President Muhammadu Buhari has urged African leaders to fight tirelessly to get rid of corruption, lamenting that the continent has remained at the far end of global development index because of its menace.
The President spoke in his capacity as the African Union Champion on Efforts to Eliminate Corruption on the Continent, at a High-Level side event on ”Food Security Response: Combating Illicit Financial Flows and Securing Asset Returns for Sustainable Development’‘, on the margins of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly.
Providing his perspectives on the effects of corruption on the continent and the way forward at the event, co-hosted by African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development, AUDA-NEPAD, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, President Buhari said he was honored to serve as AU Champion on Anti-corruption since 2018:
”As you are all aware, this will be my last official participation at the United Nations General Assembly as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I remain honored and privileged to be President of Nigeria for two terms and I am grateful to the African Union for making me the Continental Organization’s Champion on efforts to eliminate corruption nationally and continent-wide. Over the years, we came to the painful realization on how deeply embedded corruption has become in our countries and continent, as well as how corrosive it can be. Corruption has dwarfed our growth and tainted our nations and continent. Africa remains at the far end of development index and concerted efforts made in the last few years need to be sustained, deepened by good governance and accountability that are guided by the rule of law’’, he said.
President Buhari, therefore, challenged his colleagues that for the continent to rise to its full potentials, ”we must work tirelessly to get rid of corruption or by fighting it 24/7.”
Our national resources must not find safe-havens around the world. This fight is a necessity and not a choice to give our citizens a better life through economic prosperity, social peace and security,” he reiterated.
Food security
On food security in Nigeria, the President disclosed that the government had financed 2.5 million smallholder farmers to cultivate about 3.2million hectares of farmland across the country, creating 10 million direct and indirect jobs.
He also acknowledged programmes initiated by the AU and ECOWAS to address food security, appraising that at the Federal level, the administration is working with state governments through initiatives such as the Anchor Borrowers Programme, to support local production of rice, maize, cotton, and cassava.
He expressed delight that the implementation of such programmes had resulted in a significant decline in the country’s large food import bill, from 2.2billion dollars in 2014 to 5.9 million dollars at the end of 2018.
The President said rice imports alone dropped from 1 billion dollars a year to 18.5 million dollars.
The President, however, cautioned that the goals could not be achieved if corruption, illicit financial flows, serious and organized crimes were not effectively addressed.
”Rice, wheat and fertilizer imports were riddled with gross corrupt practices such as over-invoicing and transfer pricing. It is only when these crimes are contained that we can secure the recovery and return of illicitly acquired assets to victim-countries, which will then provide the much-needed resources in the immediate term, to address development requirements,’’ he said.
Recovered assets
The President recounted that the administration had demonstrated effective utilization of recovered assets with the notable deployment of funds to three major infrastructure projects across the country namely; the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Abuja-Kano Expressway, and the Second Niger Bridge.
He pledged not to relent in efforts to curb illicit financial flows, engender food security, and achieve sustainable economic development.
President Buhari said measures had been instituted based on policy advisories by EFCC to block revenue leakages arising from crude oil theft, tax evasion, pension fraud, foreign exchange manipulations, travel document racketeering and tax evasion:
”Furthermore, the Common African Position on Asset Recovery (CAPAR) 2020 was recognized as taking a broader approach to include resources lost through any and all types of Illicit Financial Flows. It is therefore our hope, that the CAPAR can be a model for designing a global framework to address Illicit Financial Flows and I use this opportunity to call on the African Union to ensure effective implementation of the CAPAR in line with the vision encapsulated in the Agenda 2063.”
Global food crisis
Commenting on the global food crisis, which the United Nations estimates that nearly a billion people went hungry in 2021, the President described it as a collective shame on the world’s conscience, further exacerbated by increased illicit financial flows.
He expressed concern that criminals were taking advantage of global food crisis to perpetrate illicit financial flows, with the ongoing crisis in Ukraine disrupting energy and food supply chains, thus, negatively impacting the global economy.
President Buhari posited that food crises, illicit financial flows, and asset recovery were cross-cutting issues that necessarily needed to be addressed holistically through the effective adoption of multilateralism as highlighted in the theme of the 77th United Nations General Assembly: “A Watershed Moment: Transformative Solutions to Interlocking Challenges.”
In her remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of AUDA-NEPAD Nigeria, Princess Gloria Akobundu, said the event was s a continuation of the advocacy on good governance that started in 2017, and was adopted by the Forum in 2018 as an annual event with the objective to promote peer-to-peer learning for best practices and strengthen partnership for good governance.
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, had said that reports from law enforcement agencies, especially the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, showed that illicit financial flows, IFFS, had been undermining efforts to development, including food security.
According to him, the Nigerian government is dealing with the situation appropriately, stressing that President Buhari signed the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Act 2022, the Proceed of Crimes Act in a bid to sanitize the system.
RN
