The United States government has officially accepted to assist Nigeria to recover about $150 million stolen funds hidden in the country including other nations of the world.
Buhari and Obama
According to Sunnewsonline, the essence of President Muhammadu Buhari's highly esteemed visit to the United States to meet with the American President Barack Obama has began to yield positive results. In less than 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari requested the United States government to assist Nigeria recover about $150 million stolen funds stashed in the country and other nations, Washington has formally agreed to help in this regard.
In an opinion article published in Washington Post, ahead of his meeting with President Barack Obama on Monday, Buhari had asked the US government to assist Nigeria get all stolen money stashed away abroad.
In the article, Buhari said: “There are too few examples in the history of Nigeria since independence where it can be said that good management and governance were instituted at a national level.
“This lack of a governance framework has allowed many of those in charge, devoid of any real checks and balances, to plunder. The fact that I now seek Obama’s assistance in locating and returning $150 billion in funds stolen in the past decade and held in foreign bank accounts on behalf of former, corrupt officials, is testament to how badly Nigeria has been run. This way of conducting our affairs cannot continue.”
Stating how the US would assist Nigeria in a meeting with President Buhari, America’s Attorney-General, Loretta Lynch, indicated that her country would support the war on corruption by giving a teeth to the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty signed between the two countries in 1985, which came into effect in 2003.
A statement by Mallam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, said: “There will be collaboration. Each of the two countries will receive legal assistance from the other on criminal matters and that should cover the recovery of ill-gotten wealth.
“On extradition, we already have a treaty with US, by virtue of being a former British colonial territory. There is, however, the possibility that Nigeria might negotiate a new extradition treaty to meet our other requirements. The negotiation will be done under the auspices of a ‘re-energised’ US-Nigeria Bi-National Commission.”
In line with this, the United States will also offer training to judicial staff and prosecutors “in order to place Nigeria in a good position to uncover proceeds of corruption and for improved prosecution of cases of crime.”
President Obama had, on Monday promised to help Nigeria overcome some of its challenges, while he commended Buhari’s agenda for the country.