Nigeria recovers 'graft billions'

The president says his government has a zero-tolerance on corruption

Nigeria has recovered $3.4bn (£1.9bn) of government funds over the last year, the president says.

In his address to mark Nigeria's 48 years of independence, Umaru Yar'Adua said it was proof his government had a zero-tolerance against corruption.

After he was elected last year he demanded ministries return all unspent money in their budgets to the treasury.

Correspondents say government ministries are often suspected of filing bogus contracts to steal money.

Nigeria has improved its ranking in the Transparency International corruption index in recent years.

This year it was ranked the world's 60th most corrupt country out of 180, ahead of Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Somalia, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, amongst others.

But the country is still in the bottom third of the TI index, which measures perceptions of corruption among businesses, academics, diplomats and activists.

No convictions

Mr Yar'Adua said there were no quick-fix solutions to Nigeria's deep problems of corruption, poverty and poor infrastructure.

But he said political stability and strong economic growth had put Nigeria on course to become one of the world's 20 biggest economies by the year 2020.

In April two ministers, a senator and nine civil servants were charged with fraud and benefitting from the proceeds of crime.

Government prosecutors said they had not returned $2.5m (£1.4m) from the health ministry budget to the treasury.

The head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Farida Waziri, has accused local governments of stealing billions of dollars in government funds.

The EFCC has charged 10 former state governors since President Yar'Adua's election, but none has so far been convicted.

Nigeria is the world's eighth largest exporter of crude oil, shipping millions of barrels every day.

It has earned $1.19tr in oil revenue over the past 37 years, according to analysts at Standard Bank.

Most of its 140m people live in poverty.