Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said he will not be demanding “any apology from anybody” after UK Prime Minister David Cameron was heard, while speaking with the queen, calling Nigerians “fantastically corrupt”.
President Buhari, while speaking at an anti-corruption event in London, said he was more interested in the return of stolen assets held in various British banks.
A statement from President Buhari’s office on Wednesday revealed that he had been “deeply shocked and embarrassed” by Mr Cameron’s remarks. Buhari addressed the gathering at the anti-corruption event at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London.
Nigeria was ranked 136 out of 167 countries in Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.
According to Nigeria’s Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, 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”.
Buhari noted that corruption in Nigeria was endemic and his government was committed to fighting it.
However, Buhari praised the UK government for its help in efforts to repatriate stolen funds held in the UK.
“What would I do with an apology? I need something tangible,” Buhari said, referring to efforts to recover the money.
In a related development, anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International has criticised Mr Cameron’s comments, accusing the UK of being part of the problem by “providing a safe haven for corrupt assets” at home and in its overseas territories.
President Buhari echoed these concerns in his address, quoting from a previous study into corruption in the country’s oil sector.
“Nigerian crude oil is being stolen on an industrial scale and exported, with the proceeds laundered through world financial centres by transnational organised criminals,” he said.
