NEWS RELEASE:From the Office of Jean Lambert MEP,Green Party Member of the European Parliament for London
- Jean Lambert will raise concerns in European Parliament
- Campaigners highlight link between corruption, poverty and migration
Jean Lambert, London’s Green Party MEP, has pledged her support to growing efforts to overcome corruption in Nigeria.
Last weekend, Jean met members of the New Nigeria Movement [1] and representatives of the Facebook group, "Let's Kick Corruption Out of Our Beloved Country, Nigeria", at a meeting in Southwark, south London.
Worsening corruption is affecting all levels of government, the judiciary and even the private sector in Nigeria, Jean was told. Kidnappings and killings have become daily occurrences.
Jean Lambert MEP said:
“Corruption runs deep in Nigeria and foreign businesses have also been involved. If corruption is not tackled systematically and at the highest levels, it affects the whole of society, from educational opportunities onwards. The EU has supported efforts to deal with corruption, but there are fears that progress is slowing. There is a terrible human cost. Nigeria is a country with rich natural resources and an income larger than that of many European countries but it suffers terrible poverty because too much money makes its way into foreign bank accounts rather than into the hands of the poor.”
Jean pledged to highlight the Nigerian situation in the EU and to ask questions in the Parliament about the state of corruption and violence in Nigeria and about reforming the electoral process. The last general election drew international criticism, yet the President, Umaru Yar'Adua, has delayed promises to improve the system and it now seems unlikely that any changes will be made before the next election in 2011.
A central aim of the New Nigeria Movement is to raise awareness of these problems among politicians and the media in the West, where, they argue, news from Africa is focused only on Zimbabwe.
The movement plans to take its campaign to Gordon Brown next month, with a petition calling for the extradition of James Ibori, the former Governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta State currently living in the UK. Mr Ibori has been investigated by both the Nigerian anti-corruption authorities and by the Metropolitan Police on suspicion of money laundering. He is an ally of Nigeria’s president, Umaru Yar’Adua, and is said to have provided $86 million for his election campaign.
Following the news on Sunday 29 March that a boat carrying hundreds of migrants hoping to reach Europe had sunk off the coast of Libya, the organisers and members of the New Nigeria Movement were also keen to consider the causes and consequences of migration in Nigeria with Jean, an expert on migration and asylum issues. As many as 230 people are believed to have drowned in the disaster last month, many of them from Nigeria.
The New Nigeria Movement argues there is a direct link between corruption and migration: corruption causes poverty and injustice, which in turn leads to people trying to migrate without proper documents in the hope of finding fairer societies and better lives in the West. Every year tens of thousands of Africans risk their lives trying to leave their homes to move to Europe [1], but many die in the course of the perilous journeys they are forced to make.
Jean Lambert MEP has visited detention centres across Europe, as well as the ‘retention centres’ in the Canary Islands, where many migrants from Africa have been held. Jean Lambert MEP said:
“The terrible event last month serves as another reminder of the great danger in which people will place themselves in the pursuit of a better life. This issue of migration from Africa to Europe involves many countries in both continents. Corruption and injustice is forcing many Nigerians to risk their lives trying to escape their country as they cannot use their talents fairly and develop their own businesses without paying out in bribes. We have got to take a more coherent approach to migration issues and recognise our European responsibility to foster and support fairer societies.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Jean Lambert is one of nine MEPs representing London and one of two UK Green representatives in the European Parliament. In October 2005 Jean was named MEP of the year for her work on Justice and Human Rights. Jean was first elected Green Party Member of the European Parliament for London in the 1999 European elections and was re-elected in 2004.
[1] The New Nigeria Movement was founded by members of the Nigerian diaspora living in the UK, and has over 1,000 members here. It has also spread across the world, and is growing fast in Nigeria itself.
[2] According to International Organization for Migration figures, more than 31,000 people crossed from North Africa to the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2008 alone.
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