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’.
He 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.