A former First Lady of Nigeria and wife of Nigeria’s most autocratic ruler, Mrs Maryam Abacha is trying to generate a controversy about her husband, General Sani Abacha. In a recent interview she said that her husband who ruled Nigeria from November 17, 1993 to June 8, 1998 never stole public funds but rather saved money for the country. She also claimed that this money he allegedly saved for the country mysteriously vanished after his death in 1998. She went further and “berated Nigerians for believing that her husband stole public funds and that it is because Nigerians are fools, that is why they listen to everything.”
Her feeble effort at the deodorization of her corrupt husband’s reputation has failed woefully because there is a huge incriminating evidence everywhere against him and there is no iota of exculpating evidence for him anywhere. If there is any evidence that exculpates him she should do him, her family and herself a favour by producing it. It is that evidence that can confirm that Nigerians are fools by believing that her husband stole in a big way Nigeria’s public funds. If she does not produce that evidence then her speech amounts to a mere vomit.
Here is the evidence of her husband’s massive thievery of Nigeria’s public funds. On July 23, 1998 General Abdulsalami Abubakar who took over the government after Abacha’s death had taken the decision, based on credible intelligence, to set up a special investigation panel to unravel the looting that took place under Abacha’s regime. The panel was headed by Peter Gana, a Deputy Commissioner of Police who was the head of the Special Fraud unit of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). A report was produced in November 1998 by the investigating panel that incriminated Abacha especially with his illegal collection of huge funds in cash from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the pretext of tackling insecurity. Assets and cash were seized from the Abacha family by the Abubakar government which had issued the Forfeiture of Assets Etc (certain persons) Decree No. 53 of May 26, 1999. Where was Maryam Abacha when this happened?
Secondly, when Olusegun Obasanjo took over as President in 1999, the government hired, based on credible intelligence, a Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini who apparently knew a lot about the Abacha loot. He had published an article in a book titled “Recovering Stolen Assets.” His article was titled “The Abacha Case.” In January 2021 he also told the BBC in detail how the billions were stolen out of the CBN and deposited in various countries. The lawyer worked with the Special Investigation Panel in Nigeria and the Swiss Attorney General who ordered all Swiss banks to provide evidence of the existence of any accounts opened under Abacha’s name and family. The evidence produced by the Swiss banks was overwhelming. This led to the discovery of similar bank accounts in the United Kingdom, United States, France and Liechtenstein etc. So where was Maryam Abacha when all of this was going on?
Thirdly, Transparency International and other credible organisations have declared for many years now that what Abacha stole is about five billion dollars. So far what has been collected for some years now by the various governments of Nigeria up to year 2022 is $3.65 billion. So where has Maryam Abacha been when these monies were collected?
Fourthly, in 2008 the amount found in the Abacha family’s Swiss account was reported to be $508 million. Was that an inheritance from Elon Musk, the world’s richest man to the Abacha family? Or did the Abacha family suddenly discover a diamond mine in their backyard that only they knew about?
Fifthly, even as recently as November 2023, the Bola Tinubu government received $150 million of the Abacha loot from France. Where was Maryam Abacha when this loot was recovered and returned to Nigeria?
The search for the recovery of the rest of the loot from various countries has continued. The country needs every dollar that was stolen from its treasury by the dictator with dark glasses. People may ask why it was very easy for such huge sums of money to be taken away without Nigerians generally or those who kept custody of the funds specifically asking questions. The answer is that many Nigerians are cowards and would not dare say No to a dictator who had made several Nigerians, prominent and not so prominent, to disappear without trace. They were afraid for their lives. Also, it is possible that they the keepers of these funds may have compromised themselves and did not therefore feel courageous enough to query the request for huge funds, in cash, from the dictator. Additionally, the funds were requested generally for the purpose of tackling insecurity in the country. Eventhough there were demonstrations and riots that followed the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections there was no overwhelming security challenge in those days, not anything near to what we have today. But in Nigeria security has often been used by decision makers at the centre and the states to cart away huge sums of money that are never accounted for. Nigerians have not been able to make their leaders to account for the expenditure of security funds because the impression is given or gained that security is a top secret matter that must not, cannot, ought not to be revealed to the public. This position is an affront to the idea of accountability and transparency in a democracy.
Corruption is generally forbidden in all jurisdictions including Nigeria. There is no country in the world that gives a standing ovation to corrupt people. All countries impose various degrees of punishment on people convicted of corruption. In China it is death.penalty. In other countries including Nigeria it is imprisonment.
But even if Nigerians were aware of Abacha’s loot while he was the Head of State what could they have done to a dictator who was the personification of ruthlessness? Nothing. But even in other settings Nigerians have shown less than serious commitment to the eradication of corruption in Nigeria. There was a retired Governor of one of the states who was being tried somewhere in Nigeria. At the court premises a huge crowd of placard-carrying people, obviously hired, surfaced. Their placards urged the court to leave their “patriot” alove. Then the man travelled out of the country. He was arrested in that foreign country and taken to another country. There he was tried, convicted and jailed. What Nigeria failed to do because of the complicity or lack of commitment of its people and institutions another country did it for us. Eventhough corruption is strictly forbidden in our laws, it is tempting to be corrupt because forbidden friuts apparently taste sweetest. Ask Adam.
It is also appropriate to say that Nigerians did not seriously try to challenge the various military governments in Nigeria on corruption. That is why corruption ballooned during the days of military rule in Nigeria. In 2008 General Muhammadu Buhari said at the 10th anniversary of Abacha’s death that Abacha was not a thief. It was obvious that he was not sincere but was simply playing politics because even by that date Nigeria had already started collecting in bits and pieces part of the Abacha loot. And when he became President he collected part of it too and said nothing to contradict himself on Abacha’s integrity. That is hypocrisy.
Mrs Abacha shouldn’t have said anything about her husband’s integrity or lack of it. She should have kept silent. Her silence would have been golden, more golden than her recent vomit.