Cameron calls Nigeria, Afghanistan ‘fantastically corrupt’

British Prime Minister David Cameron has described Afghanistan and Nigeria as “fantastically corrupt” countries.

According to Press TV, in a video released on Tuesday, Cameron was caught on camera making the remarks to the British Queen and some political figures while speaking about Thursday’s anti-corruption summit to be held in London with Afghanistan and Nigeria in attendance.

“We had a very successful Cabinet meeting this morning to talk about our anti-corruption summit. We’ve got the Nigerians, actually we’ve got the leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain,” he told the Queen.

“Nigeria and Afghanistan [are] possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world.”

This is while the leaders of both countries mentioned have already acknowledged that they have problems with corruption and eagerly expressed readiness to attend the summit.

Reacting to Cameron’s comments, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari accused the British premier of “looking at an old snapshot” of the country.

The Afghan embassy in London also called the prime minister’s comments “unfair”.

“President Ghani and his government since in office have taken major steps to fight corruption. Countering corruption is a top priority along security issues for the National Unity Government," a spokesman for the Afghan embassy said.

“We have made important progresses in fighting systematic capture in major national procurement contracts and are making progress on addressing institutional issues as well as issues related to impunity. Therefore calling Afghanistan in that way and taking bold decisions by NUG is unfair,” the spokesman added.

ME