Enugu — Former minister of education Dr Oby Ezekwesili yesterday said the squandering of $45 billion in foreign reserve account and $22 billion in Excess Crude Account by the two subsequent administrations after Olusegun Obasanjo's was a clear proof of Nigeria's failure to make the right developmental choices.
Ezekwesili, who stated this while delivering a convocation lecture of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said Nigerians had lost dignity because of ravaging poverty arising from poor choices of the elite, corruption and lack of investment in education.
She recalled that Nigeria had enjoyed five cycles of oil boom since independence, but bemoaned the failure of governments to convert oil income to renewable assets through training of human capital, development of other sectors or investment in foreign assets as other resource-rich countries did with their oil income.
Ezekwesili, who was a founding director of Transparency International, also said "The present cycle of boom of the 2010s is however much more vexing than the other four that happened in the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s. This is because we are still caught up in it and it is more egregious than the other periods in revealing that we learned absolutely nothing from the previous massive failures."
The former minister of solid minerals lamented the "squandering of the significant sum of $45 billion in foreign reserve account and another $22 billion in Excess Crude Account being direct savings from increased earnings from oil that the Obasanjo administration handed over to the successor government in 2007".
"Six years after the administration I served handed over such humongous national wealth to another one most Nigerians but especially the poor continue to suffer the effects of failing public health and education systems as well as decrepit infrastructure and battered institutions", she said.
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A Brotha from Nigeria that I just met on the bus one day told me Americans have 911. If their parents or grandparents fall in the house they can call 911 and the ambulance will arrive at the front door. He said, Nigerians don't have this system and money is lost as leaders leave the country for medical treatment in European Countries. It's extremely hard for me to imagine or fathom what he is saying as it's reported that $67 billion is lost/gone.
If the Elders gave me that money as an African American, they know that I would build 5 of the worlds best hospitals with the top equipment in the world. I would follow through on the Elders wishes without hesitations or reservation and build the promise that Africans deserve as well as schools. I don't want to believe that $67 billion was squandered because African people whether they are Christian or Muslim deserve equal pursuit of health, wellness and prosperity that is promised by God.
I don't have a child but if I had a child, I would prefer for my child to goto a cutting edge University in Africa. That $67 billion can be recovered, and spent on the necessities that are required to elevate the standard of living for Nigerians. I don't want to believe this story... I don't want to believe this story...
I'm not going to believe the money is squandered or disappeared into thin air. Save that story for a fool. European Powers and the United States know every accounting above 100k, and must aid in the return of any lost money... If Nigerians placed a "Bounty with Medical Companies" on the return of those $67 billion in accounts and promised medical companies they would spend the money and get a contracts for the purchase of cutting edge equipment then I believe that money would be returned from any off shore hidden accounts within 60 days.
Christian and Muslims need to place the Bounty and step back and watch what happens. Believe me when I say your grandparents and children deserve the promise, and should reap from the fruit of the land that God gave them.
Place the Bounty.... Place the Bounty