NIGERIA THE MOST CORRUPT NATION? NIGERIA'S PRESIDENT DEMANDS NO APOLOGY BUT REPATRIATION OF STOLEN FUNDS

Afghan President

The blogosphere as well as the entire media world have gone berserk with the release of the video of the British Prime Minister  describing the Nigerian and Afghan nations as “possibly two most corrupt countries in the world”. The Prime Minister made the statement while addressing Her Majesty, The Queen of England at Buckingham Palace, during a cocktail in celebration of the Monarch’s 90^th birthday, about the upcoming Anti-corruption Summit in London later this week. He further referred to the countries as “fantastically corrupt”.

Policymakers have been worried about the implications of the statement on the British relationship with these countries. A media adviser to the Nigerian President has described the statement as “embarrassing” to the government of Nigeria, while an official at the Afghan embassy in London referred to the statement as being “unfair”. Both nations have queried the veracity of the statement in the light of the efforts of their present governments in purging these nations of the “corruption” stigma that has bedevilled their international relations. According to the statement released by the Afghan embassy, they assert that they

“have made important progress in fighting systematic capture in major national procurement contracts and are making progress on addressing institutional issues as well as issues related to impunity….”

On the other hand, Mr Shehu Garba, Senior Special Assistant to the Nigerian President added thus,

“Prime Minister must be looking at an old snapshot of Nigeria. Things are changing with corruption and everything else."

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The reactions from the leaders of these two countries points towards the conclusion of the Prime Minister that the two countries are “corrupt”, or to say in the most generous terms, were until now corrupt. Also, according to the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index released in 2015, Nigeria was ranked 136 out a possible list of 168 countries, while Afghanistan was 166 just above North Korea and Somalia.

The President of Nigeria

In fact, the President of Nigeria has umpteenth times referred to his country as the "most corrupt country" in the World. He further made the admission today upon his arrival in London that "Nigeria is corrupt", and that he would not "demand any apology" from the PM. Rather, he requested for "something tangible": the help of the British government for the repatriation of stolen funds which have been "laundered" into Britain by the so called "corrupt" officials.