It was an afternoon of piercing truths and sobering insights at the J.F. Ade.Ajayi Auditorium on Wednesday, November 5, 2025 as Professor Olufemi Otusanya of the Department of Accounting, University of Lagos took the podium to deliver the university’s four hundred and forty seventh (447th) Inaugural Lecture, aptly titled “Fiscal Termites: Creating Endless Cycle of Underdevelopment.”
With a blend of scholarly depth and patriotic concern, the renowned Accounting expert painted a vivid picture of how hidden forces, what he metaphorically called “fiscal termite”, have eaten deep into Nigeria’s capacity to grow. Like insects that silently weaken wood, these termites, he explained, represent the many practices and institutions that erode the nation’s tax base and revenue system.
According to Professor Otusanya, no nation can rise above its ability to mobilise and wisely utilise its own resources. He argued that an effective and efficient tax system remains the backbone of sustainable development: funding education, healthcare, infrastructure, and other pillars of national progress.
But Nigeria’s fiscal foundation, he lamented, has been hollowed out by decades of corruption and mismanagement. Drawing from Critical Realism, Developmental State, and Globalization theories, the don traced how military authoritarianism and weak democratic institutions have institutionalised fiscal termites over time. He revealed that even under democracy, corruption has flourished, fuelled not only by political elites but also by complicit professionals and international financial systems that help launder stolen wealth abroad.
Citing damning evidence, Professor Otusanya noted that an estimated $440 billion has been siphoned from Nigeria’s coffers over four decades, funds that found safe passage through Western financial centres in London, New York, Jersey, and Switzerland.
“Our underdevelopment is not accidental,” he declared. “It is the product of systemic decay, aided by both local greed and global complicity.”
He further highlighted how these fiscal termites have left ordinary Nigerians to bear the brunt of poor infrastructure, rising prices, collapsing social services, and dwindling investor confidence.
“When funds meant for hospitals, schools, and clean water are diverted,” he said, “poverty ceases to be a mystery, it becomes evidence of policy failure.”
As a path forward, the Professor Otusanya urged Nigeria to strengthen its accountability mechanisms through comprehensive tax reforms, transparent fiscal policies, and technology-driven revenue systems that minimise human interference. He called for independent judicial and regulatory institutions and the political will to impose strict – and if necessary, capital – punishments on perpetrators of grand corruption.
A distinguished scholar known globally for his research on financial crime, corporate ethics, and accountability in developing countries, Professor Otusanya’s lecture reaffirmed the University of Lagos’ reputation as a cradle of transformative, problem-solving scholarship. His words, both a diagnosis and a challenge, left the audience reflecting deeply on how Nigeria might finally rid itself of the termites gnawing at its national destiny.
Report: Isaiah Kumuyi
Photograph: Ayo Oloyede
