Nigerian
President Muhammadu Buhari says he is not demanding "any apology from
anybody" after UK Prime Minister David Cameron labelled his country
"fantastically corrupt".
Speaking
at an anti-corruption event in London, Mr Buhari said he was more interested in
the return of stolen assets held in British banks.
Mr Cameron
made the unguarded comments in a conversation with the Queen.
He is
hosting an international anti-corruption summit on Thursday.
Mr
Buhari's address at the anti-corruption event at the Commonwealth Secretariat
in London followed a statement from his office on Wednesday, saying that he had
been "deeply shocked and embarrassed" by Mr Cameron's remarks.
Asked if
Nigeria was "fantastically corrupt", in an echo of the prime
minister's comments, Mr Buhari responded: "Yes."
Nigeria
was ranked 136 out of 167 countries in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption
Perceptions Index.
Two recent
cases have illustrated the astonishing scale of corruption facing the country.
Last week,
Nigerian Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said that an estimated $15bn (£10bn) of
government money had been stolen through corrupt arms contracts under the
previous government.
And in
March, an official audit found that Nigeria's state-owned oil company had
failed to pay the government $25bn in a suspected fraud.
In his
speech, the Nigerian leader described corruption as a "hydra-headed
monster" which threatened the security of countries and "does not
differentiate between developed and developing countries
He said corruption in Nigeria was endemic and his
government was committed to fighting it.
Mr Buhari praised the UK government for its help in
efforts to repatriate stolen funds held in the UK.
He cited the case of disgraced Nigerian state
governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who fled the UK disguised as a woman
while on bail for corruption charges.
British police found £1m ($1.8m)-worth of cash in
his London home in 2005 and subsequently charged him with laundering a total of
£1.8m.
"What would I do with an apology? I need
something tangible," Mr Buhari said, referring to efforts to recover the
money.
The UK government will host world and business
leaders at the summit
on Thursday in London, aiming to "galvanise a global response to tackle
corruption".
Speaking ahead of the summit, Mr Cameron said:
"For too long there has been a taboo about tackling this issue head-on.
"The summit will change that. Together we will
push the fight against corruption to the top of the international agenda where
it belongs."
No comments:
Post a Comment