Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed that the African continent has lost over one trillion dollars to corruption over the last 50 years.
Buhari said this on Tuesday in Abuja at the one-day National Democracy Day Anti-corruption Summit organised by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
According to Buhari, the recent habit of subverting the exercise of free choice by voters with money has become a worrisome trend.
“Section 90 of electoral act 2010 as amended, section clearly gave the guidelines and the limit to which an individual can spend in an election while section 88, prohibit political party from getting funds from outside Nigeria.”
Buhari tasked law enforcement agencies, judiciary on the need to abolished electoral spending for true democracy to thrive.
Buhari said that corruption has been used to trap down the majority of the citizens, while the elites do whatever they like with the national treasury.
He pledged support for whistleblowers and victims of corruption, describing the anti-corruption fight as an instrument to fight and eliminate poverty out of the country.
The President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, who argued that corruption does not take decades to eradicate if Africans decides to break the habit, insisted that the war against corruption must be won.
Kagame blamed African leaders for making corruption acceptable. He noted that the rich and the powerful are the main beneficiaries of corruption, before adding that not fighting corruption is even more dangerous.
