Nigerian Treasury Looters have found new Destinations for Their Loot

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Nigerian treasury looters have found new destinations for their loot: Persian Gulf, India and China. This revelation came from former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador John Campbell, one of the speakers at the 2010 Achebe Colloquium on Africa.

Campbell, who was among a panel of speakers that x-rayed the topic, "Nigeria: Recovering Looted Funds", said contrary to popular belief that funds looted by Nigerian politicians go to countries in Europe and US, such funds have been redirected to the Persian Gulf, India and China for safe-keeping.

"Funds looted from Nigeria are no longer going in large amounts to Switzerland, France, and United Kingdom or United States, but rather, to the Persian Gulf, to India, and perhaps to China," he said.

Quoting the Global Financial Integrity, an NGO, he said it is estimated that between 1970 and 2008, a total of $854 billion left Africa, and the final figure could be as high as $1.8 trillion.

The envoy said: "Africa in other words, is a net creditor to the world. It gives back to the world from illicit capital flights, at least twice, and in some regions, three times the amount of capital it receives in external assistance. And Nigeria has the highest outflow of all," he added.
Campbell said: "Even when the looted funds can be identified, recovering them is also very difficult because it involves a legal process conducted according to the rule of law."

The envoy also said that when talking about the rule of law, it involves the laws of Nigeria and the laws of those countries where the looted funds are.
He said though funds looted by Nigerian politicians are known to US, it is difficult to prove individual cases in US courts of law, because it involves a criminal process. He recalled that even the recovery of assets seized by the Nazis during the holocaust continues 65 years after the destruction of the Nazi state.

He said "Looted assets from Nigeria contribute directly to international criminal activitiy which in turn impact directly on our (US) national interest. In other words, looted assets from Nigeria, are also manifestly bad for the United States. It is in our own narrow self interest to try to do something about it".

In his own presentation, another former US envoy to Nigeria, Ambassador Walter Carrington, lamented that one of the greatest problems he had discovered as someone who had always tried to be a great optimist as far as Nigeria is concerned, is that Nigeria is only seen in terms of corruption.

The envoy said while he was serving in Nigeria, the question of corruption was quite a matter of concern. He said at a time he was asked why he was so concerned with corruption in Nigeria when there is also corruption in the US.

Carrington said the difference is that while stolen the money stays within US shores and projects are executed effectively and efficiently, in the case of Nigeria, nothing gets done or built to last very long, while looted funds are also stashed abroad.
He also recalled that during the military era, he was among those who wanted to see the exit of the military from governance so that corruption could leave. He, however, lamented that like the biblical teachings that the poor would always be with us, corruption has remained even in the civilian dispensation.

Carrington also acknowledged that Nigeria began the war against corruption very well in the 1990s and in the early 2000s until the issue of selective prosecution cropped up, when people that were prosecuted were perceived to be the opponents of those in government.
He said he hopes that from now, there would be a sort of "blindness" in the prosecution of anti-graft war, adding that it is when the issue of corruption is addressed adequately that Nigeria would be given the kind of recognition it desires by US.
While noting that at the time that power-shift is taking place in the world and focus is on G-20, Nigeria is no where to be found, even when countries that were equated with Nigeria at some point in time are members of the group.

Carrington said it was important to note the presence of South Africa in the G-20 and the emergence of that country as a reference point for development in Africa because no one would have thought 25 years ago that South Africa would today be the face of Africa because of the promising nature of Nigeria at that time.

While noting that he does not believe Nigeria is likely going to implode, the envoy said it is, however, important that the nation addresses the problem of corruption otherwise, it is likely going to stagnate while other countries leave her behind.

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