INTERVIEW: African countries should be world’s richest if governance was better – Canada High Commissioner, Calderwood

Outgoing Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Perry John Calderwood, will leave Nigeria in the first week of August after completing his tour of duty.

The envoy, who disclosed that his next destination is Pakistan, spoke to DAILY POST Deputy Editor, Wale Odunsi, at the High Commission’s office in Lagos.

Excerpts:

One of Nigeria’s biggest challenges is Boko Haram. Is Canada working with the government to defeat the sect and also provide succour to displaced persons?

The Canadian government is helping Nigerian police in trainings for the purpose of combating Boko Haram Islamic militants, especially in investigation techniques. Though globally, terrorism has become common, but there must always be effort to contain its spread. Beyond this, we have been engaging in inter communities dialogue to sustain peace in states like Benue.

Also, in response to the humanitarian needs in the Lake Chad Basin region, Canada recently announced plan to provide more than 26 million dollars for humanitarian assistance in 2016. This will help to provide food, drinking water, hygiene, sanitation and health services, treatment for acute malnutrition and support for livelihoods for vulnerable populations, including refugees, internally displaced persons and communities hosting refugees.

Those we are partnering to achieve this include the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Committee of the Red Cross Action Against Hunger, among others.

Let’s talk about corruption. Nigeria has traced huge stolen funds to a number of foreign countries. How is the international community and Canada helping Nigeria stop activities of those who stash stolen monies abroad?

It’s a very good question but understand that I can’t speak for other countries. With regards to Canada specifically, we have told the Nigerian government that if there are funds that have been traced to Canada, there are mechanisms in place for our government to respond to this kind of request. It’s through our Federal Police and through our Justice department and the contacts are there already.

I read that sometimes, people feel frustrated that it takes time to retrieve funds that may have been stolen and stashed in Canada in form of real estate or something…but remember that in any country that respects rule of law, certain procedures must be followed. A government simply just doesn’t have power to seize something and return it somewhere. You have to go through the legal processes.

The international community, including Canada, has worked very hard…also in the context of the OACD In recent years, we have tried to strengthen our rules and prevent these cons’ illicit funds from flowing in the first place. In Canada for example, we have rules in place whereby the red flag is raised if a large amount of money from a mysterious origin is transferred. I think we have made quite a bit of progress in that regard and perhaps for that reason, Canada isn’t one of the leading destinations for stolen funds.

But that said, I think there is scope for even more improvement because the phenomenon we are working against…those people are very sophisticated. They are using accountants, lawyers, shell companies and going from one country to the other, so often its not that simple. But we have to, as government committed to tackling corruption, make resources available to effectively combat that and not allow the criminals to find their away around our rules by exploiting different jurisdictions and shell companies and other mechanisms at their disposal.

Canada is often regarded as one of the best place to live on earth judging by the Human Development Index. What should Nigeria do to attain such excellent rating?

Oh, That’s a very big question (laughs). The human development index, that you are referring to as I understand it, measures a whole range of things. It measures standard of education, standard of healthcare, level of security, environmental issues like level of pollution, income levels, transport system and so on. As a Canadian I am pleased obviously that Canada scores very well in that. We were at the top some years back. In the last few years, we have also been at the third or fourth.

But those results reflect a whole range of things that are taking place in the society. But the most essential one is governance. How is the country governed? is the rule of law respected? Are the right policies in place that are conducive to the development of economic growth? Are citizens engaged in the political process? Is there a low tolerance for corruption, its these package of things…so you must get governance right.

In my experience, if you look at some countries around the world, you’ll see there are some countries that have almost no natural resources at all, yet they are the richest. Think of Singapore, South Korea, don’t have great natural resources, Hong Kong, Switzerland. But there are also countries like Canada and Australia that have vast resources and also among the richest and the best of.

But there are some with great resources but are not the richest and best of countries in the world. So what I’m trying to say is: at the end of the day, its not really about resources, its about right leaders, right governance, right policies in effect. Another thing that is important is education. African countries must give priority to investing in education.

Are there plans by Canadian educational institutions to establish schools in Nigeria?

I’m not aware of any specific plan by any institution. However, it would be a very big investment. Canadian schools don’t have much tradition of establishing branches in other countries, it’s quite a new phenomenon internationally, but I think it will likely be the wave of the future.I think we’ll see more of it in the years ahead.

But when you look at the Candaian universities, they are primarily publicly funded, although they are autonomous. Their resources are limited of course and obviously their priority is meeting the needs at home. So, I think the notion of them establishing campuses abroad, including Nigeria, may very well happen in the longer term. It may be sometime away before we see that.

Did you enjoy some of our local delicacies?

Yes. I have enjoyed the local delicacies; the pepper-soup. I enjoyed that very much; it might be too spicy, it burns my mouth, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the dodo (fried plantain), the jollof rice. I have eaten very much in Nigeria, I think I put on a few pounds of weight. (laughs).