Jane Nyambune, BBC News
October 20, 2006

“Basically, this money has gone to waste.”

More than $380 billion has either been stolen or wasted by Nigerian governments since independence in 1960, Nigeria’s chief corruption fighter has said.

Nuhu Ribadu told the BBC that Nigeria has “nothing much” to show for the missing money.

He said the worst period for corruption was the 1980s and ’90s, but currently two-thirds of governors are being investigated by Mr Ribadu’s agency.

Mr Ribadu said he had come up with his figure of $380 billion stolen or wasted since independence “easily” through records kept by the Nigerian central bank and the ministry of finance.

“Basically, this money has gone to waste, nothing much to show for it,” he told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.

“Of course, probably part of it will have gone to outside stealing.”

Mr Ribadu told the BBC that $140 million had been recovered from one unnamed former Nigerian leader and that nearly $400 million of illegally gained assets had been identified in the possession of a former governor of Bayelsa State.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6069230.stm [PDFvevr here]