Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari doesn’t want an apology from U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron for calling his country “fantastically corrupt.” What he wants, he told audience members at the civil society event, “Tackling Corruption Together” in London on Wednesday, is the return of assets stolen from Nigeria and currently being held in British banks.
Speaking ahead of an anti-corruption summit in London on Thursday, Buhari underlined the role developed countries play in propagating corruption, money laundering and illicit cash flows, often cutting into the potential domestic resources of developing countries and hurting the world’s poorest.
The summit was convened by Cameron in the wake of the Panama leaks, which revealed the identities and financial activities of more than 200 clients of Panama-based corporate service provider Mossack-Fonseca. While largely technically legal, the revelations turned the spotlight on the exploitative effects of tax havens and offshore finance on developing economies and brought renewed calls for international action against corruption.
About the author
Molly Andersmollyanders_dev
Molly Anders is a former U.K. correspondent for Devex. Based in London, she reports on development finance trends with a focus on British and European institutions. She is especially interested in evidence-based development and women’s economic empowerment, as well as innovative financing for the protection of migrants and refugees. Molly is a former Fulbright Scholar and studied Arabic in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.