Nigerians react to British PM's statement

folarin okunola

May 11, 2016 1:41 PM

In the video, it looked like Cameron was briefing the Queen on the countries expected to attend an anti-corruption summit organised by the UK government to be held in London on Thursday, May 12th, 2016.

David Cameron

Just before an anti-corruption summit, which would be attended by President Muhammadu Buhari and a host of other world leaders, British Prime Minister, David Cameron was caught on camera telling the Queen that Nigeria - and Afghanistan - are "fantastically corrupt" countries.

Also present while Cameron briefed the Queen was the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow.

“We had a very successful cabinet meeting this morning. We talked about our anti-corruption summit. We’ve got…leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain.

“Nigeria and Afghanistan are possibly two of the most corrupt countries in the world," said Cameron, according to an ITV video clip.

As would be expected, Nigerians took to Twitter to address this perceived effrontery. Various comments were made, with opinions from both sides of the fence pouring in on the day.

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See some twitter reactions below:

President Muhammadu Buhari later responded to the incident via a spokesman, saying, "This is embarrassing to us, to say the least, given the good work that the President is doing. The eyes of the world are on what is happening here. The Prime Minister must be looking at an old snapshot of Nigeria. Things are changing with corruption and everything else."

The question remains, though. Is Nigeria a fantastically corrupt nation? Did the British Prime Minister have the right to make such a statement? Leave your answer in the comment section below.

folarin okunola