Businessman O’Connor calls Nigeria ‘a byword for corruption’

The entrepreneur’s new autobiography echoes remarks he made on the future of Africa at a recent event in Dublin, though he adds that Europe has an obligation to help African countries develop into modern and transparent economies

Eddie O’Connor: the businessman has argued that African countries lack the ‘cultural framework’ to govern themselves effectively . Picture: Fergal Phillips

The business figure Eddie O’Connor has described Nigeria as “a byword for corruption, even by African standards”, and claimed that many African nations have neither the “cultural framework nor the administrative skills to make the state work as it should”.

O’Connor, a successful Irish businessman who built and sold two renewable energy companies over his career, has made the comments in his recently published autobiography A Dangerous Visionary.

The book was published earlier this year ...