This amount is larger than the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of several African nations combined, including Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
It is no longer a novelty to speak of Nigeria’s resilience in the face of institutionalised plunder. In the annals of nations, few have witnessed the staggering haemorrhage of national wealth as Nigeria has, from the annus mirabilis of 1960 to the present day. From the $12.4 billion Gulf War oil windfall that vanished under the watch of the General Ibrahim Babangida junta to the $654 billion that Babangida, his family and cronies are reported to have embezzled between 1983 and 1998, the history of this republic is a long, unbroken ledger of grand larceny against the people. Yet, after all these decades of financial haemorrhaging, Nigeria still stands, indeed a great nation in spirit if not in prosperity. The Nigerian people, the masses who live perpetually without power, endure decrepit roads, and send their children to crumbling schools, have developed a strangely heroic, almost suicidal resilience that is unmatched anywhere else in the world.
That resilience was tested once more last week when the Senate, through its Committee on Public Accounts, ordered the arrest of the former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, over an alleged ₦210 trillion discrepancy in the company’s audited accounts spanning 2017 to 2023. The office of the Auditor-General of the Federation had flagged unresolved financial entries and discrepancies valued at over ₦210 trillion, sending shockwaves not just through the National Assembly but through the conscience of every thoughtful Nigerian. At the current exchange rate of approximately ₦1,360 to the United States dollar, ₦210 trillion is equivalent to about $154.4 billion. This amount is larger than the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of several African nations combined, including Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
