Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s utterances outside Nigeria was the reason the British Prime Minister, David Cameron described Nigeria as “fantastically corrupt”, saying; “What do you expect from the international community when the President of a nation keeps going abroad to say that his people are corrupt?”
He said it was annoying that President Buhari said he was embarrassed and shocked by Cameron’s comment, adding that instead of saying that he was shocked, the president should apologise to Nigerians for demarketing the country and his people.
The governor, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka said it was on record that in February this year, President Buhari said in United Kingdom that “Nigerians’ reputation for crime has made them unwelcome in Britain” and went on to warn Nigerians to stop trying to make asylum claims in Britain, saying that their reputation for criminality has made it hard for them to be accepted abroad.
He said; “When a president mounts the podium in foreign lands and gleefully says that his own people are criminals, that they are corrupt and that those abroad should be sent back home, why won’t heads of other countries brand all citizens of such a country as fantastically corrupt?
“Rather than this grandstanding from the presidency, conceited efforts should be made to redeem the image of Nigeria that the president has destroyed.”
Governor Fayose, who said he was not against the anti-corruption efforts of the Federal Government, added that all he was saying was that it should be done in accordance with the laws of the country and that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) must stop behaving as if it is above the law.
