Trillions of Naira missing again: 5 times the Nigerian government said funds vanished

If you've actively been on the internet recently, you would've heard about the claim by the Chairman of the Senate Public Accounts Committee, Ahmed Wadada, that the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) could not account for about 210 trillion naira.

Although the claim has been refuted, as fiscal professionals have highlighted that the claim is simply a ‘mathematical impossibility’ designed to shock the public, nothing that even the annual budget of the entire country is barely one-tenth of the alleged missing sum.

Still, Nigerians have been reminiscing about previous times government funds have vanished and remained unaccounted for, and we're joining the bandwagon.

We're highlighting five instances government officials could not account for government funds within their control.

One; the mysterious snake that needed cash to build its nest.

A staff member at JAMB's Makurdi office, Philomina Chieshe, blamed a ‘mystery snake’ for stealing 36 million naira from the accounts office of the Board when the whereabouts of the missing funds were demanded.

She confidently claimed the snake must have snuck in and swallowed the money and despite intense interrogations, she maintained her stance, claiming that her housemaid and another staff member, Joan Asen, were involved in the theft, using ‘spiritual means’ AKA ‘mysterious snakes’ to steal from the vault. The board was practically mute on the bizarre incident.

Two; the case of the pilfering monkey.

Just about a week after the mysterious snake incident made its rounds on social media, the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, Abdullahi Adamu, claimed that a monkey stole 70 million naira from the group's coffers.
‘Corroborating’ his explanation, fellow member of the forum, Senator Shehu Sani explained that the money was handed over to Adamu by the former treasurer, Ahmad Lawan, but monkeys allegedly raided the farmhouse and took the cash.
Although Adamu was soon removed from the forum, it was alleged that the true reason the lawmaker was removed was because he had earlier protested against the adoption of the Electoral Act amendment.

Three; the termites with an appetite for legal tender.

Previous Managing Director of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Michael Akabogu, claimed that documents evidencing 17.158 billion naira spent in 2013 might have been eaten by termites.
He made the statement amid investigations into the finances of NSITF by the Senate Public Accounts Committee where the said 17.15 billion naira was said to have been disbursed without trace.
When probed on providing the necessary documents explaining such mishap, the Managing Director blamed the lack of documents on a container being exposed to rain and possibly termites, hindering the investigation.

Four; the oil money turned gaseous and evaporated into thin air.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project members brought to the public's notice that they filed a lawsuit against Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited over alleged missing billions in oil revenue, citing the Auditor-General's report. The amounts include 22.3 billion naira, 49.7 million dollars, 14.3 million euros, and 5.2 million pounds all vanishing without explanation.

In the 2022 Audited Report by the Auditor-General of the Federation, it was disclosed that the monies were either missing or diverted.

SERAP sought out court orders to compel NNPCL to account for the funds and disclose related transactions, highlighting the undermined state of the country's economic development wherein millions of Nigerians are trapped in poverty despite our enormous oil wealth and so far, no adequate explanation for the missing funds have been provided.

Five; the apex bank attaining immense heights of misappropriation.

SERAP again, leveled similar allegations against the Central Bank of Nigeria, where 1.44 trillion naira couldn't be accounted for.

This was based on the Auditor-General's Report that the apex bank had failed to remit the said funds into the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account.
This included CBN's failure to recover over 629 billion naira paid to ‘unknown beneficiaries’ as part of the Anchor Borrower's Program, failure to recover over 784 billion naira being unpaid, overdue loans and interventions disbursed by the bank, its expenditure of over 125 billion naira on questionable ‘intervention activities’ without the National Assembly's approval, its unjustified spending of over 1 billion naira to buy operational vehicles for the Nigeria Immigration Service, and many more.

Again, no reasonable clarification has been provided by the CBN to justify all these expenditures.

It is quite unfortunate that these funds have all gone unaccounted for, with the majority of the stakeholders orchestrating such misappropriation roaming the streets freely. We implore the Nigerian government to be more intentional in handling these discrepancies, as millions of Nigerians are in undesirable conditions as a result.

What means do you think the Nigerian government should adopt to combat these? Share your ideas with us!