A major socio-political row has erupted in the United Kingdom following David Cameron-led government’s largesse in the form of foreign aids to Nigeria and other developing countries. The rumpus followed an e-petition put up by Mail on Sunday newspaper, which called for signatures to register disapproval over the manner the Conservative government exceeded the foreign aid budget by over £200 million. Britain spends close to £250 million supporting industries in developing countries -3.5 per cent of the soaring budget.
The newspaper’s campaign, launched last week to scrap Cameron’s pledge to spend a set percentage of the national income on overseas aid, won overwhelming support, as an astonishing 150,000 people signed the petition on a Parliamentary website. Another country fingered in the abuse is Pakistan where corrupt officials create fake teaching jobs and pocketing the salaries.
According to the report, major recipients of aid for industry include Nigeria where a scheme designed to encouragebusiness, called Growth and Empowerment in States (GEMS), gets £91 million from British taxpayers, with another £112.5 million coming from the World Bank – also heavily subsidised by Britain.
An investigation uncovered questionable practices among Nigerian leather exporters who receive tens of millions of pounds each year from the Department for International Development (DFID). It noted that up to £90 million (about N30 billion) was spent on reviving the Nigerian leather tanning industry.
The global leather industry is worth $75 billion and Nigeria’s share currently stands at $680 million annually. Two years ago, a former Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, said the ministry had initiated plans to increase revenue accruable from the leather industry to N20 billion annually.
He described the sector as the highest foreign exchange earner after oil. The Deputy Chairman, Leather and Allied Product Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (LAPAN), Mr. Bello Yakasai, said one of the problems facing the industry was lack of access to finance in the industry. Yakassi expressed regret that this had led to underutilization of production capacity and reduced income. DFID Nigeria (DFIDN) is responsible for managing the British Government’s contribution to development in Nigeria, with the objective of supporting governments at federal and state level to reduce poverty in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The report said: “One £9 million GEMS programme in Nigeria promotes the meat and leather industry, but an investigation revealed a 700 per cent rise in leather exports – largely to Italy – was exaggerated by filling containers with rocks to collect cash coming from huge subsidies.
A whistleblower told the BBC that the Department for International Development was warned about the £1.4 billion fraud, but officials were “not interested”. Another source at GEMS said the schemes, which are run by private contractors, were ‘nonsense and a waste of money.’ The source revealed: “I remember going to the office and the only Nigerians there were cleaners, drivers making coffee. The rest were white Europeans like me who had flown in at great cost to hold workshops.” DFID spokesman said: “It is wrong to suggest that simply because DFID operates in the leather sector, our funds have been misused.
“We have a zero tolerance approach to misuse of DFID’s funds and, where there are concerns or programmes are not performing, we take swift and robust action.” A former Commons Deputy Speaker, Tory MP for Ribble Valley and member of the Commons International Development Select Committee, Nigel Evans, said: “The Mail on Sunday’s brilliant exposure of the waste of hundreds of millions of pounds of aid has convinced me the 0.7 per cent target must be looked at again. British taxpayers’ money is being squandered on overseas aid vanity projects when there are road potholes the sizes of craters in my constituency.”
He said: “David Cameron massively increased overseas aid to try to appear virtuous. But he did it so quickly no one stopped to consider what it was being spent on. The sort of people who have dinner parties in Notting Hill think there’s something unseemly about wanting to cut foreign aid.
The success of The Mail on Sunday petition shows it matters to ordinary taxpayers.” Defence Minister from 2000-2003, Lord Lewis Moonie said: “I strongly believe in overseas aid, but every penny must represent good value. The 0.7 per cent figure must be re-examined because, whatever its merits when it was first introduced, it is clear it now prioritises the amount spent rather than the result achieved.”
