President Buhari 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.
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For me, I agree that there is no need for any apology. After all, corruption is still attaining new heights in PMB's government. No light, no fuel, ... see the disparity between the official exchange rate and parallel market rate. That's only comparable to Abacha's time where we had 22 official and almost 85 parallel. Previous ratings on corruption fid not rate the malaise as fantastic. Now we have attained that ignoble height. Sorry ooo, fantastically corrupt people 😡
ReplyDeleteAbokin parawo, shima parawo ne.
ReplyDeleteBuhari is close to 90yrs old while Mr Cameron is only 48yrs old..
ReplyDeleteBuhari is already senile , i bet he doesnt know what he is doing, for his age he could even forgetfull every minute, some close peeps are now using him
ReplyDeleteA 48 year old Mr Cameron is politely insulting an 85 year old Mr Buhari.
For Real, Mr Cameron is sure of what he said and he is directly insinuating to Mr Buhari.
This is a sarcastic way of telling Buhari to sit his ass down in his country and take care of his people,
instead of looking for every opportunity to fly out of Nigeria and be wasting his countries scarce forex resources.
Mr Cameron flies Virgin Air or British airways
whereas Mr Buhari rolls with a crew of 40 to 50 persons with a presidential jet, all crew receives special allowance or estacodes in USD. Imagine over 85 persons following Buhari to China!!!!
This is outright wastage of resources or call it ‘fantastically corrupt’ in the real sense of the word.
The British are well inaundated with reports that Mr Buharis ministers were very corrupt governors back then,
one made a website with N85million , dug a simple borehole in the government house with N33million among
several billion dollars of questionable capital projects and another bled the coffers of Rivers State dry with impunity, while the Buhari supposed anti corruption crusade focused on the opposition figures instead of a wholistics approach. etc etc.
The British newspaper The Mail already dwelled on this topic a while ago, they wondered why Buhari is paying closed a 100,000GBP annually for his daughters education in the UK, whereas there is are over 70 universities in Nigeria. blah blah blah
The last time Mr Buhari visited the United states for the nuclear summit , Obama politely refused to see him, instead
John Kerry was told to attend to him. Is like telling Mr Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau our current Minister
Internal affairs to receive and attend to Mr Obama if he comes to Nigeria.
Okay, the foreign gvernments dont even want to return the stolen loot in their countries because if they do
Mr Buhari will use it for his travelling expenses and for investigating corruption case.
This is what the The Uk The Mail newspapers stated korokoro.
Baba please sit at home and fix Nigeria. As they say,... The answer to the question is in the question.
Dr Ogechi Anumudu (Ms)
Lecturer at American University Dubai U.A.E
oge_1980@gmail.com
Are YOU ok madam?
DeleteA 48 year old Mr Cameron is politely insulting an 85 year old Mr Buhari.
ReplyDeleteFor Real, Mr Cameron is sure of what he said and he is directly insinuating to Mr Buhari.
This is a sarcastic way of telling Buhari to sit his ass down in his country and take care of his people,
instead of looking for every opportunity to fly out of Nigeria and be wasting his countries scarce forex resources.
Mr Cameron flies Virgin Air or British airways
whereas Mr Buhari rolls with a crew of 40 to 50 persons with a presidential jet, all crew receives special allowance or estacodes in USD. Imagine over 85 persons following Buhari to China!!!!
This is outright wastage of resources or call it ‘fantastically corrupt’ in the real sense of the word.
The British are well inaundated with reports that Mr Buharis ministers were very corrupt governors back then,
one made a website with N85million , dug a simple borehole in the government house with N33million among
several billion dollars of questionable capital projects and another bled the coffers of Rivers State dry with impunity, while the Buhari supposed anti corruption crusade focused on the opposition figures instead of a wholistics approach. etc etc.
The British newspaper The Mail already dwelled on this topic a while ago, they wondered why Buhari is paying closed a 100,000GBP annually for his daughters education in the UK, whereas there is are over 70 universities in Nigeria. blah blah blah
The last time Mr Buhari visited the United states for the nuclear summit , Obama politely refused to see him, instead
John Kerry was told to attend to him. Is like telling Mr Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau our current Minister
Internal affairs to receive and attend to Mr Obama if he comes to Nigeria.
Okay, the foreign gvernments dont even want to return the stolen loot in their countries because if they do
Mr Buhari will use it for his travelling expenses and for investigating corruption case.
This is what the The Uk The Mail newspapers stated korokoro.
Baba please sit at home and fix Nigeria. As they say,... The answer to the question is in the question.
Dr Ogechi Anumudu (Ms)
Lecturer at American University Dubai U.A.E
oge_1980@gmail.com
bring back our stolen money .
ReplyDeletethe illegal wealth is growing your economy n it is sweet to collect dirty money cameron, mean while you seem to forget the panama papers where your father hid his wealth