President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he would not be demanding
any apology from British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron over his
diplomatic gaffe, describing Nigeria, along with Afghanistan as
‘fantastically corrupt’. Cameron and BuhariCameron and Buhari President
Buhari said instead, he would demand action from Cameron, by returning
Nigeria’s stolen money and assets stashed in the United Kingdom.
Buhari made his frustration clear as he addressed a Commonwealth
conference in London Wednesday morning in the wake of Mr Cameron’s
diplomatic gaffe. Clutching a glass as he made small talk with the Queen
at a Buckingham Palace reception, the PM was caught on camera being
indiscreet about the countries he had invited to a key anti-corruption
summit tomorrow. The Presidency and several other Nigerians, have
however, lashed back at the British PM for that scathing remark. This
came as the Presidency, yesterday, expressed ‘shock’ at the unguarded
comment, saying that Cameron must have been looking at an old snapshot
of Nigeria. However, the president Wednesday morning refused to
criticise Cameron directly when he was asked about the blunder at the
conference.
Instead he said he expected the UK to help him reclaim Nigerian
assets that had been fraudulently stripped from the country. Buhari
said: “I am not going to demand an apology from anybody. What I am
demanding is a return of assets … This is what I am asking for. What
would I do with an apology? I need something tangible.” Earlier,
Commonwealth Secretary General Baroness Scotland said Mr Cameron’s
remarks had been ‘unfortunate’ and countries like Nigeria needed support
rather than criticism. Mr Cameron’s candid comments risked causing
diplomatic ructions ahead of the major international anti-corruption
summit in London on Thursday.
As well as Buhari, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is due to
attend. He has also acknowledged corruption in his country and pledged
to clean it up. The gathering of the world’s political and business
leaders in London will aim to ‘galvanise a global response to tackle
corruption’ and is being staged in the wake of the Panama Papers leak,
which revealed widespread tax avoidance among the world’s elite earlier
this year.
Afghanistan is at number 166 in campaign group Transparency
International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index – second from
bottom. Only North Korea and Somalia, jointly ranked at number 167, are
perceived to be more corrupt. Nigeria is at number 136.