$160 Bn Stolen Under Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan-Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that close to $160bn was stolen from Nigeria between 2003 and 2012 when he predecessors were in government.

Buhari spoke in New York at the high-level national side-event organised by the African Union Development Agency, New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on the margins of the 74^th United Nations General Assembly.

Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan were in power during this period.

Buhari said the development has hampered development across the country because of lack of investment in critical infrastructure.

To prevent this from continue, the president said that is why “ we have no choice” as African than “to break the back of corruption.”

Buhari said that while the administration made some recoveries, more funds were “stuck in foreign bank accounts due to international laws, different jurisdictions and justice systems that make it difficult for repatriation.”

Shedding more lights on the impact of illicit financial flows, Buhari told the session that “these flows deplete Africa’s internally generated revenues, foreign exchange earnings, reduce tax revenues, drain natural resources, facilitate corruption and stunt private sector development.”

President Buhari cited tax evasion as an example of such illegal flows, saying that over US$200bn was lost yearly by developing countries “when multinational enterprises do not pay taxes in the countries where they made the profit.”

Buhari, who quoted tax figures provided by the Tax Justice Network and the International Monetary Fund, said further, “This amount is significantly higher than the annual development aid received by these countries which are estimated to be about $143bn.”

Buhari disclosed what he expected the meeting to achieve, saying, “I have high expectations for this meeting.

At the end of the deliberations, I expect other African leaders to see the pragmatic ideas on how to strengthen our anti-corruption institutions to reduce or effectively eliminate illicit financial flows.

“We need ideas on how to return the stolen assets to their countries of origin.

We also need strategies on how to plug the loopholes that enable companies to avoid paying commensurate taxes in their countries of operations.

You should deliberate on practical ideas to enhance global acceptable assets tracing and freezing, and boost the recovery governance framework.”