MIAMI, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Some $300 billion in oil wealth has been stolen from Nigeria by corrupt official over the last four decades, according to World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz.
But Wolfowitz did note that over the last four years, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has make significant strides in combating rampant corruption and the siphoning off of oil revenue.
The World Bank president made his remarks on Nigeria during a conference in Oslo, Norway, of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, an international organization to aid poor, albeit energy-rich countries combat state corruption and more efficiently report earnings from their resources.
Wolfowitz noted that while 75 percent of Nigerians live on less than $1 a day, "over the past 40 years, about $300 billion oil wealth has disappeared from the country."
According to U.S. government estimates, the amount stolen from public coffers by Nigeria's leaders is equal to the total oil revenue generated by the country since the 1970s.
"A lot of it has gone to the power structure in Nigeria over the years," said one World Bank official.
It's a problem that the current administration has shown some signs of beating, however. In his almost eight years in office, Obasanjo has been faced with the daunting task of reforming a petroleum industry -- Nigeria is the world's eighth-largest oil exporter -- before he leaves office next year in hopes that those petrodollars just might reach those who need it the most.
It won't be easy considering the legacy of corruption and mismanagement in Nigeria's oil and gas sectors. During the 16-year military dictatorship that lasted until 1999, the energy revenue routinely lined the pockets of leaders.
After seizing power in 1993, Gen. Sani Abacha allegedly stole hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars and stashed it away in overseas accounts. Wolfowitz noted earlier this week that some $500 million of that money was recovered from a Swiss bank account.
Some say Obasanjo is trying to make amends for the sins of Nigeria's past, where religious and ethnic tensions add to the mix of widespread destitution and feelings of neglect by the state. He has already impressed many by pushing for greater transparency in his country's dealings with foreign energy companies.
Though still not ratified by the Nigerian government, Obasanjo is implementing large portions of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative.
First launched in 2004, NIETI is aimed at trying to tackle the widespread corruption.
"I personally have no doubt that Africa's era to be clean, open, transparent and accountable is now. I rejoice greatly that Nigeria is and will continue to be at the helm of the continent's new transparent dawn," said Obasanjo shortly after the NIETI program was introduced in 2004.
Audits of last year's budget in Nigeria show that despite some discrepancies, revenue from foreign energy companies is for the most part making it into state coffers.
"There has been progress fighting corruption in the last four years," a World Bank official in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, told United Press International Wednesday.
And, in turn, the money is being earmarked for much-needed health, education and infrastructure projects.
Of course, funding remains a far cry from real implementation. Limitations at the state and local level and a lack of qualified personnel still hamper Nigeria's efforts to break ground on some projects such as roads or hospitals though rising oil prices make the idea of social spending more tangible than ever.
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