Skip to main content

REPATRIATION OF NIGERIA'S STOLEN WEALTH: BY UWAKWE ROLAND C.O

Vilfred Pareto once said of his native Italy that “to live in this country, one must be either a thief or a friend of thieves”. What Pareto said of Italy many years ago is true of Nigeria as no political office holder could be said to be free of this ugly plague that have destroyed the social, political and economic spheres of the society, hence the recent statement by the British Prime Minister David Cameron, that Nigeria is “fantastically corrupt” is not far from the truth. Albeit, it should not have come from a British PM considering his country’s level of complicity in the underdevelopment of Nigeria right from the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods.
Apart from shoplifting the money meant for the development in their different communities, most Nigerian leaders commit double tragedy by investing the funds in other parts of the world at the detriment of more pressing needs at home, it is estimated that over 400 billion US dollars and other properties owned by Nigerian leaders are stored in most European nations, our leaders succeed in this undesirable investments because most of European nations including Britain offer safe havens for such funds.
President Buhari while addressing world leaders at the 70th General Assembly of UN, urged world leaders to redouble their efforts to strengthen mechanism for dismantling safe havens for proceeds of corruption, saying that corruption and cross border financial crimes are impediments to development, economic growth and the realization of the well-being of citizens across the globe. The President also reaffirmed this belief at the recent anti-corruption summit organized by the British government.
However, apart from speaking in summits, conferences and workshops the President should engage the leaders of different nations in bilateral agreements like the one Nigeria had with United Arab Emirates, UAE that created mutual legal assistance on criminal and commercial matters which includes the recovery and repatriation of stolen wealth.
All over the world, countries are fighting corruption but the level of commitment differs, hence the President must work assiduously to encourage world leaders to quickly return such ill-gotten wealth back to Nigeria for the nation’s development. Therefore every well-meaning Nigeria must support President Buhari’s move in steaming the trend of wealth transfer and in making sure that these funds are brought back for the progress of the nation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE GAINS AND LOSSES OF THE ABSENCE OF MR PRESIDENT: BY UWAKWE ROLAND.

President Muhammadu Buhari has been absent from duty since the last few months on a purported medical checkup in London. Good a thing he legally transferred power to the Vice President who is now the acting President, this is unlike the imbroglio that played out during Yar’adua’s time when the National Assembly had to invoke the doctrine of necessity so as to effectively transfer power to then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. The problem is that even as an acting President, Yemi Osinbanjo has limited powers to fully assume responsibility as the commander in chief, this is because most of the big government functionaries may still owe their loyalty to Mr President, couple with this, Buhari appointed people of his like minds who may not comfortably work with the acting President that will want to bring his knowledge of law and practice into governance. Hence the long absence of Mr President may eventually result to a slow down of democratic dividends. The above ...
Post a Comment
Read more

RAPE, ITS JUSTIFICATION AND VICTIM SHAMING

It's sad that this is a world where things are not perfect but isn't that why we have laws; to correct the ills in society? I read today on a blog about a filmmaker who said that "nonviolent rape" should be legalized and that the reason rapists were raping girls was because they were sexually frustrated and that girls should accept it and even prepare themselves for it by carrying condoms and cooperating with their rapists. In fact it is clear that civilization is beyond running water and having flushable toilets, a lot of minds are still in a dark place. Before you join the number of people condemning him, think of how you shame victims of rape by suggesting that somehow they did something to provoke the animal instinct in the rapist. The dust hasn't settled yet on the case of Busola Dakolo and Biodun Fatoyinbo where an Abuja high court struck out the case and called an abuse of court processes and said it was statue barred. They were irregularities as cited by ...
Post a Comment
Read more

LOVE IS OVERRATED

We often mistake lust for love and many people mistake infatuation for true love. So many people preach that if you are no longer happy in a marriage then you should just call it quits. How about telling people to remember what made them happy in the first place and work on getting back to that place. A man wakes up in the morning and tells his wife he wants a divorce because he has fallen in love with someone else even when children are involved. The fact that you once proposed marriage to a person means you once considered her above every woman, how then do you discover years into the marriage that you love another? Especially after having kids. You probably have seen a slimmer woman or a pretty face or a sexy woman and concluded that you now have a new love. The desire for something new is not usually love but an attraction which can be classified as lust or infatuation. Any time you put your new flame above your children, then you know that you are deep in lust. Sex is an integra...
Post a Comment
Read more