Osinbajo warns care must be taken against corruption fight-back overwhelming the government

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has said corruption is fighting back “so eloquently” that it can overwhelm the Government if care is not taken.

He said this at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja yesterday at an international conference on anti-corruption and recovery of looted funds.

According to the acting president, the ongoing anti-graft war in the country is facing a major fightback in the media.

“There is a media war, between people fighting corruption and those behind the stolen funds.

The major suspects refer to their trial as “media trial,” he said, but added: “I don’t know what that means. If you discover for instance large sums of money in an air conditioned room, there is no where it will not make news anywhere in the world.”

He stated that the idea of legitimising corruption was “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,” he said.

Quoting from the Mbeki report Osinbajo said most of the illicit funds from Africa were from Nigeria, stressing that security agencies should do more as “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 Kaduna.

“…Clearly it is sometimes absurd that when we are asking for aid and so much money are being stolen. So, we, ourselves, must take responsibility and ensure we keep talking about this.”

The acting President noted that many countries had signed treaties against illicit drugs trade and illegal traffic in persons but added: “Somehow, proceeds from political corruption have 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 loots money where people make decent living that is more criminal than crime against humanity, more dangerous than trafficking in drugs.”

He accused foreign financial institutions of conniving with those transferring stolen assets, saying: “There is no way the transfer of these assets can happen without a handshake between the countries from where 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”.

He said those financial institutions must be delegitimised and criminalised so that they could be made to face the consequences of engaging in criminal practices. “If that isn’t done, we are not likely to go very far.”

“In the agreements and conventions we will be signing, we must find a way and ensure that financial institutions are not given a free run and hold them accountable,” Osinbajo stated.

The acting president said African countries must see it as their responsibility to find stolen monies and ensure they are returned.

“It is not enough to talk about it. Some countries are somehow reluctant about it, many have civil processes that make 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 emphasise at every point and call out institutions that are not cooperating and ensuring that they recognise that this, for us, is a serious issue.

“Like President Buhari has said repeatedly that if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us. When corrupt money finds safe havens, it will begin to fight back and if government is not careful, it can fight back.”