President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said the international community unfortunately looked the other way when it came to tackling corruption, stressing that there was a need to jointly tackle this evil step by step.
This is as British Prime Minister David Cameron, who earlier described Nigeria as one of the “fantastically corrupt” countries in the world, commended Buhari’s war against corruption.
President Buhari reiterated his call to the international community to urgently create anti-corruption infrastructure and a strategic action plan to facilitate the speedy recovery and repatriation of stolen funds hidden in secret bank accounts abroad.
He said new measures that would be adopted by the summit should also include mechanisms that would assist countries like Nigeria to combat illegal activities, such as crude oil theft, “as Nigeria loses about $7 billion annually to oil theft.”
A statement by presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, read: ”When it comes tackling corruption, the international community has unfortunately looked away for too long. We need to step up and tackle this evil together. That is why we have gathered here today.
“Corruption creates a system where resources are shared by a small elite while the majority wallows in poverty. Corruption also undermines the ability of countries to finance development.
“I recall in this regard, the landmark Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the 3rd International Conference on Finance for Development held in January this year.
“A prominent feature of that global framework is the recognition that good governance and measures to combat corruption and curb illicit financial flows will be integral to the effort to attain sustainable development globally by the year 2050.
“It is for this reason that my Government is determined to address illicit financial outflows which have served as a major impediment to progress in our country.
“I wish to reiterate our demand that the global community must come up with mechanisms for dismantling safe havens for stolen funds and facilitate the return of stolen assets to their countries of origin”.
Other speakers at the opening session included the President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim and the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry.
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