Buhari dismisses Cameron's remarks as out of date as they do not reflect today's Nigeria

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has dismissed remarks made by British prime minister David Cameron describing Nigeria as one of the most corrupt nations on earth yesterday saying his government is combating the menace.

 

At a private meeting with the Queen of England, Mr Cameron described Nigeria and Afghanistan as fantastically corrupt countries. He made the remarks on the eve of an anti-corruption summit in London which President Buhari is attending and speaking at along with the Afghan president Ashraf Ghani.

 

Mt Cameron's comments have sparked a furore from Nigerians at home and in the diaspora but President Buhari has responded saying the British prime minister's unguarded remark was not reflective of his administration’s fight against corruption. President Buhari also thanked the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who tried to correct Mr Cameron after his remarks.

 

President Buhari's spokesman Mallam Garba Shehu, said: “It is certainly not reflective of the good work that the president is doing as the eyes of the world are on what is happening here. The Prime Minister must be looking at an old snapshot of Nigeria as things are changing with corruption and everything else, which we believe is the reason they chose him as a keynote speaker at the pre-summit conference.”

 

President Buhari added: “Thank you to the Archbishop. We very much cherish the good relationship between our two countries and nothing should stand in the way of improving those relations.”

Also coming out in Nigeria’s defence yesterday was Transparency International, the global anti-corruption watchdog, stating that the nation was making strong efforts in the fight against corruption. It also suggested that a statement by the British Prime Minister was hypocritical.

 

Transparency International’s managing director, Cobus de Swardt, said: "The UK was actually the country that is a big part of the world’s corruption problem. There is no doubt that historically, Nigeria and Afghanistan have had very high levels of corruption and that continues to this day.

“However, the leaders of those countries have sent strong signals that they want things to change and the London anti-corruption summit creates an opportunity for all the countries present to sign up to a new era. This affects the UK as much as other countries and we should not forget that by providing a safe haven for corrupt assets, the UK and its overseas territories and crown dependencies are a big part of the world’s corruption problem.”

 

Nigeria currently ranks 136 of 168 countries and territories ranked in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index for the year 2015. According to the BBC, the British prime minister was briefing the Queen about the forthcoming anti-corruption summit when he made the comments, calling the prime minister’s comments a truthful gaffe because the two countries involved are widely perceived as having a corruption problem.