Britain’s special interest in Nigeria, according to the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Pocock, is simply because the country sees a future in Nigeria.
Pocock said this when he paid a visit to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Abuja.
“This interest in Nigeria is not only because we are friends of Nigeria, partners of Nigeria but we see a future in this country that is extra ordinary; Nigeria is one of those countries with great potentials,” Pocock said.
The British envoy however described corruption in Nigeria as ‘something that has impacted negatively on the lives of Nigerians, the government and economy of the country on a daily basis.
According to him, with over 30 years of military rule in Nigeria, public infrastructure, tendering, allocation and delivery system have been at its lowest ebb.
Pollock noted that because of corruption in allocation and delivery process, cost of infrastructure in Nigeria has been three times higher than it ought to be. This he said was responsible for the poor service delivery to the Nigeria people.
“After 30 years, Nigeria has not been able to improve on the 5,000 megawatts generation of electricity supply. You can see the direct consequences of the impact of corruption in the Nigeria economy and the Nigeria state,” Pollock said.
Mr Pocock, however, said that if Nigeria got it right in the power sector privatization programme, “the country is going to be on the verge of an industrial revolution because it is going to boost its productivity and GDP to at least 40 percent”.
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