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President Muhammadu Buhari discussing with British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Pocock, Gen Dambanzau
in the background.
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Following President Muhammadu Buhari’s resolve to
fight corruption, British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Sir Andrew Pocock has
said the President should break up the entire system and pick areas of
interest, one after the other to recover stolen funds from the Federal
Government coffer.
Pocock
said rather than addressing corruption as a whole, the President could look
into the military’s budget in terms of procurement or monies diverted from the
Federation Account.
The
Ambassador, speaking during a live programme on Channels TV disclosed that the
Nigerian Military, for instance have annual budgetary allocation of about US$5
billion, which according to him is sufficient to equip the military.
Buhari on Tuesday vowed to recover stolen
billions from the nation’s treasury during his meeting with the 36 state
governors.
The Nation report continues:
The state governors
have been experiencing cash crises following their inability to pay workers’
arrears in their respective states.
Pocock
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, organizations
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.”
The envoy
who stated that he was not in any way giving advice to the President disclosed
that Buhari might succeed if he fights 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,” he said.
He added
that the Swiss government had been reactive in returning some of the stolen
monies by former Military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha.
According
to Pocock, the present administration should complement its moves with actions
to showcase that impunity is no longer a norm in the country.
Speaking
on British intervention on insurgency, the ambassador disclosed his country’s
readiness to partner in the fight.
He 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,”
the envoy added.
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