCC disclosed that the forfeiture was its largest recovery from fraudulent persons since its inception in 2003. The reaction of Nigerians to the huge recovery of plundered national resources has been mixed. Not a few are appalled that those put in charge of the country?s commonwealth could be so decadent as to pillage the treasury and fritter the proceeds on assets they obviously do not need. The forfeiture also exemplifies the depth of moral depravity and wickedness of the custodians of the country?s collective patrimony who relish and prefer vainglory to the wellbeing of their fellow compatriots. On the other hand, others are happy that the forfeiture of the estate has at least denied those who fraudulently built it the enjoyment of the proceeds of crime.

The huge seizure by the EFCC is an unfolding drama; the dramatis personae behind the forfeited estate are still being investigated by the anti-graft agency. Nonetheless, the matter smacks of madness and depravity even as it also shows the gravity of corruption in high places. It is sadly the case that a lot of those saddled with the common patrimony lack altruism and often subjugate common good to their crass, selfish desires. It is even more worrying that there are probably many more fraudulently acquired assets across the country owned by those who had or still have access to the common till. Indeed, similar massive products of questionable wealth and resources abound across the land. Awesome mansions traceable to those who helped themselves to state resources dot towns and villages where poverty, want and lack stare the masses in the face.

The Nigerian society is thoroughly corrupt and it would appear as if everyone is taking a cue from the leaders to cheat within their areas of influence. It is so bad that virtually everybody that has the opportunity to do so will cheat the system. If politicians or those who hold public offices for a relatively short tenure could perpetrate this magnitude of sleaze, the level of systemic corruption going on in the civil service where the tenure of office is much longer and the personnel more familiar with the terrain and how to cover their tracks can only be imagined. The breakdown of the societal moral value system has enabled the accommodation of vices and the relegation of checks and balances that used to whip community members into line or get them isolated or even ostracized from the rest of society. We call for value reorientation and moral rearmament, uncommon discipline and Spartan lifestyle by citizens, and especially among leaders who currently flaunt ill-gotten wealth with crass impunity and contempt. Today, the society venerates sudden wealth without caring a hoot about the source(s) of such. Any system that permits such loopholes cannot guarantee development. The lack of curiosity about sudden wealth enables this kind of behaviour where an individual or a group of felons acquire a huge estate with money ripped off the state.

The monumental corruption being unearthed in the public space is a function not just of the greed and avarice of the perpetrators but also of lax internal control and a large sense of impunity which incentivises corrupt activities. Therefore, the internal control in official circles should be tightened to ensure that corrupt people do not have unrestricted access to the common till, and that should be in addition to purging them of the sense of impunity. And the only way to do that is to ensure that the probability of apprehending and sanctioning every perpetrator of heist is almost one while the chances of enjoying the proceeds are zero. It is confounding that the government prefers to embark on tortuous processes to recover plundered assets while it could use the rule of the thumb that tax payment offers to zero in on the criminals. It is axiomatic that payment of taxes can be used to trace and apprehend those with illicit wealth because those who display wealth ordinarily ought to have paid more taxes to the government on account of their legitimate income.

Given the magnitude of official corruption coming to light lately, it has become imperative for the EFCC to tweak its strategy to make it more effective in tackling corruption. It is important to place even higher premium on instituting mechanisms to prevent sleazy activities within the system. There should be mechanisms in place to raise red flags whenever malfeasance is about to take place, and we believe this is possible with the deployment of the apposite technology. And since it is literally impossible to apprehend every corrupt person after the deed has been done, prevention is a good strategy.

While we commend the EFCC for the seizure/forfeiture of the Abuja property, the agency will deserve our full pat on the back when it has diligently identified, investigated, and prosecuted the would-have-been owner(s) of the property to the fullest extent of the law. Nigerians deserve to know who the suspects are and when and how the humongous resources used to acquire the property were looted from the public coffers. Such knowledge may help in instituting much tighter control to prevent a recurrence.

The sheer size of the stolen public resources spent on the acquisition of the Abuja property constitutes an official embarrassment and a huge loss to Nigerians in terms of purposeful public expenditure that could have positively impacted the lives of the citizenry. The government has a duty to ensure that such monumental and orchestrated leakage from the system does not recur under any guise. (Nigerian Tribune Editorial)

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