Report any Nigerian official asking for bribe, Tinubu tells Qatari investors
President Bola Tinubu has vowed his administration will not tolerate any act of corruption and indiscipline including bribery that will cause potential investors to lose confidence to invest in Nigeria.
Speaking on Sunday at the Nigeria-Qatar Business and Investment Forum in Doha, Qatar, Mr Tinubu clarified that during his administration, Nigeria was dispelling earlier bribery stereotypes that have stifled collaborations with other countries in favour of reforms aimed at improving the country’s standing among its international counterparts.
“Forget about whatever you heard in the past,” Mr Tinubu told the Emir of Qatar and other Qatari officials on Sunday. “Whatever is the obstacle or problem that some of you might have experienced; it is in the past, because there is no obstacle in the future.”
Accompanied by the foreign affairs minister Yusuf Tuggar, Mr Tinubu instructed Qatari officials not to offer or accept bribes from any Nigerian official. The Nigerian president also gave the Qataris the option of contacting him directly to report any citizen pressuring them for financial inducements.
“Do not offer a bribe to any of our people, and if it is requested or taken from you, report to us. You will have access to me,” The Nigerian leader stressed in a statement released by his aide, Ajuri Ngelale.
“Nigeria will no longer be defined by the past, but by what we do now and moving forward. Do not let perceptions become a hindrance to your will to invest,” Mr Tinubu told the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
“Your funds will flow smoothly into and out of our country. Bring your investments,” Mr Tinubu said in a statement to persuade the Qataris into invest in Nigeria’s economy.
Mr Tinubu’s anti-corruption charge comes barely two months after he swiftly suspended Betta Edu, minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, over allegations of corruption.
Ms Edu, in a leaked memo, requested that the office of the accountant-general wire N585 million earmarked to reduce poverty of vulnerable citizens in Akwa-Ibom, Cross-River, Lagos, and Ogun states be paid into the UBA account — 2003682151— of one Oniyelu Bridget Mojisola.
In late January, Peoples Gazette also exposed how Chief of Naval Staff, Emmanuel Ogalla, coordinated bunkering of Nigerian crude and multibillion-naira contract splitting fraud.
Tinubu-led government vowed to investigate Mr Ogalla. However, nothing has been done since The Gazette’s expose.
