Tambuwal, Belgore blame foreign powers for Nigeria's woes

The speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, and former Chief Justice of the Federation, Alfa Belgore, yesterday launched scathing attacks on unnamed foreign nations whom they blamed for Nigeria's mounting corruption and instability.

At a meeting with Mr Tambuwal on Wednesday, Mr Belgore accused foreign nations of arming and sponsoring the Boko Haram sect, whose militant operations have killed hundreds in northern Nigeria and the federal capital, Abuja.

"The kind of weapons used by Boko Haram for instance, they are not made here," the former jurist said. "They are not being given to them by people here. If our security were well trained, they would have known where these weapons are coming from." He added that the "so called developed nations" are fanning Nigeria's breakup.

Separately, Mr Tambuwal, told a nongovernmental group that lax fund transfer policies of developed nations have "significantly" fuelled public treasury looting in Nigeria.

"Because it takes two to tango," Mr Tambuwal told members of the Kuramo foundation, a group pushing for the passage of law enforcing the repatriation and transparent use of recovered funds.

"In a case where our foreign friends pay lip service to this, then they are condoning corruption because our public office holders will need where to keep their loot. They should legislate to stop the receipt of such money," the speaker said.

He said he had raised similar concerns at a forum in the United States while he served as a member of the House in 2010, and called on the developed nations to "stop cooperating, abetting and aiding corrupt public office holder who after looting our treasury find where to keep the money in their countries." "If you get ill gotten wealth, you will need where to keep them. If you don't find anywhere, then you will be stuck with it, then it will be easy for the law enforcement to get you.

The remarks are some of the most stringent and direct from key officials of government, serving or past, against foreign nations, particularly on the subject of Nigeria's fledgling security.

Resource course

Mr Belgore said many developed nations have worked hard for Nigeria to break up since independence, and would be pleased if that is realised.

"One of the best things to happen to the black race is Nigeria. The so called developed nations are not happy with our stability and they try everything to make it unstable," he said.

He recalled the alleged role of Germany in Nigeria's deadly first coup of 1966 in which many died, and how the development backtracked the training of personnel for the country's new Air Force.

"Nigeria and Brazil had just signed the treaty for our Air Force personnel to be trained by Germany and not long after, we had the first coup in which our leaders were killed," he said. "Then because of the betrayal, our officers including former head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar, were recalled and moved to the Army while some were deployed to the Customs and the Police. Meanwhile Brazil continued with their training.

"Our iron and steel has remained nowhere despite spending over $80 billion over the past years on the Ajaokuta. After spending that much, we are still grappling with it, we have not gone anywhere." He said the same plot to keep Nigeria permanently on its knees because of its abundant resources is what afflicts the Republic of Congo.

"In Congo, they are still killing themselves, and they say we are going to break up by 2015," he said.