$214Bn Lacking, Establishments Silent: Is Accountability Useless in Nigeria?

BY BLAISE UDUNZE

Between 2010 and 2026, a staggering $214 billion, roughly N300 trillion in public funds, has been reported as lacking, unaccounted for, diverted, unrecovered, irregularly spent, or trapped in non-transparent fiscal buildings throughout Nigeria’s public establishments.

That determine is just not speculative however a conservative estimate of unaccounted funds. It’s drawn from audit stories, legislative probes, civil society litigation, government directives, and investigative findings spanning greater than a decade. Whether it is to go by the correct determine, the true nationwide loss is probably going greater however tough to quantify exactly attributable to information gaps, overlapping figures, and incomplete audits.

The problem is that in lots of the most outstanding circumstances, prosecutions have stalled, hearings have dragged with out decision, investigations have gone chilly, and no defining jail phrases have etched accountability into Nigeria’s institutional reminiscence. The irony is that the quantity is historic, the silence is louder. And the financial harm is cumulative.

The sample stretches from the oil sector to social funding programmes, from the Nigeria Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) interventions to ministry-level expenditures. In 2014, between $10.8 billion and $20 billion in unremitted oil revenues linked to the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Company triggered nationwide outrage. Underneath the then CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi, who warned that persistent oil income leakages had been making trade fee stability “extraordinarily tough.” He cautioned that with out full remittances, the choice can be foreign money devaluation and monetary instability. This concern spans the 2010 to 2013 oil income interval. That warning proved prophetic.

It is because, years later, the shortage of transparency within the oil trade didn’t disappear, however reasonably it festered like most cancers. It additional led to the elongated audit queries, which have continued to path the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm Restricted, together with unremitted revenues, questioned deductions, and administration payment buildings below the Petroleum Business Act. With a rare transfer geared toward blocking income leakages at supply, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has not too long ago issued an Govt Order suspending sure deductions and directing direct remittance of taxes, royalties, and revenue oil into the Federation Account, which includes the reassessment of NNPC’s 30 per cent administration payment and 30 per cent frontier exploration deduction below the Petroleum Business Act.

Such presidential intervention underscores the size of concern, which implies that Nigeria can’t afford a structural lack of transparency in its most strategic income sector. However oil is just one chapter.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has confronted among the most far-reaching audit alarms lately. In go well with quantity FHC/ABJ/CS/250/2026, the Socio-Financial Rights and Accountability Undertaking (SERAP) is asking the Federal Excessive Courtroom to compel the CBN to account for N3 trillion in allegedly lacking or diverted public funds. The Auditor-Common’s 2025 report cited failures to remit over N1.44 trillion in working surplus to the Consolidated Income Fund, over N629 billion paid to “unknown beneficiaries” below the Anchor Debtors’ Programme, and greater than N784 billion in overdue, unrecovered intervention loans.

There have been additionally N125 billion in questioned intervention expenditures, irregular contract variations exceeding N9 billion, and procurement gaps working into a whole lot of billions. The Auditor-Common repeatedly really useful restoration and remittance. No date has been mounted for the listening to. In the meantime, Nigeria continues to borrow.

Elsewhere, the Home of Representatives has launched a probe into over N30 billion recovered throughout investigations into the Nationwide Social Funding Programme Company (NSIPA). The funds, reportedly frozen throughout investigation, haven’t been remitted again into the Treasury Single Account, stalling poverty-alleviation schemes like TraderMoni and FarmerMoni. Hundreds of thousands of susceptible Nigerians stay uncovered whereas lawmakers seek for cash already “recovered.” The irony is staggering as funds are discovered, however programmes stay frozen.

A prime discovery not too long ago that put the nation on purple alert was made by the Senate committee, which claimed to have discovered N210 trillion in monetary irregularities in NNPC accounts between 2017 and 2023, together with unaccounted receivables and accrued bills. A important concern is that, as of early 2026, this has sparked commentary however no clear prosecutions.

Solely not too long ago, within the energy sector, SERAP has urged the President to probe alleged lacking or unaccounted N128 billion on the Federal Ministry of Energy and the Nigerian Bulk Electrical energy Buying and selling Plc. Of concern is that regardless of the big funds channeled on this sector, Nigeria’s power electrical energy instability persists, at the same time as billions meant to stabilise the grid face audit scrutiny.

Throughout MDAs, audit stories between 2017 and 2022 flagged trillions in unsupported expenditures, unremitted taxes, unauthorized funds, and statutory liabilities by no means recovered. These sums are dizzying and are additionally alarming; N300 billion right here, N149 billion there, N3.403 trillion throughout businesses, N30 trillion-plus Treasury discrepancies raised on the Senate degree.

Individually, they shock. Collectively, they outline a structural sample. And patterns form economies.

Nigeria operates with structural fiscal deficits and likewise lives with them routinely and comfortably. Expenditure persistently exceeds income. When public funds disappear, fail to be remitted, or are trapped outdoors constitutional channels, the deficit widens. The federal government should borrow to fill gaps created not solely by low income, however by income leakage.

Debt servicing now consumes a disproportionate share of federal income. Borrowing meant for capital tasks more and more funds recurrent obligations. The nation shifts from borrowing to construct to borrowing to outlive. Each lacking naira compounds tomorrow’s legal responsibility.

The Treasury Single Account (TSA) was designed to plug such leakages. It consolidated authorities revenues below Part 80 of the Structure right into a unified framework. Worldwide monetary establishments counseled it as a landmark reform. But even at this time, the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, has admitted that substantial authorities funds stay outdoors the TSA and out of doors the CBN’s consolidated visibility. Till August 1, 2024, he revealed, the federal authorities couldn’t absolutely see its personal stability sheet on the apex financial institution. That admission ought to alarm any critical economic system.

Fiscal lack of transparency constrains planning. It undermines financial coordination. It weakens debt sustainability projections. It distorts coverage responses. And when techniques are in flux, cash vanishes extra simply.

Altering or weakening the TSA in such an setting can be catastrophic. Transitions create home windows of vulnerability. Outdated accounts shut. New accounts open. Reconciliation’s lag. Ghost contractors reappear. Double funds slip by means of.

Albeit, the federal government should be taught to tread with warning as Nigeria’s institutional bandwidth is already strained by simultaneous tax reforms, exchange-rate changes, subsidy elimination, and monetary restructuring. One fact that can’t be argued is that layering extra structural upheaval onto fragile techniques dangers income loss that the nation can’t afford. Buyers are watching.

Credit score markets consider not simply numbers however institutional consistency. A nation that abandons or weakens its most credible fiscal reform sends a destabilising sign. Stability lowers borrowing prices. Institutional drift raises them. However past markets lies the human price.

N300 trillion represents roads not constructed, energy crops not accomplished, irrigation techniques not funded, colleges not modernised, and hospitals not geared up. It represents jobs not created and industries not catalysed. It represents stalled productiveness and deferred development.

When intervention loans stay unrecovered, agricultural output suffers. When energy sector funds are unaccounted for, electrical energy stays unstable. When social funding funds are frozen, poverty deepens.

Inflation then compounds the ache. Income gaps push borrowing. Borrowing pressures rates of interest and by extension, liquidity misalignment fuels value instability. Residents pay by means of greater meals prices, transport fares, and lease. The poor pay first. The center class erodes quietly.

Maybe most corrosive is the belief deficit. When audit queries fade with out seen accountability, tax morale weakens. Compliance declines. Cynicism hardens. A nation can’t modernise the place belief in fiscal integrity is fragile.

Part 15(5) of the Structure requires the abolition of corrupt practices. Monetary Rules mandate a surcharge and referral to anti-corruption businesses the place public officers fail to account for funds. The Fiscal Duty Act empowers residents to implement compliance to make sure that authorities officers observe fiscal guidelines. However enforcement defines seriousness.

Nigeria’s drawback is just not a scarcity of audit findings. It’s the distance between findings and finality.

Nations don’t collapse in a single day attributable to a scarcity of funds. They drift. Infrastructure decays incrementally. Debt rises progressively. Development slows subtly. Confidence erodes quietly. Then someday, stagnation feels everlasting. $214 billion (N300 trillion), sixteen years of recurring audit alarms. Few conclusive accountability outcomes are proportionate to the size. Actually, the implications have been much less sturdy. For a similar purpose, the nation witnessed President Tinubu nominating ex-NIA boss Ayodele Oke as ambassador regardless of a $43 million loot in an Ikoyi condominium.

See the analysis breakdown of among the audit figures that reveal staggering sums as enumerated above:

–       $10.8 billion and individually $20 billion in unaccounted oil revenues on the NNPC in 2014

–       $1.1 billion controversial Malabu Oil and Gasoline oil deal in 2015

–       $2.2 billion arms procurement irregularities in 2015

–       N3.4 billion from IMF COVID-19 financing flagged in a 2020 audit.

–       N149.36 billion, N37.2 billion, and a number of irregular MDA expenditures in 2020 alone.

–       N300 billion cited in public audit issues in 2017.

–       N210 trillion in monetary irregularities uncovered, N103 trillion in ‘accrued bills’, and one other N107 trillion in unaccounted ‘receivables’ (2017 -2023).

–       N57 billion Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs – (2021)

–       N3 trillion and N1.44 trillion flagged in 2022 audit points involving the Central Bank of Nigeria.

–       Almost N630 billion below the Anchor Debtors Programme is reportedly unrecovered.

–       N784 billion in overdue intervention loans flagged.

–       Over N3.403 trillion unaccounted for throughout federal MDAs between 2019 and 2021.

–       Roughly 30 trillion+ in Treasury Single Account and Consolidated Income Fund discrepancies raised on the Senate degree.

–       N500 billion in unremitted oil revenues between 2019 and 2024.

–       N80 billion tied to alleged fictitious contracts within the Accountant-Common’s workplace.

–       N69.9 billion in uncollected statutory tax liabilities.

–       Billions extra in unauthorized or undocumented expenditures throughout ministries.

The establishments differ. The years differ. The audit language differs. The sample doesn’t.

Nigeria’s financial future is not going to be decided solely by how a lot oil it produces, what number of reforms it publicizes, or what number of government orders it indicators. It is going to be decided by whether or not each naira earned enters the Federation Account transparently, whether or not each intervention mortgage is tracked and recovered, whether or not each surplus is remitted constitutionally, and whether or not each diversion carries penalties. Income technology issues. Income safety is future. As a result of when authorities funds go lacking, nations don’t stand nonetheless. They transfer backwards.

Blaise, a journalist and PR skilled, writes from Lagos and will be reached by way of: blaise.udunze@gmail.com