David Cameron was caught on camera describing Nigeria and Afghanistan as “fantastically corrupt countries” on the eve of a major corruption conference in London.
The Prime Minister will be hosting delegates from the two countries later this week, and the incident as he spoke with the Queen at an event to mark her 90th birthday will be a source of acute embarrassment.
During the summit, President Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled to deliver a keynote address entitled: “Why We Must Tackle Corruption Together”.
The Prime Minister told the Queen: “We had a very successful cabinet meeting this morning to talk about our anti-corruption summit, we’ve got the Nigerians… actually we’ve got the leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain.
“Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world.”
It is not the first time a controversial comment has been overheard in a conversation involving Mr Cameron and the Queen.
Speaking at the summit on Wednesday morning, President Buhari said he will not be demanding an apology from the UK Prime Minister over his demeaning comments about Nigeria. Buhari says he will rather demand our stolen assets to be returned.
Buhari says an apology from Cameron is of no use to him, but he needs the money.
He said: “I am not going to demand any apology from the Prime Minister or anybody. What I am demanding is the return of our assets.
“I have already mentioned how Britain is revered and how disgraceful one of the Nigerian elects is… He had to dress like a woman to leave Britain and leave behind his bank account and fixed assets which Britain is prepared to hand over to us. This is what I am asking for. What will I do with apologies. I need something tangible(money).”
