"...the hold-up in repatriating stolen assets held in the west will make it difficult to finance new projects that help to alleviate poverty," he said.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday faulted the processes involved in repatriating stolen assets to Africa.
"... the hold-up in repatriating stolen assets held in the west will make it difficult to finance new projects that help to alleviate poverty," he said.
Mr Buhari noted that although Nigeria has been one of the most successful in securing the return of stolen assets and artefacts, it is only a fraction of what remains in the west.
Nigeria has secured the return of over 1,000 stolen artefacts including the Benin bronzes and the cockerel, amongst other returns. Nigeria has also secured the return of billions of dollars stolen by its former rulers, particularly the late Sani Abacha.
Governments of countries from where these returns are secured have always expressed concern that returned assets could be re-looted by officials.
Accusing them of complicity, Mr Buhari said, "we should not forget that it was through western jurisdictions that the money was laundered in the first place."
He added that given the levels of corruption across Africa, there will be concerns as to whether funds returned will be used appropriately, however, not trusting Africans to spend their own money properly echoes the argument that "we cannot be trusted to look after our own cultural heritage."
According to Mr Buhari, while western museums and authorities largely agree that the loot should, in principle, be handed back to the countries where they were taken from, the technicalities of repatriation leave plenty of room for maintaining the status quo.
"Museums say that treasures should be returned if it can be proved that they were looted. Of course, they argue, it is a different matter if artefacts were acquired through purchases and other legitimate means. But it is the same museums that are responsible for assessing the provenance of artefacts. They have a vested interest in keeping them, encouraging a lackadaisical approach and murky criteria," he said.
It is in light of this that Nigeria, earlier in the year, was forced to take legal action against the UK National Crime Agency, after repeated delays in returning funds taken out of the country in the 1990s by former dictator Sani Abacha.
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"The court case reveals the scale of challenge before us. Abacha is thought to have siphoned off up to $5 billion to the west. This case concerned just £150 million," he added.
Nigeria has received over $300 million of funds looted by Mr Abacha and hidden in western countries.
By 2025, the Edo Museum of West African Art in Benin City, Edo State, will open for showcase. The Nigerian leader argues that Nigeria may struggle to fill up the museum if more artefacts are not returned.
"With stolen assets, the precise means by which institutions return such funds, whether they deliver them to the state, a government, an ad hoc fund or some other body, elicit endless discussion rather than action. We know corruption persists across Africa, as it does across the world. But we cannot afford to wait for unspecified "progress" to be achieved before this money is released," Mr Buhari said.
Chiamaka Okafor is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.
