Buhari challenges African Leaders on how to tackle corruption
President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has tasked other leaders on how to tackle corruption, which has become endemic.
Speaking at a High-Level side event on ”Food Security Response: Combating Illicit Financial Flows and Securing Asset Returns for Sustainable Development’‘, on the margins of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly, the President expressed regrets that the continent has remained at the far end of global development index because of the menace.
According to him, national resources around the African continent must not find safe-havens around the world hence, making the fight a necessity and not a choice, to give citizens a better life through economic prosperity, social peace and security.
The President urged his colleagues to recall the United Nations General Assembly Special Session Against Corruption political declaration of June 2021 and ensure its effective implementation toward global food security and sustainable infrastructural development in the continent.
On food security in Nigeria, the President disclosed that the Nigerian government has financed 2.5million smallholder farmers to cultivate about 3.2million hectares of farmland across the country, creating 10million direct and indirect jobs.
Again against the backdrop of data released by the UN estimating that nearly a billion people went hungry in 2021, the President who has served as AU Champion on anti-corruption since 2018, described it as a collective shame on the world’s conscience, which has been further exacerbated by increased illicit financial flows.
