Anti-Corruption and Research Based Data Initiative (ARDI), an NGO, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari, to use his second term in office to intensify efforts in assets recovery.
TBI Africa quoted the Executive Secretary of the organisation, Mr Denis Aghanya, made the call in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday.
“We urge this administration to intensify more efforts in asset recovery as it has yielded unquantified positive results on our economy.
“But to achieve more results in this direction, it is expected of the Federal Government to engage and negotiate with those who stashed away its looted funds oversea.
“Government should see how they can agree to repatriate such funds and invest them in the economy so as to create the needed jobs for the citizens.
“If these people are not engaged, they will further hide such funds in foreign countries without utilising them rather than investing them here in Nigeria.
“Such funds if repatriated to Nigeria can be used to establish cottage industries that will boost the country’s economy.
“It would also allow people to disclose their hidden resources that are outside the country willingly, and take advantage of this window,’’ he said.
The scribe also urged the President not to reappoint non-performing ministers in his cabinet and recall those who had performed creditably well.
He, however, congratulated the President and the Vice President on their inauguration for a second term in office, adding that their coming back was a pointer to the fact that they lived up to expectations.
Aghanya also commended the former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, and his lieutenants for the innovations they brought into the judicial sector.
He noted that the reforms had assisted to lay the required foundation for the anti-corruption fight of the President.
Aghanya, therefore, appealed to Nigerians, irrespective of party affiliation, ethnic or religious belief, to give the President all the supports needed to succeed this time around.
