What N738 billion retrieved by EFCC could do for Nigerian schools, hospitals

The EFCC has retrieved N738 billion Naira from corrupt individuals in the last two years, according to EFCC boss Chief of Staff, Mr Olanipekun Olukoyede

The commission had made a lot of recoveries locally using the mechanism of the non-conviction based forfeiture provided under Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.

In 2017 alone, the commission recovered stolen assets running into several millions of US Dollars and billions in Naira.

This include the sum of $43 million recovered from Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum and N2 billion spread in seven accounts within three Nigerian banks laundered from the Federal Capital Territory Police Command Salary Accounts

The whooping amount retrieved can better the lots of many Nigerians; below are some of the things N738 billion could do for Nigeria’s hospitals, schools

Broken windows, fallen roofs of Nigerian schools:

N738 billion would go a long way to transform a lot of Nigerian schools; most of our schools are in a dilapidated state; government need to take seriously the upgrade of schools to functional, modern models of learning.

The physical infrastructure of our schools need to be ensured to aid commitment to the mental development of our children, as well as an upgrade of their teachers.

Poor health care system in the country:

N738 billion would go a long way to redeem the battered administrative and structural outlook of our hospitals

Kano State government recently celebrated the completion and commissioning of two new multi billion naira hospitals completed by his Excellency Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, investigation has revealed that Abubakar Imam Urology, one of the state owned hospital is in dare need of government attention.

The poor hygienic condition and dilapidated state of facilities at the popular Abubakar Iman Urology hospital patients are subjected to live in, is better imagined than said.

The condition is so poor that medical personnel are often forced to use rusty objects such as scissors, equipment and other hospital utensils on patients without sterilizing them because they lack necessary things to do so.

An insider at the hospital who pleaded anonymity further revealed that the hospital also suffers from insufficient supply of drugs in its pharmacy, that patients or their relatives have to go elsewhere to get prescribed drugs.

Inadequate medical personnel and lack of standby generator for power supply is also an issue that needs to be addressed:

FG could use the retrieved money to address deployed power related public health incident management systems such as failure of multiple hospital emergency generators; patients dependent on electrically powered equipment; loss of electronic data input , vaccine spoilage due to loss of refrigeration and a potential for an increased rodent population as a result of increased amounts of discarded perishables, untidy environment in Nigerian hospitals

The above areas identified need urgent improvement including communications,external source of electricity, facility management and provision of drugs and readily available, appropriate emergency supplies.