Revenue Leakages and Corruption: Nigeria’s Biggest Challenges

The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has sounded the alarm over persistent revenue leakages in the country, which they believe is responsible for the increasing taxes and petrol pump prices. The conference’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, James Ezema, made the statement available to Media Talk Africa on Thursday in Jalingo, Taraba State.

CNPP has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to establish a special court to accelerate the trial of suspected crude oil thieves, corruption, and economic sabotage in Nigeria. According to the conference, until a special court is established, Nigerians will continue to bear the burden of the government’s failure to address these challenges.

The proposed special court should be mandated to limit the period of prosecution to no more than six months, allowing for swift and efficient justice. The agency responsible for the new court should also deploy advanced technology to tackle crude oil theft, economic sabotage, and corruption.

CNPP emphasized that Nigerians should not fund the luxury of offenders who have reduced accruable revenues to near zero and misappropriated funds meant for the masses. They also emphasized the need for an improvement in Nigeria’s legal framework to minimize trial duration and prevent innocent persons from remaining on awaiting trial lists endlessly without conviction.

The conference expressed concern that oil theft cases have gone on for over ten years, and some corruption cases have not been concluded for about twenty years. They emphasized that no country can progress with a defective justice system that runs at a snail’s pace.

CNPP also urged President Tinubu to urgently order an end to the burning of vessels with suspected stolen crude oil and direct security agencies to prosecute suspected crude oil thieves and other offenders instead of destroying evidence against them.