Misappropriation in the Midst of Scarcity

For a country whose populace is very divided along ethnic and religious lines, Nigerian Politicians are not just united; and they are cut from the same cloth. And that cloth is definitely the same fabric as the devil’s cloak. This is the only explanation for the revelations coming out of the financial statements of several states across the federation. Perhaps revelation is not the right word because these things have always been hidden in plain sight. Unfortunately, Nigerians, for reasons best known to them, have always turned a blind eye.

It all started when the Action Democratic Congress governorship candidate of the Lagos State Gubernatorial Elections 2023, Mr Funsho Doherty, took to his X account to post about an open letter he had written to the sitting governor of Lagos State, Dr Babajide Sanwoolu, asking for some items in the state 2023 procurement budget of the second and third quarters of 2023 to be clarified. He attached images of the public documents to support the allegations. These items, upon scrutiny, caused an uproar on X, with several persons expressing outrage.

The next day, while public discussions were still ongoing about the Mr Doherty expose, financial statements of other states were brought to light, showing similar patterns of gross misappropriation of public funds. These states include Oyo and Abia states, and then the conversation that had shown signs of partisanship the day before became full-blown where the different political party loyalists started turning themselves rather than jointly calling out all the states involved.

The misappropriation and corruption is not restricted to the states. In fact, there had been earlier revelations about both the executive and legislative arms of government allocating billions of taxpayers’ money and public debt for things that a nation currently experiencing economic challenges and seeking to woo foreign investors to bring much-needed capital to help kickstart the economy.

What makes the entire situation incredibly heartbreaking is that while elected public servants allocate public money to get needless luxury items like bulletproof new model cars, a very large percentage of the citizens are too poor to be able to afford basics like food.

With all of this information now in the public, one can only hope that the ever-suffering Nigerian people will get to their breaking point and do something drastic to the parasitic political elite who are feeding fat while their people perish from hunger. Or the politicians themselves will, by some miracle, grow a conscience and put an end to the misappropriation and corruption. Either way, something has got to give, and soon!!!

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Sholape Irepodun

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