A few months ago, I saw Mrs Maryam Abacha at the Abuja Continental Hotel (formerly Sheraton Hotel). She was about to alight from a car when I caught a glimpse of her. For a 78-year-old woman, she still looked elegant and gorgeous — nearly 27 years after she was shorn of the power and the glory of being Nigeria’s first lady. I imagined how she has coped with the tragedy of losing many loved ones, including her husband and two of her sons, Ibrahim and Abdullahi, over the years. Even though I was never a fan of her husband who ruled Nigeria with maximum brutality between 1993 and 1998, I still had an urge to greet her — out of courtesy for an elderly woman. But I let it pass.
The next time I would see the woman was on TV. There was nothing elegant or gorgeous in her words. She only reopened old wounds. This is one of those instances when silence is golden. If Mrs Abacha was talking to toddlers and teens, I would have understood her: they might be unable to counter her. After all, that is how history is taught in some parts of Nigeria nowadays. People make up “alternative facts” and pass their imaginations and fabrications to the next generation. But she was speaking to an audience that included those of us who witnessed the murderous and plundering regime of her husband. Some of us will not allow her to re-write history. No, she can’t gaslight us.
Regarding the billions of dollars looted by her husband, she demanded to know who witnessed the plunder, as if she was talking to a congregation of retards. “Who is the witness of the monies that were being stashed? Did you see the signature or the evidence of any monies stashed abroad? And the monies that my husband kept vanished in a few months. People are not talking about that.” She even sent posers to Abacha’s critics: “Why are you blaming somebody? Is that tribalism or a religious problem or what is the problem with Nigerians? Where did he steal the money from? Where would he have stolen the money from? And because Nigerians are fools, they listen to everything.”
I don’t know where to start from. But before we get to the pillaging of the national treasury by Abacha and his associates, we should first attend to her “tribalism” and “religious” problem. For the record, it was Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, a northerner and a Muslim, who started the process of identifying and recovering the Abacha loot. In July 1998, he set up a special investigation panel (SIP), headed by Mr Peter Gana, then a deputy commissioner at the special fraud unit (SFU) of the police force. Within four months, the SIP found evidence of organised plundering at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The panel sent a preliminary report to the government, detailing the financial crimes.
The looting was well orchestrated through the office of the national security adviser (ONSA). Mr Enrico Monfrini, the Swiss lawyer engaged by President Olusegun Obasanjo to go after the looted funds, detailed the activities of the “Abacha criminal organisation” in an article published in 2008. There was a pattern to the looting: ONSA would send dubious funding requests for “security operations” to Abacha who would then authorise the CBN to release the monies. The funds were directly remitted in cash ($1.131 billion and £413 million) and in travellers’ cheques ($50 million and £3.5 million) by the CBN to ONSA, who then organised for direct delivery to Abacha at home.
According to Monfrini, the funds would thereafter be laundered through Nigerian banks or by Nigerian or foreign businessmen to offshore accounts belonging to Mohammed, his eldest surviving son, Abba (Mohammed’s brother), Abdulkadir Abacha (Abacha’s brother) and Abubakar Bagudu (an investment banker). Monfrini said there were 36 instances that funds totalling $386 million were wired by the CBN “to foreign bank accounts abroad held by offshore companies belonging either to members of the Abacha criminal organisation or to Nigerian or foreign businessmen, who then remitted the same sums to members of the organisation”. I don’t know how this can be justified.
Recovery started during investigation by the SIP. Several assets, including the Cowry House on Akin Adesola Road, Victoria Island, Lagos, and physical cash were seized by the federal government. Numerous looted assets were also identified, forcing the Abubakar administration to promulgate the Forfeiture of Assets, Etc (Certain Persons) Decree No. 53 of May 26, 1999 to give legal backing to the recovery and restitution process. This law, now an Act of Parliament, ordered the confiscation of real estate, movable assets, and cash acquired and held illegally by Abacha’s associates, including the late Abdulazeez Arisekola Alao, the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland and well-known Abacha man.
Within a short time, over $800 million was returned to the government. Growing in confidence and capitalising on European human rights laws, the Abachas started placing legal hurdles on the way of the Nigerian government to stop further recovery. The government decided to start criminal proceedings against them and their associates. The criminal proceedings and mutual assistance proceedings in Europe in 2000 forced the Abachas and their associates to disclose that they had $600 million stashed in Switzerland, $630 million in Luxembourg and $200 million in Liechtenstein. They had violated the decree by failing to disclose those assets and they were caught pants down.
Monfrini succeeded in freezing almost all the identified assets of the “Abacha criminal organisation” worldwide. It was discovered that over 20 companies paid bribes at the request of Abacha, in addition to insanely inflated contracts awarded to companies controlled by his family. Abacha was the designated beneficial owner of just three of the over 100 accounts used by the “organisation”. The designated beneficial owners of the rest were his sons and various cohorts, both civilian and military. Obasanjo had to enter into a global settlement agreement (GSA) with the Abachas in 2004 to encourage them to cough up all the looted funds in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
After Obasanjo left office, the Abachas began to play games to stall on the recovery and restitution of the remaining loot. Liechtenstein, in particular, was reluctant to return the €185 million traced to its jurisdiction because of the suits filed by the Abachas, even though the funds had been frozen by court orders since 2000. It was established by investigators that €179 million was a bribe paid by Ferrostaal AG of Germany, one of the world’s largest steel traders, when Abacha awarded them the contract for the construction of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom state. The Germans paid the bribe to Liechtenstein accounts owned by the Abachas.
If Mrs Abacha is truly looking for the “witnesses” to the stashing by her husband, she does not need to look far away from home. More so, the facts are documented in court proceedings in Nigeria and abroad as well as in an agreement signed with the government by her children. The Abachas were even allowed to keep some assets under the “complete waiver” granted by Obasanjo just to get them to make full disclosure of what disappeared from the CBN safes into their pockets. Since 1999, her family has coughed up over $2 billion of the loot traced to them, not forgetting the about $500 million returned under President Muhammadu Buhari — who once said Abacha was not a thief.
Mrs Abacha repeated the fable that her husband left robust reserves that vanished “within months” after his death. I believe this myth has come to stay, but the real fact is that when Abacha died in June 1998, our foreign reserves were about $6 billion and we had outstanding FX obligations in excess of $3 billion. There were several commitments, including hosting the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship, funding NNPC JV cash calls and repaying Paris Club debts, that needed to be met. Crude oil was around $10 a barrel and OPEC had reduced production quotas. The rosy picture painted of “robust reserves” is urban legend not backed by facts. But it is a tale to be told forever.
Mrs Abacha does not like the fact that people are still criticising her husband 27 years after death disrobed him as our maximum ruler and potential life president. She, apparently, has a small point. She believes the husband has a right to be forgotten. She, indeed, has a small point. It is not as if looting started and ended with her husband. It is not as if Nigeria has been governed by leaders with clean hands and pure hearts since Abacha died. After all, many of those who colluded with him and enabled his repressive reign have since been rehabilitated into the society and celebrated as elder statesmen. So why should Abacha still be demonised after 27 years? She, in fact, has a small point.
The problem, I think, is that her husband was in a class of his own. He did more damage to our national psyche than many are ready to give him credit for. He set sickening precedents for subsequent governments. The sleazy foundation did not die with him: it, instead, became a culture. Under Abacha, we had dual exchange rates: N22 officially and N80 on the streets. The black market rate was almost four times higher than the official! Arbitrage became a new economy. The free money was used to fill the mouths of the sycophants campaigning for Abacha to transmute from military to civilian president. It was the progenitor of the insane arbitrage between 2015 and 2023.
Under Abacha, our refineries went comatose and “turnaround maintenance” contracts became an oil block on its own while fuel importation was embraced as the business of choice for his family members and associates. Subsequent governments came and discovered the dual honeypot of “turnaround maintenance” contracts and fuel importation. They refused to let go. Abacha showed the way by sowing the seed. Do I need to remind Mrs Abacha of the importation of “foul fuel” that damaged car engines across the country? Or do I really need to remind her of the assassinations and bombings — and the human rights abuses that turned Nigeria into a gigantic gulag under Abacha?
Nonetheless, I do not believe any human being is completely bad. In my books, Abacha had the best record in the management of the gains of subsidy removal. He set up the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund that did tangible projects across Nigeria. Also, I will forever give him a thumbs-up for accelerating the take-off of the Nigeria LNG. But he did far more evil than good. Today, when people try to re-write history by saying that Abacha ran the economy better, I chuckle. Memory of pain does not last. That is why some women keep visiting the labour room. But the perfidy and pains of the murderous Abacha years can never be wished away by his widow. Or his supporters. Never. Ever.
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…
UNCLE SAM IS 90
I was quite young when I was appointed Saturday Editor of THISDAY in 2002 by Mr Nduka Obaigbena. A senior journalist asked me: “Simon, you have risen so early in your career. I wonder how much longer you will remain in journalism.” I smiled and offered him a simple answer: “Uncle Sam.” He got my drift instantly. Sam Amuka-Pemu, whom we call “Uncle Sam”, is the publisher of Vanguard. He has been a journalist all his life, edited big publications, and written unputdownable columns. He has produced leaders in the media and other fields. He has never joined a political party or taken a political appointment, yet he is a fulfilled man. Uncle Sam remains an inspiration even at 90. Hooray!
ONE-PARTY STUFF
Addressing the national assembly on Democracy Day, President Tinubu defended the mass defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), insisting that he believes in the multi-party system. I have my view on these defections which I will write on later. However, not being one to resist an opportunity to throw a few stones at the opposition, Tinubu added: “Political parties fearful of members leaving may be better served by examining their internal processes and affairs rather than fearfully conjuring up demons that do not exist. For me, I would say try your best to put your house in order. I will not help you do so.” And now this: “It is, indeed, a pleasure to witness you in such disarray.” Ouch!
ADAMS AND PEACE
There was a major drama on Wednesday at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, when Senator Adams Oshiomhole and Air Peace locked horns. What we know is that Oshiomhole, former labour leader, embarked on “aluta” when he was told he arrived late for his flight and would not be boarded. What we are unsure of is his allegation that the staff were extorting other passengers to board them despite the lateness. What we know, based on video evidence, is that the former Edo governor blocked the entrance gate and delayed the flight. It is not impossible that passengers were asked for a bribe (this is Nigeria) but the ex-APC chairman did not conduct himself well. Unbecoming.
NO COMMENT
According to those tracking the development, seven places have been named after President Bola Tinubu since he was inaugurated in May 2023. At this rate, there will be at least 14 places named after him by the time he finishes his first term. For sure, he did not invent it. In fact, it has become a culture to be naming things after sitting governors and presidents. Many commentators think immortalisation, as we call it, should only be after they have left office. But that is not even what is amusing me today. A commenter wrote on X: “INEC will be announcing the 2027 Presidential election result from (the renamed) Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre.” Hahahaha.
