Posted by By Nnamdi Duru on
As the disagreement between Nigerian government and its Swiss counterpart over the conditions for the release of the late Sani Abacha looted ranges on, the former Minister of Education, Professor Aliyu Babs Fafunwa, yesterday described Switzerland as the most corrupt nation in Europe.
As the disagreement between Nigerian government and its Swiss counterpart over the conditions for the release of the late Sani Abacha looted ranges on, the former Minister of Education, Professor Aliyu Babs Fafunwa, yesterday described Switzerland as the most corrupt nation in Europe.
Fafunwa, who made this submission in a statement made available to THISDAY, wondered why the Europe-based Transparency International (TI) did not think it proper to rank it first in the list of the corrupt countries in the world.
"Of all the governments of the world, the Swiss government is noted for being the most notorious as the safest haven for thieves who stole their governments' money, whether that thief is a Nigerian Head of State or that of Phillipine, Argentina, Congo Kinshasa or Haiti.
"It is rather ironical that the European-based Transparency International (TI) does not think it proper to list Switzerland as the first or second most corrupt nation in the world for harbouring, encouraging and enticing all robbers of public treasuries around the world to bring their loot for safe keeping in their dirty vaults," he said.
Fafunwa regretted that Swiss government was shamelessly bold to tell Nigeria how to use the Abacha money when it is finally released to the Nigerian government, saying "to add insult to injury, the Swiss government has the effrontery to tell us how Nigeria should use Nigeria's money".
"Can you imagine a thief in his kindness saying to the robbed, I will return your money to you if you follow my instruction on how you should spend it," he said.
He therefore implored TI to demonstrate its transparency by ranking Switzerland as the most corrupt nations in the world.
"Let Transparency International demonstrate its own transparency by classifying as equally corrupt all countries in Europe, America, Asia, etc; which serve as haven for stolen monies. Under this new classification, Switzerland will undoubtedly be number one in that category. God save us from double and triple standards," the former Education Minister added.