President Buhari Says $150b Stolen From Nigeria In The Past 10 Years

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari in Washington DC shortly after meeting President Barrack Obama said his meeting is geared toward locating and returning $150 billion in funds stolen in the past decade and held in foreign bank accounts.

In a Op-ED article published on Washington Post, Buhari said, “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.”

On appointment of Ministerial cabinet members, the President wrote, “when cabinet ministers are appointed in September, it will be some months after I took the oath of office. It is worth noting that Obama himself did not have his full Cabinet in place for several months after first taking office; the United States did not cease to function in the interim. In Nigeria’s case, it would neither be prudent nor serve the interests of sound government to have made these appointments immediately on my elevation to the presidency; instead, Nigeria must first put new rules of conduct and good governance in place.”

The President however added that the importance of the fight against terrorism and corruption in Nigeria, Africa’s most powerful economy and largest populace, cannot be underestimated. “Our allies can provide much-needed military training and intelligence as our soldiers take the war effort to Boko Haram. Similarly, we look to U.S.”