The government of the United Kingdom yesterday has said the level of corruption in Nigeria affects it directly and it would take steps to protect the integrity of its financial system.
UK’s Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth, Grant Shapps, who was in Kaduna yesterday to meet with Governor Nasir El-Rufai, said there would be no impunity on the side of his government in tackling corruption, promising that it would take prompt action against anyone who commits criminal offence under UK jurisdiction. “Where assets are recovered, we will return them to Nigeria as soon as we can so they can be used for Nigerian development,” he said.
He expressed support for the anti-corruption stance of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and suggested four ways in which the Nigerian government could tackle corruption and reduce poverty.
He said the Buhari administration needed to improve transparency in the oil and gas sector so that all revenues in the sector are accounted for, develop transparent and credible budgets at all levels to ensure that funds are used as planned, cut wastes and leakages from the public sector to ensure that resources deliver services and build the law enforcement agencies’ capacity to investigate, prosecute and convict those that break the rules.
“Corruption is present in very society including the UK. No country is immune. But the solution is not simply to accept it. The solution is better government. That is why the anti-corruption agenda is important to the UK,” he said.
Governor El-Rufai in his response expressed gratitude for the UK’s assistance to Nigeria in the last general elections.
