Most Nigerians, rightly or wrongly, trod on the war path when David Cameron, in the full glare of cameras, blurted out to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of England and His Lordship, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, that “We have the Nigerians – actually we have got some leaders of fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain…Nigeria and Afghanistan – possibly two of the most corrupt countries in the world.”
That was ahead of the international anti-corruption summit convened by David Cameron and held in London on the May 9, 2016. What David Cameron said was, in itself, not exasperating, being true, but that he made such an unguarded statement about a sovereign country whose revered leader, Muhammadu Buhari, President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces, was not only one of the attendees but one of those distinguished leaders to deliver keynote addresses to the summit, was undiplomatic and disappointing.
His opening sentence with the definite article “the” in it to describe Nigerians, “We have the Nigerians…” was not only demeaning, inane and condescending but also insulting and reminiscent of the aristocratic and paternalistic hauteur characteristic of British colonial masters.
Mr. David William Donald Cameron, 49, is a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Oxfordshire constituency of Witney, Leader of the Conservatives and Prime Minister of Britain, having connections with the royalty, his great, great grandfather being King William II (1830-1837), who was also the great, great, granduncle of the Queen regnant, Elizabeth II. It is difficult, in the light of his intimidating curriculum vitae, to figure out why this man, David Cameron, with so much blue blood coursing through his veins, would be characteristically undiplomatic in his utterances, only to eat his humble pie in retrospect. Here is a guy, a prince in his own right, London-born, Eton- and Oxford-educated, who left Oxford in 1988, with a First, wanting in diplomatic etiquette and finesse, the stocks-in-trade of royalty? That Nigeria “is fantastically corrupt…, possibly the most corrupt country in the world”! By this statement, he wanted the Queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the world to believe that Britain is not one of the corrupt, let alone one of the most corrupt, nations of the world; yet handling stolen goods and money is the name of a statutory offence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which the British Government has consistently obeyed more in the breach than in the observance.
This offence is created by section 22 (1) of the British Theft Act 1968, which provides:
“A person handles stolen goods (read money) (otherwise than in the course of stealing), knowing or believing them (it) to be stolen goods (or money), he dishonestly receives the goods (or money) or dishonestly undertakes or assists in their retention, removal, disposal or realization by or for the benefit of another person, or if he arranges to do so.”
The term “goods” means property or money stolen anywhere, as long as the theft amounts to an offence, where committed. Possession of stolen goods or money is also a crime in the U.S. Receipt of stolen money or property in the U.S. is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C., an offence that attracts the maximum punishment, on indictment, of 10 years’ imprisonment for possession only, and 14 years’ imprisonment, if related to trafficking (See ss 355.5 and 355 of the Criminal Code). If Britain and America can handle stolen monies by allowing their banks to hold and profit by such monies from developing countries, thereby breaking their own laws, one wonders why David Cameron of Britain would bedaub Nigeria, and not Britain or America or even Switzerland, “a fantastically corrupt nation”.
The truth is that corruption in Nigeria would have been at its lowest level without such countries as the UK, Switzerland and the U.S., which revel in helping corrupt Nigerians to hide their stolen loot. To facilitate this “crime against humanity”, the British, Swiss and American banks and their Nigerian confederates are made to sign a corruption-dripping Non-Disclosure Form, which compels the receiving banks and their thieving customers to swear the oath of secrecy. Without the buyers of stolen goods and the bankers of stolen money in those “saintly” countries, there would be no thieves or traffickers in stolen goods or money. Be it noted that both the thief and the handler of stolen property belong to the principal offender category.
But why must we pillory David Cameron for describing Nigeria as a “fantastically corrupt nation, possibly the most corrupt in the world”? Didn’t our President Muhammadu Buhari acquiesce in that categorisation? Isn’t it true that men are taken at their own valuation? If you told the world that you are crazy, anybody could point at you as “that crazy man”, without committing the tort of libel or slander. That’s what you say you are! The message of the new leaders of Nigeria to the whole world is that Nigeria and Nigerians are very corrupt, as though that message were the safest escape route from the charges of cluelessness, incompetence and bad governance.
GUARDIAN
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