The recent court case instituted by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) against the leadership of the National Assembly, NASS has once again exposed the new negative narrative in Nigeria’s governance – Financial unaccountability. The human rights group wants the Senate President, Mr Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of House of Representatives, Mr Tajudeen Abbas to account for the missing N18.6 billion meant for the construction of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) Office Complex.
SERAP’s lawsuit followed the grave allegations documented in the latest 2022 annual report published by the Auditor-General of the Federation on 9 September 2025. Not too long ago, the same Auditor-general for the federation’s office discovered financial impropriety amounting to N210 trillion discovered in the accounting books of NNPC Limited. The case is yet to be resolved by the company despite several emissaries from the National Assembly, demanding its explanations concerning the missing fund.
According to statistics, annual Nigeria fraud count increased from 44,947 in 2019 to about 95,620 in 2023, representing about 112%. And the financial figure lost also rose from about N2.9billion in 2019 to about N17.67 billion in 2023, representing close to 496%.
With the recent discoveries in NNPCL and the National Assembly, Nigeria, no doubts faces the risky embarrassment offoreign intervention on its corruption index, just like America is already intervening in her security maladministration.
The reasons for this financial cankerworm are not far-fetched. Many Nigerians in positions of authority are very greedy. They often get themselves into amassing the kinds of wealth they do not need in the first place. It sounds funny that a former Accountant-general of the federation allegedly embezzled a whopping sum of N109 billion while in office despite all the official paraphernalia that go with his office..
Many of the citizens are fast embracing the wrong value system wherein peoples’ wealth are never questioned. Rather, a good number of fraudsters are often given recognition by way of chieftaincy titles, political appointments or award of contracts.The implication of this recognition pattern is that the next generation of Nigerians will tend towards emulating this life style of amassing unexplained wealth.
Nigeria’s growing population, especially the youth is generally swayed into the get-rich-quick syndrome. This has pushed many of them into vocations such as yahoo-yahoo, human kidnapping for ransom, armed robbery, stealing and political thugry.
Lack of proper relevant trainings also account for the spate of poor account record keeping in government offices. Today’s accounting system is complex. They cannot therefore be handled by lowly skilled personnel. A lot of those responsible for driving the financial policies of government are not conversant with automated systems of financial record keeping. Even a few of them that are proficient in this direction are poorly paid. And it is rare for a worker overseeing huge sums of money to be hungry without being tempted to pilfer what he or she has in custody.
Government seldom goes for the relevant and appropriate accounting software that are fraud proof with built-in financial regulations. Software without relevant build-in security checks is prone to resulting into the perpetration of frauds.
Curbing this negative trend of financial impropriety requires that those given to functioning on behalf of government in financial management must be exposed to regular trainings that can continually expose them to latest trends in accounting practices. Apart from good salaries for them, they must also work in conducive environments.
It is abnormal for any accounting system to go beyond one year before it is audited. The Auditor-general for the federation must ensure that governments finances are checked annually in order to eliminate the encumbrances associated with poor accounting procedures. Like is normally done with private sector, public accounting methods must begin to embrace bi-yearly auditing and investigations.
Everyone found to have been involved in public funds misappropriation must be brought to book. Their experiences will deter others from getting involved in the corruption acts. Like SERAP, any person or group of persons that observe infractions in government finances should endeavor to, not only speak up, but also take lawful actions in the interest of Nigerians.
