Minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has said that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in the past seven and a half years, has performed creditably on its major policy planks especially on the fight against corruption and insecurity.
Onyeama said this at the 22nd Edition of the PMB Administration Scorecard while presenting the achievements of the Foreign Ministry in the past seven years.
He added that the president has also distinguished himself in the area of employment generation, trade facilitation and building a strong and virile diplomatic engagement with other countries that have improved Nigeria’s standing within the global community.
He added that President Buhari’s unimpeachable character and stature command global respect, which was why the president entered into a negotiation that helped to repatriate Nigeria’s wealth stashed away in foreign land especially by former head of state, Sani Abacha.
“Nigeria was able to leverage on Mr President’s anti-corruption stands to start to repatriate a lot of loot that was stolen out of this country and in a huge amount, about two billion in record pounds sterling of Nigerian asset lots starched in foreign countries and we started to get this back.
“And again, I will say thanks to clearly one very robust diplomacy and engagement by this country and also with Mr President’s engagement with various countries.
“Nigeria-U.S. binational Commission, in 2020 was a platform that was used to sign a tripartite agreement between the U.S., the Daily week of Jersey and Nigeria to have some assets, 380,460,239, stolen funds of Nigeria repatriated to Nigeria.
“And again, we saw ongoing engagements facilitating the landmark tripartite agreement between Nigeria and this time Switzerland and the world bank repatriate 322 million dollars called the Abacha loots under a legal framework returned to Nigeria.
“We have also succeeded with the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates also getting funds coming back and all of these have been in the back of Mr President’s anti-corruption fight,” Onyeama said.
He added that Buhari’s Anti-corruption stands won him accolades as he was appointed the African Union Anti-corruption champion even as the president helped to advance the process that put regulations against illicit financial flows.
The minister noted that Buhari had redefined Nigeria’s place among the comity of nations, adding that the president’s enormous efforts have helped a great deal in the election or appointment of Nigerians in significant positions of global reckoning.
The minister mentioned the likes of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former Nigerian minister of finance, who was elected as the director general of World Trade Organisation (WTO). Onyeama also attributed the appointment of Nigeria’s former minister of environment, Amina Mohammed as deputy secretary general of the United Nations to the immense contributions of the Buhari government among others.
