A British journalist, Lowri Turner, has called on the UK government to cut its foreign aid to Nigeria.
In a video that has now gone viral, Lowri, while speaking on the Channel 5 show in the UK, questioned the accountability of the funds sent as aid to Nigeria. She argued that the £136 million sent to countries like Nigeria is often lost to high-level corruption and fails to reach the ordinary people who actually need it. BuyMaps
She said that a country like Nigeria with so many millionaires and losing over $15 billion to corruption yearly, should not be handed more foreign aid that cannot be accounted for.
She said the UK is facing severe domestic challenges, hardworking British citizens cannot afford their energy bills or food and that such aids to countries like Nigeria need to be cut short.
She said the UK government has a greater responsibility to take care of its own citizens before sending millions abroad.
‘’We currently give Nigeria £136 million a year. They have eight and a half thousand millionaires there, and they lose approximately $15 billion a year in corruption. So, we are giving money to a country that has a great number of wealthy people in it and this money will be fuelling the corruption, so I don’t think we should be giving them aids. BuyMaps
There is no doubt aid funnels corruption in certain countries. It also infantilizes them. If you ask some people in African countries, they say ‘’We don’t want white saviour complex’. We want to be able to build our own economies”
She wondered why the Nigerian government would continue to require aid from foreign countries when it boasts of so many millionaires.
Her submission has sparked a debate online.
Watch the video of her speaking below
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