Following President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s resolve to fight corruption,
\nBritish High Commissioner to Nigeria, Sir Andrew Pocock has said the
\nPresident should break up the entire system and pick areas of interest,
\none after the other to recover stolen funds from the Federal Government
\ncoffer.<\/p>\n
Pocock said rather than addressing corruption as a whole, the President
\ncould look into the military\u2019s budget in terms of procurement or monies
\ndiverted from the Federation Account.<\/p>\n
The Ambassador, speaking during a live programme on ChannelsTv disclosed
\nthat the Nigerian Military, for instance have annual budgetary allocation
\nof about $5 billion, which according to him is sufficient to equip the
\nmilitary.<\/p>\n
Buhari on Tuesday vowed to recover stolen billions from the nation\u2019s
\ntreasury during his meeting with the 36 state governors.<\/p>\n
The state goernors have been experiencing cash crises following their
\ninability to pay workers\u2019 arrears in their respective states.<\/p>\n
Pocock said; \u201cPart of the issue is to trace and return stolen monies but
\nthat is only a tip of the iceberg. The real question is to break up the
\nsystem routines, organisations and individuals that contribute to the
\nleeching of Nigerian public money overseas. More important is to assault
\nthe mentality of seeing public money as a free gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
The envoy who stated that he was not in any way giving advice to the
\nPresident disclosed that Buhari might succeed if he fights corruption
\nacross board.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way to do it is to pick areas of primary focus and zero in on that.
\nSo if you are looking at military reform, it might be to look at
\nprocurement. If it is to look at the oil sector, it might be revenue
\ndiversion, money that never reaches the federation account never mind oil
\ntheft. So to breakup corruption cocoon\u00a0 into project sizes, you can focus
\non a particular difficulty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added that the Swiss government had been reactive in returning some of
\nthe stolen monies by former Military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha.<\/p>\n
According to Pocock, the present administration should complement its
\nmoves with actions to showcase that impunity is no longer a norm in the
\ncountry.
\nSpeaking on British intervention on insurgency, the ambassador disclosed
\nhis country\u2019s readiness to partner in the fight.<\/p>\n
He said the British government was ready to train the Nigerian Army
\nbattalion and brigades in Maiduguri.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we need more is access. Nigerian army should allow us to talk to the
\nvery senior people. Allow us access to the troops; provide us with the
\ntools that are required, communications, and uniforms. The troops are
\nthere but not as well equipped as they might have been. That can be
\nrectified. Nigeria has a military budget of 5 billion dollars a year that
\nis more than adequate to provide the basic inputs the troops need.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should be trained to give them confidence that they have good chance
\nof staying alive and winning,\u201d the envoy added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s resolve to fight corruption, British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Sir Andrew Pocock has said the President should break up the entire system and pick areas of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n