The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said on Thursday that Nigeria had lost over N60tn to corrupt practices since her independence in 1960.
The commission said corruption was the greatest hindrance to the full maturity of the country as an economically and politically independent nation.
The Coordinator, Fix Nigeria Initiative, the civil society arm of the EFCC, Mr. Chido Onumah, said this on Monday during the inauguration of the Integrity Club for National Youth Service Corps members in Abuja.
Onumah said, �Corruption is perhaps, the single most important factor responsible for the deplorable state of the nation today.
�It has not only produced injustice and a chronic failure to effectively manage international support; it has also led to the squandering of our considerable human and natural resources.�
He said that for a country that had made nearly $500bn from oil in less than five decades, it was unimaginable that over 70 per cent of Nigeria�s population lived in conditions of hopeless poverty, �despite our position as the world�s fifth largest oil producing nation.�
Onumah said the task before FNI was to make young, intelligent and vibrant Nigerians be more responsive to the social and economic problems confronting the nation on account of corruption.