Some eminent Nigerians, yesterday, said they were not surprised that Nigeria made little or no gains in terms of better welfare for it citizenry from the over N96 trillion the country has earned as revenue from crude oil since 1958.

Revenue According to Vanguard’s exclusive story published on Sunday, about N51 trillion of the money was earned during the over five years of the immediate past Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

Others include: President Olusegun Obasanjo (N27 trillion); late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (N9 trillion); Chief Ernest Shonekan/General Sani Abacha N1.6 trillion); General Ibrahim Babangida (N420 billion); General Murtala Mohammed/General Obasanjo (N25 billion); Alhaji Shehu Shagari (N36 billion); General Muhammadu Buhari (N25 billion); General Yakubu Gowon (N11.03 billion); and President Muhammadu Buhari (N6 trillion).

Attributing the mismanagement of the princely sum to corruption, bad leadership, faulty federalism and over concentration of power at the centre, abandonment of the parliamentary system of government, which encourages lean government and ensures checks and balances, the eminent Nigerians called for urgent solutions or the trend might continue.

Among those who spoke to Vanguard were Retired Police Commissioner, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav; Second Republic politician, Chief Guy Ikokwu Second Republic lawmaker, Dr. Junaid Mohammed; and National Publicity Secretary of pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin.

Retired Police Commissioner, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, said: “The truth is that all governments since then are known to have been be corrupt. The issue is not about individuals but a leadership challenge.

When a leader is exemplary, it will reflect in the way resources are managed in the country but when you have a weak leader, so many things will go wrong. So, it is all about leadership.

Even some of the people in APC today were part of the corrupt PDP leadership of the past. Today, Buhari represents probity just because of his integrity. Without his integrity, we will go back to square one. The revelation is a very disturbing development.” Our leaders were irresponsible —Mohammed Second Republic lawmaker, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, said the figures were stunning and despite the huge amount of money, Nigeria remained under-developed.

 He said the figures showed that Nigerian leaders were irresponsible. His words: “I believe Nigeria has earned enough for its development but because fools and scoundrels have been ruling Nigeria in the last 58 years, nothing has changed.

“All the money Nigeria has realized so far from its sale of crude oil has not been spent by Nigerians, it has been stolen and stashed in foreign countries like Dubai, United Kingdom, Switzerland.

What this shows is that we have been irresponsible to ourselves, our children and I don’t know the way out.

“When Nigerians started heaving a sign of relief, President Buhari now brought some rogues back to the government and so far so good, this government has been inept and cannot even prosecute corruption cases properly.

“I believe strongly that even if Nigeria is richer than the figures we have gotten so far, with the kind of leadership we have right now, we will not make headway.” Restructuring will eradicate commonwealth theft — Odumakin National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin, fingered corruption for the country’s squandered commonwealth but noted that the trend will continue without restructuring. Odumakin said: “It tells you that the entire foundation is corruption.

All the country has derived since independence up till now have ended in private pockets and it will continue to be so until we change this structure.

 For as long as we use millions of naira to occupy public offices, based on the current system that we are running, as it was, so shall it continue to be. “Despite all the noise we have been hearing on corruption, are we still not hearing of budget padding?