Stolen funds recovered from past public officials and stashed in foreign countries, totalling $6.5billion, have failed to address Nigeria's development gaps despite 19 years of recovery efforts.

Nigeria is one of the countries affected by the $89 billion lost annually by African countries through illicit financial flows.

A major effect of this is a widened gap between the rich and poor as the country remains economically vulnerable, with inadequate infrastructure, erratic power supply, limited access to healthcare, education, insecurity, low broadband internet penetration and general low standard of living.

The latest data from the World Data Lab revealed that of the 209,707,456 people living in Nigeria, 89,822,903, that is about 43 per cent, live below poverty line of less than $1.90 per day.

Out of this figure, the number of poor people in rural areas is put at 56,481,799, that is 63 per cent of the total poor, while 41,406, 595, being 35 per cent represents the urban poor.

The 2019 report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) noted that 40 per cent of the total population or almost 83million people live below the country's poverty line of N137,430 ($381.75) per year.

The NBS said its report was based on data from the Nigerian Living Standards Survey, conducted between 2018 and 2019, with support from the World Bank's Poverty Global Practice and technical assistance from the LSMS programme.

The recoveries have also failed to bridge the infrastructure gap as Nigeria still requires over $300 billion to build roads, railways, airports, seaports, power stations, among other critical infrastructure.

The country has resorted to loans to finance infrastructure projects, with about $79 billion borrowed so far and concerns mounting over repayment.

Since May 2002 when former President Olusegun Obasanjo's government began the recovery of stolen assets following prolonged period of military rule in the country, to 2021, about $6.5billion has been returned to Nigeria.

These are the things that must never be made mention of.

The man that started the recovery started the relooting with immediate effect and it has continued till date

Buhari is a thief. He recovered the loots and
Hid them for his personal use