The Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffery Onyeama, on Wednesday, held a joint press conference with the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, at the White House.
Kerry, while speaking, said his country was happy with the ongoing anti-corruption war of the Nigerian government, noting that the US government has never had a “Holier than thou” disposition to Nigeria’s corruption troubles.
Kerry said: “The United States strongly supports the efforts of institutions like Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to prosecute corruption cases. And we back the role of civil society and of the media in exposing corruption and in advocating for greater transparency. And we emphasize the message that the United States, in – that the United States, we don’t have a holier-than-thou attitude about this.”
“Believe me, we don’t. We’ve had our own challenges with organized crime through some of our history, but we have fought back against it. And we have fought back against it with prosecutors who are above reproach, above the possibility of any kind of interference, and who go after it, and that has made all the difference in the world.”
“You cannot have impunity in your culture – in anybody’s culture – and expect to be able to make progress. The truth is – and I’ve seen this as Secretary of State and it’s been an eye-opener for me – the numbers of countries in the world that are challenged today by corruption where it is stealing the future from young people, stealing the future from all citizens – what happened in Tunisia with a fruit vendor who set himself on fire was not the result of religious indoctrination. It was the result of an individual who rebelled against an individual act of corruption by a policeman and who said, “I’ve had enough.”
“So all of us need to heed the warning signs, and we emphasize that, as in the United States, the soliciting of a bribe at any level of government cannot be considered business as usual – it is a crime.”
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