A political analyst has asked the Federal Government to fulfil its promise to whistle-blowers who have contributed to the fight against corruption by exposing Nigerians in possession of looted funds and assets.
Mr Kayode Ogundamisi, who said this on Wednesday, also faulted claims that the whistle-blowers were being enlightened on the benefits and dangers of owning huge sum of money as a reward.
“If you’ve promised you are going to pay people five per cent of recovered loots, just let it be – let people have access to that money,” he said during his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“If they want to go insane after they get the money, that’s their business; they’ve got family members and they’ve got enough money to take care of themselves. I have also suggested that the issue of whistle-blowing should not be restricted to Nigeria – a lot of the loots are in the diaspora.”
Ogundamisi also commended the progress recorded so far in President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war.
He, however, said every activity must be made transparent, stressing that the recovered loots belong to Nigerians who he said deserved the right to monitor how the recovered monies were spent.
“I think we should first commend this government for taking a very serious look into this issue of corruption in the country and we should also commend them for saying ‘we’ve recovered this and that’.
“But what we actually need to take on now is to be transparent about the amount of money they’ve recovered and what they have done with what they have recovered so far, who is keeping what, what agency is in charge of those recovered loots,” he said.
The political analyst further recommended that the money should be used to develop various sectors, especially education and health among others.
He also warned against saving such money or for future use, saying the fact that the present government has demonstrated its zero tolerance for corruption does not mean subsequent administrations would sustain the campaign.
He said: “It is important to have an account for these loots and also divert the money to quality education, provide security for the people, medical and healthcare system and Buhari’s government should not make the mistake of saving this money.”
On the committee inaugurated by President Buhari to audit recovered loots, Ogundamisi said: “I think we should commend the president that he is actually creating an account and a committee that should look into it, but it must be transparent and accessible to the Nigerian people.”
“I think it’s high time they created a website that everyone in Nigeria can go to; this money belongs to the Nigerian people and we should be able to see what is coming into the coffers of government.
“That will encourage whistle-blowers to actually blow more whistle – I think it is high time Nigerians have access (to recovered loots) so that they can have an image of how bad things are,” he added.