Apology? No thanks, we need our money back, says Buhari
British papers accuse PM of hypocrisy, president says oil firms are complicit in oil theft

British Prime Minister David Cameron wednesday attempted to reverse his unguarded remark about Nigeria and Afghanistan, two countries which on Tuesday, he, described as “fantastically corrupt”, when he was briefing Queen Elizabeth II on the ongoing anti-corruption summit being hosted by the United Kingdom.

While briefing Members of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons wednesday, the British PM said Nigeria and Afghanistan had taken “remarkable steps forward” on corruption, reported the BBC.

The PM said the countries’ leaders were “battling hard” to tackle the problem.

His attempt at a mea culpa came after Buhari, who arrived London on Tuesday evening for the summit, said Cameron’s gaffe was not reflective of his administration’s fight against corruption.

However, when asked yesterday by journalists at the pre-anti-corruption conference in London if Nigeria was “fantastically corrupt”, Buhari candidly replied, “Yes”, adding that corruption in Nigeria was endemic, but his government was committed to fighting it.

He went on to state that he was not going to demand an apology from Britain or Cameron, making it abundantly clear that he was more interested in the return of Nigeria’s assets held in British banks.

“I am not going to be demanding any apology from anybody. What I will be demanding is the return of assets. I have already mentioned how Britain led and how disgraceful one of Nigeria’s executives (former Bayelsa Governor, the late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha) was. He had to dress like a woman to leave Britain and left behind his bank account and fixed assets which Britain is not prepared to hand over to us.

“This is what I am asking for. What will I do with an apology? I need something tangible,” he said.
Also in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour wednesday, Buhari refused to be defensive over Cameron’s statement, saying: “Well he said what he knows about both countries. He did not say what he said to the press, it was a private conversation.”

In its reaction, the Afghan embassy in London said tackling corruption was one of President Ashraf Ghani’s top priorities and “bold” action had been taken.

“We have made important progress in fighting systematic corruption in major national procurement contracts and are making progress on addressing institutional issues as well as issues related to impunity… therefore calling Afghanistan in that way is unfair,” the embassy said.

According to the BBC, Cameron was asked about his comments on Nigeria and Afghanistan during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, where he jokingly checked if his microphone was working, refering to “tips on diplomacy” and said he had made “many unforced errors” in the past 24 hours.

Answering a question from Tory backbencher Philip Davies, who asked why UK aid was being given to countries that the PM sees as corrupt, in his reply, Cameron praised the action taken by Afghanistan and Nigeria and warned that cutting off aid could “come back to haunt us here”.

He also defended the action by his own government, including initiatives on overseas tax havens and measures to make sure “plundered money from African countries can’t be hidden in London”.

In the footage showing Cameron’s comments on Tuesday, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby intervened to say: “But this particular president is not corrupt… he’s trying very hard,” before Speaker John Bercow said: “They are coming at their own expense, one assumes?”

Earlier, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the PM had been “merely stating a fact” in his comments, and ex-London mayor Boris Johnson said people would “find it refreshing he was speaking his mind”.

Downing Street said the presidents of Nigeria and Afghanistan had “acknowledged the scale of the corruption challenge they face in their countries”.
But Labour MPs said a Tory government “hosting an anti-corruption summit was like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop”.

“The government is refusing to take meaningful action to close Britain’s constellation of tax havens, which together constitute the largest financial secrecy network in the world,” said Shadow International Development Secretary Diane Abbott.

Similarly, British papers — The Guardian and Telegraph — accused Cameron, Britain and the west of hypocrisy.
“They have spent decades ordering poor countries and failed states to sort out their problems with dodgy money, even while taking much of that dodgy money and ploughing it through their banks, their ritzy stores, their estate agents, and their offshore tax havens,” The Guardian wrote in its editorial wednesday.

In an Op-ed piece in the Telegraph written by David Davis and Jo Cox, the authors said: “The Panama Papers have shifted the focus of corruption far up the supply chain, to the people who make corruption possible – and those people are often rather closer to home.

“But careful readers of the Panama Papers will notice an important fact that should have given Cameron pause for thought before he made his comments to the Queen. More than half of the companies named in law firm Mossack Fonseca files are incorporated in Britain’s own tax havens. In fact, a full 50 per cent of the companies are from the British Virgin Islands.

“The Prime Minister knows this. Look at what he said just a few months ago: ‘Some of the British Crown Dependences and Overseas Territories are making progress […]. Others, frankly, are not moving anywhere near fast enough. […] If we want to break the business model of stealing money and hiding it in places where it can’t be seen, transparency is the answer’.”

Transparency International had also acknowledged that the UK’s record was mixed and concrete action was needed on tax evasion and secrecy in the wake of the Panama Papers’ disclosures, stopping tainted firms from bidding for public contracts and protecting whistleblowers who expose corruption.

Asked whether the PM knew his remarks to the Queen were being recorded, Downing Street said: “The cameras are very close to him, there are multiple cameras in the room.”

At a garden party later on Tuesday, the Queen herself was filmed on camera making comments about the Chinese government.
She told a senior police officer that she had heard the Chinese had been very rude to Britain’s ambassador to China during President Xi Jinping’s state visit last year.

Meanwhile, Buhari, at a pre-summit forum yesterday in London, gave his commitment to applying the rule of law and to respecting human rights in the fight against corruption.

The president, in a speech he made at a Commonwealth event titled, “Tackling Corruption Together: A Conference for Civil Society, Business and Government Leaders”, said he had also instructed security agencies to respect human rights while carrying out their duties.

He said: “I am not unaware of the challenges of fighting corruption in a manner consistent with respect for human rights and the rule of law. As a country that came out of prolonged military rule only 16 years ago, it will clearly take time to change the mentality and psychology of law enforcement officers.

“I am committed to applying the rule of law and to respecting human rights. I also require our security agencies to do the same.”

Ostensibly referring to the prolonged detention of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki, and the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, who had both been granted bail by courts of competent jurisdictions, Buhari however admitted that in a few cases “stringent rules” had been applied as a result of threats to national security and the likelihood that certain persons might escape from the country or seek to undermine the stability of Nigeria.

The president consequently sought the support of many countries for the prosecution of certain individuals residing in their jurisdictions.

He said: “Of course, we will provide the necessary legal documents and whatever mutual assistance is required to secure the conviction of such individuals, as well as facilitate the repatriation of our stolen assets.”

Buhari further observed that he had since discovered that the repatriation of corrupt proceeds was very tedious, time consuming, costly and entailed more than just the signing of bilateral or multilateral agreements.

He said: “This should not be the case as there are provisions in the appropriate United Nations Convention that require countries to return assets to countries from where it is proven that they were illegitimately acquired.”
Buhari added that Nigeria was disposed to forging strategic partnerships with governments, civil society organisations, the organised private sector and international organisations to combat corruption.
“Our sad national experience had been that domestic perpetrators of corrupt practices often worked hand-in-hand with international criminal cartels,” he said.

According to him, stolen public funds were often transferred abroad into secret accounts.
He therefore called for the establishment of an international anti-corruption infrastructure that will monitor, trace and facilitate the return of such assets to their countries of origin.

He further stressed that the repatriation of identified stolen funds should be done without delay or preconditions.
Buhari also told the gathering that apart from looting of public funds, Nigeria was also confronted with illegal activities in the oil sector.

He said: “That this industry has been enmeshed in corruption with the participation of the staff of some of the oil companies is well established. Their participation enabled oil theft to take place on a massive scale.”
He cited a report released by Chatham House in London in 2013, titled “Nigeria’s Criminal Crude: International Options to Combat the Export of Stolen Oil”.

According to him, the findings of the Chatham House document were “illuminating and troubling”.
Part of the Report, he told the gathering, concluded that: “a) Nigerian crude oil is being stolen on an industrial scale and exported, with the proceeds laundered through world financial centres by transnational organised criminals.

“b) Oil theft is a specie of organised crime that is almost totally off the international community’s radar, as Nigeria’s trade and diplomatic partners have taken no real action.

“c) Nigeria cannot stop the trade single-handedly, and there is limited value in countries going it alone.”
Buhari then said that the menace of oil theft in Nigeria, put at over 150,000 barrels per day, was a criminal enterprise involving internal and external perpetrators.

“Illicit oil cargoes and their proceeds move across international borders. Opaque and murky as these illegal transactions may be, they are certainly traceable and can be acted upon, if all governments show the required political will.

“This will has been the missing link in the international efforts hitherto. Now in London, we can turn a new page by creating a multi-state and multi-stakeholder partnership to address this menace,” he said.

Buhari also called on the international community to designate oil theft as an international crime similar to the trade in “blood diamonds”, saying it constituted an imminent and credible threat to the economy and stability of oil-producing countries like Nigeria.

To stem the tide, the president advocated an agreement on a rules-based architecture to combat corruption in all its forms and manifestations.

He said the anti-corruption crusade should be a shared agenda for civil society, businesses and governments requiring commitment from companies, creating a space for civil society and governments providing support for whistle-blowers, adding that governments must demonstrate unquestionable political will and commitment to the fight against corruption.

According to him, “The private sector must come clean and be transparent, and civil society, while keeping a watch on all stakeholders, must act and report with a sense of responsibility and objectivity.”
He said Nigeria was committed to signing the Open Government Partnership initiatives alongside Cameron during the summit today.

Source: http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/05/12/cameron-makes-u-turn-praises-nigerias-fight-against-corruption/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

Give us our stolen money back pls.

No take care of ur country, dey worry urself about our own

Paid journalist everywhere. Our president is source of this insult.

Pls can some one put this note in one statement?
Just the way he said Nigeria is fantastically corrupt!

Hmmmmmm

Cameron is a chameleon.
The guy is now changing tune because bubu asked him to give us back our stolen assets. Cameron is technically corrupt!

While he's making the u-turn, he should make sure he signals his people to start preparing the necessary paperwork for a full repatriation of our stolen assets hidden in his backyard.

That is all Baba said, that is what we need.

That's politics for you. Anyway I don't blame him, since he said it in an not-so-official meeting. He was just chatting with the Queen when he said that. Everybody has the right to say whatever they want to say provided its in secret.

At least, this will make him release our loots in UK accounts as a way of pacifying Buhari

This CAMEROON man self!

He should have simply stuck with the hard truth he said.

Buhari still my hero

mr Buhari,Diepreye Alamieyeseigha looted from Bayelsa state treasure & not from Federal govt treasury,it is the responsibility of the Bayelsa state governor seriak Dickson to go after tht money & not you coz i can see how desperate u are for power,money & oyel.
so back off !!!

I thought this money ought to be given to bayelsa state and not d federal government. ...just thinking aloud

akp202:
I thought this money ought to be given to bayelsa state and not d federal government. ...just thinking aloud

And where did Bayelsa get the money from?

***Modified***

If there's anybody to be blamed for David Cameron's “fantastically” offensive comment on Nigeria, it should be our corrupt & useless leaders who have always been sucking-up to them.

We have told you times without number that Russia is the only Country in the history of Heaven & Earth that has never done ANY evil to Africa.

The goal of the AngloZionist empire is to keep Africa perpetually enslaved and impoverished for eternity using their most potent enslaving weapons - IMF & the World Bank.

Now, let us not forget that the World Bank & the IMF were set up during the end of ww2 to rebuild the economies of Europe.

However, in order for the world bank and the IMF to implement their evil policies, they (the world bank and the IMF) began offering loans to poor countries but only if the poor countries privatized their economies & allowed western corporations free access to their raw materials and markets.

That was a poverty trap and many poor countries were already in chains before they realized it.

In other words, the poor in Africa continue to feed the greedy rich corporations in the western world. The poor get poorer while the rich get richer.

People continue to die from extreme poverty and hunger in Africa & other parts of the world but not so many people know the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO are behind almost all these.

Take a country like Ghana for example. Ghana is blessed with abundance of natural resources. The World Bank and the IMF are very interested in countries such as Ghana where they can easily control the natural resources and the markets.

There used to be some prosperous rice farming communities in the northern parts of Ghana & the government of Ghana used to give those rice producing farmers some farming subsidies to enable them produce rice on a large scale to help feed the nation.
However, the world bank and the IMF stood in and told the Ghanaian government they (the world bank and the IMF) would not give Ghana any more loans unless the Ghanaian government cut the farming subsidies the government was giving to the poor rice farmers and the main reason behind it was that, Ghana had to import rice from western countries such as the Amerika (a major partner of the world bank and the IMF).

Now Ghana imports most of its rice from abroad at huge prices every year. So at the end of the day, Ghana owes the World Bank and the IMF huge amounts of money but the money did not remain in the Ghanaian economy because Ghana had to use the loan to import food from abroad.

Meanwhile, the rice producing communities in Ghana could have helped produce enough rice to feed the nation and even export some abroad to make more profit. Now the northern communities in Ghana remain the poorest in the country with no better jobs and no opportunities at all in most parts.

Although the money was returned to them, we still owe them. That is why most developing countries owe the World Bank and the IMF a lot in loans. Sometimes you hear "debt cancellations" and you may think they forgive poor countries their debts but that is not how it works in reality.

The World Bank and the IMF never forgive and because of the huge debts developing countries owe the World Bank, they (the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or the IMF, the World Trade Organization or WTO, and the United States of America a major partner of the World Bank) control almost all the affairs of those poor countries. In other words, if you don't obey what the World Bank and the IMF say then you must pay back the debt and because you cannot pay back the debt, you must obey whatever they tell you to do.

Any leader who doesn't obey the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, etc. is considered a "terrorist" and must be assassinated in most cases. For example, when there is an oil discovery in a developing country (that owes the World Bank) and the leader of that developing country is not ready to co-operate (so western corporations can easily take over the oil exploration), the World Bank and co quickly get rid of such a leader sometimes through war (just like what happened in Iraq).

The World Bank elects their own "obedient" leaders to rule those poor countries so that they (the World Bank, IMF and co) can easily control that country's economy and market.

And this is how Amerika & her allies have been raping Africa since the end of ww2.

Zoharariel:


And where did Bayelsa get the money from?

D money came from d federation account and that was an allocation to Bayelsa state. D fact that it came from d federation account does not justify it been given to d federal government

Nigeria economy......
our population no reach 1billion for naija now...
I swear ...if F.G fit dey give 2million naira each....per annum...
everyone will be better......




garri 25naira per cup

Medicine after death.
Even the zombies from far north and SW are saying give us back our money. Which money, Bayelsa money? You people need Jesus.



Dickson shine your eyes o

Okay, Cameron,just Bring our money back

Yeye!
Oyinbo people are so tricky.
Nonsense!

ok but i cant read the long write up..

Coming after thought! The damage has been done
We all know where they placed Nigeria in the corruption cadre.

Nigeria will be great......

I believe this is not from his heart, anyways let bayelsa state have their money back it's not buharis money!

Doesn't take from the fact that this government is FANTASTICALLY CORRUPT




But Cameron isn't apologising now
Why are people screaming apology up and down

Bring back our looted money

Buhari, the zombies said you are the best for them!

While you are over there, your junior Petroleum Minister said PMS is been increased to #145 , will you disappoint your Zombies and allow it that way or will you disappoint the Wailers and cancel it back to not more than #100!?

Nigerians/Nigeria are Fantastically and cokecastically corrupt









The whole system is faulty, hypocritical Nigerians wants to chop the British pm.

Dear Cameron