Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday confirmed that
corrupt former and current officials have declared war against the
anti-corruption efforts of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
He spoke in Abuja at the Conference on Promoting
International Co-operation in Combating Illicit Financial Flows and Enhancing
Asset Recovery to Foster Sustainable Development.
“In Nigeria for instance where corruption fights back so
eloquently that government itself if not careful can be overwhelmed,” Osinbajo
said.
“If you look at the anti-corruption fight in Nigeria there
is a major fight back in the media. There is a media war, between people
fighting corruption and those behind the stolen funds.”
Osinbajo’s full speech below…
“This is my first time of attending a conference that talks
about recovering assets and the issue of what to do with the stolen assets.
Even though we have been able to convince ourselves that the
proceeds from drug trafficking were dirty money but proceeds of corruption are
not dirty money.
Many countries have signed treaties that proceeds from
drugs, illegal traffic in persons proceeds of money.
Somehow proceeds from political corruption has not attracted
the same outrage that proceeds from narcotics and trafficking in persons have
attracted.
It took years for some people to agree that when somebody
loot money where people make decent living that is more criminal than crime
against humanity, more dangerous than trafficking in drugs.
Is a good thing that we are here with our partners who agree
that not only are these stolen assets criminalize but that they are returned to
their appropriate owners.
There is no way this the transfer of this assets can happen
without a handshake between the countries that they are transferred and the
international banking institutions in the countries in which they are
transferred, there is no way it will happen without some form of connivance.
We have to look at somehow delegitimizing those kinds of
Financial institutions and criminalizing them, so that banks and financial
institutions that actually engage in this are be called out and made to face
the consequences of engaging in criminal practices. If that isn’t done we are
not likely to go very far.
For there to be collaboration there must first be
connivance, in the agreement and conventions we will be signing we must find
away and ensure that financial institutions are not given a free run and hold
them accountable.
Another point is that African countries and developing
countries must realize that is our responsibility to ensure not only find get
these monies and make sure that there are return.
Corrupt
serving, ex-officials at war with Buhari’s government – Osinbajo
It is not enough to talk about it. Some countries are
somehow reluctant about it, many have civil processes that makes it difficult,
they say our courts are handling this matter and there is very little we can do
about.
We must make it a national call, a call for other developing
countries to have the same outrage for drugs, terrorist financing for illicit
financial flows. We must emphasis at every point and call out institutions that
are not cooperating and ensuring that they recognize that this for us a serious
issue.
Like President Buhari has said repeatedly that if we don’t
kill corruption, corruption will kill it. When corrupt monies find safe havens,
it will begin to fight back and if government is not careful it can fight back.
In Nigeria for instance where corruption fights back so
eloquently that government itself if not careful can be overwhelmed.
If you look at the anticorruption fight in Nigeria there is
a major fight back in the media. There is a media war, between people fighting
corruption and those behind the stolen funds.
It is called media trial, I don’t know what that means. If
you discover for instance large sums of money in an air condition room there is
no where it will not make news anywhere in the world.
So, this whole idea of trying to legitimize corruption is
definitely being fuelled and sponsored by those who have these resources, who
have stolen funds. Unless we see it as a problem that can bring down our system
then we will never be able to fight. I hope we will be able to advance this
with other African countries.
The Mbeki report shows that most of the illicit funds flow
that comes out of Africa are from Nigeria and that shows us very clearly
especially the security agencies that we simply have to do more. It is evident
that so much money is leaving our shores.
I was arguing with somebody about the fact that they were
stopping certain funding, and he kept telling me Nigeria is no longer a poor
country but now a mid-income earning country so they shouldn’t be giving us
those kinds of aids.
It was barely a week after that a large sum of money was
found at the Kaduna airport and it was roughly about half of the money we were
looking for.
So, he sent me a text telling me that the money has been
discovered at the Kaduna. Of course, I didn’t reply him but when he persisted
and called him and asked if this was his own form of a joke.
But clearly is sometimes absurd that when we are asking for
aid and so much money is being stolen. So, we ourselves must take
responsibility and ensure we keep talking about this.”
