Sir Andrew Pocock, British High Commissioner to Nigeria, has given recommendation to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on how to return the money stolen by the previous government.
The commissioner said rather than addressing corruption as a whole, Buhari could look into the army’s budget in terms of procurance or monies diverted from the Federation Account.
Pocock spoke about this in a live programme on ChannelsTv.
He said: “Part of the issue is to trace and return stolen monies but that is only a tip of the iceberg. The real question is to break up the system routines, organisations and individuals that contribute to the leeching of Nigerian public money overseas. More important is to assault the mentality of seeing public money as a free gold.”
According to ambassador Buhari might be successful if he combats corruption across board.
“The way to do it is to pick areas of primary focus and zero in on that. So, if you are looking at military reform, it might be to look at procurement. If it is to look at the oil sector, it might be revenue diversion, money that never reaches the federation account never mind oil theft. So to breakup corruption cocoon into project sizes, you can focus on a particular difficulty,” Pocock said.
He also promised to cooperate in a war against Boko Haram insurgency.
The ambassador said the British government was ready to train the Nigerian Army battalion and brigades in Maiduguri.
“What we need more is access. Nigerian army should allow us to talk to the very senior people. Allow us access to the troops; provide us with the tools that are required, communications, and uniforms. The troops are there but not as well equipped as they might have been. That can be rectified. Nigeria has a military budget of 5 billion dollars a year that is more than adequate to provide the basic inputs the troops need.
“They should be trained to give them confidence that they have good chance of staying alive and winning,” Pocock added.
Following the meeting with state governors President Buhari had vowed to retrieve stolen billions from the nation’s treasury.
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