Vice-President, Yemi
Osinbajo has said that corruption should be treated as a crime
against humanity.
Osinbajo also said
that Nigeria had been facing difficulty in recovering looted funds
from foreign countries.
The VP made the
comments on Thursday, March 30, while speaking at an anti-corruption
forum in Paris.
“Countries hosting
global financial centers, and other usually targeted destinations of
illicit flows must be held more accountable to enforce mechanisms
which ensure transparency of ownership, control, beneficial
ownerships, trusts and other legal contrivances that may be used to
camouflage financial or other assets,” he said.
“Open contracting
and information systems, are also crucial. Responsible government
authorities ought to have information about which companies won what
contracts, and what they have paid as taxes to governments in host
and home countries.
“This is
especially important for the extractive industry. Nigeria is
committed to these standards having joined the Open Government
Partnership in 2016.
“The tracing,
freezing and return of stolen assets has proved in many cases to be
exceptionally difficult for most African countries. We in Nigeria
have seen just how difficult it is to get back stolen assets from the
international financial system, banks, that ought not have received
those funds in the first place if the most routine question were
asked.
“There is now
hardly any credible opposition to the notion that corruption and
Illicit financial flows constitute perhaps the gravest challenge to
development. And this is especially true of developing countries.
“Indeed there is
a sense in which corruption, grand corruption should be regarded as a
crime against humanity. Corruption and illicit financial flows are
different. But they really must be twinned. This is because for
practical purposes it is an eminently more sensible approach to treat
most of the sources of illicit financial flows as corrupt activity,
within a broader use of the term,” he added.
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