Colonialism, tax evasion by multinationals, the disgusting racism of the terms of trade:
Nigeria’s former central bank governor has been accused of stashing £543 million in UK accounts and stealing £5 million from the vaults of the bank.
Godwin Emefiele, who took control of the central bank of Africa’s largest economy in 2014, kept 593 bank accounts in Britain, the US and China, according to an investigation that began after he was suspended in May.
If only those governments of the newly emerging nations had more power and more money then everything would be better, right?
Nigeria is janky.
Dearest Illustrious Friend,
May the blessings of God be upon you.
My name is George Emefiele. My brother Godwin, the proper and fair governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has been wronged and oppressed by the harsh government of Nigeria. Before his illegal arrest, Godwin managed to quickly move $327,000,000 (three hundred and twenty seven million United States Dollars) of the people’s money to a secure location away from the grasp of the corrupt President. But in order to keep the funds permanently safe for the people, we need to move them out of Nigeria – and this is where you can help . . .
I’m gonna go with no (even though this is a rhetorical question).
A more interesting question is “Why are they like this though?”. Is there some genetic predisposition towards corruption or is it just that in these sorts of African kleptocratic systems the psychopaths always float to the top and they tend to be corrupt criminals who steal everything they can get their hands on because that’s in their nature?
Why are things different in Western countries?
alternately, maybe the only difference is that we’re better at hiding / enabling the corruption (e.g. Clinton Crime Foundation, Biden Crime Family, etc.)
Discuss…
Only £543 million? He’s either an incompetent thief or by banana republic standards unusually honest.
Probably everything moveable in the treasury. This is Nigeria after all.
The only surprise in this is that it appears Hunter Biden wasn’t involved.
Not genetics but cultural.
It’s not that thieves rise to the top, but that all Nigerians — in Nigeria at least — are thieves. It’s what they do and is everywhere.
So, how does a culture evolve to not be entirely thieves? It seems negatively selective, the first person to break ranks and be honest gets ripped off by everybody else.
Southener: Only £543 million? He’s either an incompetent thief or by banana republic standards unusually honest.
He was actually reduced to hoovering up bank notes in the vault to make up his remuneration which requires a bit of Benin Brass neck.
Removing corruption is a major challenge. Historically there are two ways.
The elite decide it is not the way forward. They enforce it at gunpoint. It requires a family structure though, so that everyone is on board and buy in. Won’t work in Nigeria.
A system of checks is introduced. Those doing so are 1) paid very well, and 2) rotated frequently. At this point you actually want different tribes so that they want to rat each other out.
It’s difficult, but Korea and Taiwan managed it. It can be done.
Tim Newman the White Sun of the Desert sometime blogger, I’m sure we’ve all read him, worked in Nigeria for a while. The place, he says, is riddled with corruption, top to bottom. The guy who empties your chamberpot is on the take — OK slight exaggeration, in the cities anyway. Nigeria’s treasury is absolutely bulging with all that lovely oil money.