Senate President, Ahmad Lawan on Wednesday solicited the support of the United Nations (UN) on the recovery of looted funds hidden abroad, back into the nation’s coffers.
Lawan’s appeal was contained in a statement by his special assistant, Press, Ezrel Tabiowo, following a courtesy visit by a delegation of the United Nations Country to his office at the National Assembly, Abuja.
Edward Kallon, the leader of the UN delegation, said that the UN invests about $750 million on development assistance per annul in Nigeria.
The UN, he said, is also very active on the humanitarian front in the country and our support to northeast Nigeria, the epicenter of the crisis in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe.
“We have been investing from $945 million in 2017 to $878 million in 2018, and $714 million in 2019. On an annual basis, the UN and its partners are assisting around 5.5m people in northeast Nigeria. The total number of people in need of humanitarian assistance this year has varied from 6.2 million to 7.9 million as we speak,” Kallon said.
Lawan, while responding to anti-graft concerns raised by the visiting delegation, said that the fight against corruption in Nigeria continues to suffer setbacks as a result of the inability of the federal government to repatriate looted funds stashed away in foreign countries across the world.
He noted that such resources if at the disposal of the government, would go a long way towards addressing critical developmental and infrastructural deficits faced by the nation.
“But even when we identify embezzled funds, to get them back to Nigeria is a big deal. And in fact, we have been suffering from that for years. We have had few occasions when we received some repatriation, but the bulk is still out there,” he said.
He described Nigeria as a blessed and well-endowed country whose development depends on the judicious utilisation of every penny it makes.
The Senate President said the paucity of funds has forced the Federal Government to resort to acquiring domestic and foreign loans to fund capital projects in the 2020 budget.
