‘Corruption should be treated as a crime against humanity,’ Vice President says

Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo has said that corruption should be treated as a crime against humanity.

Osinbajo also said that Nigeria had been facing difficulty in recovering looted funds from foreign countries.

The VP made the comments on Thursday, March 30, while speaking at an anti-corruption forum in Paris.

“Countries hosting global financial centers, and other usually targeted destinations of illicit flows must be held more accountable to enforce mechanisms which ensure transparency of ownership, control, beneficial ownerships, trusts and other legal contrivances that may be used to camouflage financial or other assets,” he said.

“Open contracting and information systems, are also crucial. Responsible government authorities ought to have information about which companies won what contracts, and what they have paid as taxes to governments in host and home countries.

“This is especially important for the extractive industry. Nigeria is committed to these standards having joined the Open Government Partnership in 2016.

“The tracing, freezing and return of stolen assets has proved in many cases to be exceptionally difficult for most African countries. We in Nigeria have seen just how difficult it is to get back stolen assets from the international financial system, banks, that ought not have received those funds in the first place if the most routine question were asked.

“There is now hardly any credible opposition to the notion that corruption and Illicit financial flows constitute perhaps the gravest challenge to development. And this is especially true of developing countries.

 “Indeed there is a sense in which corruption, grand corruption should be regarded as a crime against humanity. Corruption and illicit financial flows are different. But they really must be twinned. This is because for practical purposes it is an eminently more sensible approach to treat most of the sources of illicit financial flows as corrupt activity, within a broader use of the term,” he added.

Osinbajo also blamed corruption for fuelling the Boko Haram insurgency which has left millions homeless in North-Eastern Nigeria.

[pulseng]