A practice once existed in ancient Rome, where leaders displayed a noble practice of bequeathing a portion of their vast wealth to the city upon their demise.
It was inspired by Julius Caesar and these monies shared were often war booty and rent acquired by Caesar in his lifetime.
Now, shifting our focus to Nigeria, grappling with the spectre of its former military leader, General Sani Abacha whose ghost has become a Santa Claus of repute constantly giving out gifts in the forms of recovered loots.
General Sani Abacha, who many have dubbed ‘Santa Claus’, akin to a modern-day incarnation of Santa Claus himself has continued to see public funds he stole returned to Nigeria since his death in 1998.
Most recently, France, in a remarkable gesture, pledged to return a staggering $150 million of the looted funds.
This announcement came a week after a fervent online discourse, where netizens passionately debated the legacy of the late military ruler, General Sani Abacha.
Some effusively praised him as a statesman who positively impacted Nigeria’s economy by resolutely combating inflation and augmenting the nation’s reserves. Even former President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2018, endorsed his collaboration with Abacha, underscoring their joint efforts in constructing vital infrastructure.
In fact, Buhari was quoted to have said, “I don’t care the opinion you have about Abacha, but I agreed to work with him and we constructed roads from Abuja to Port Harcourt, Benin to Onitsha and so on.”
Yet, history paints a starkly different picture, casting General Sani Abacha as a thief of monumental proportions.
On the back of the latest announcement by France, I reviewed an infographic that details the colossal sums that have been reclaimed from his ill-gotten wealth.
In 1998, an astounding $750 million was wrested from the grasp of the Abacha family. Subsequently, in the year 2000, $64 million was repatriated from Switzerland. In 2002, a jaw-dropping $1.2 billion was reclaimed from the Abacha family, while 2003 saw the retrieval of $160 million and $88 million from Jersey and Switzerland, respectively. The year 2005 witnessed another substantial repatriation, with $461.3 million returning from Switzerland.
This financial saga continued into 2006 when Nigeria received an additional $44.1 million from Switzerland. In 2014, $227 million was recouped from Liechtenstein, followed by another substantial sum of $322 million from Switzerland in 2018. In 2020, a total of $311.7 million was restored to the nation from the USA. In the final lap of the Buhari administration, there was an agreement for the transfer of an additional $23 million from the USA.
As it stands, Nigerians are now waiting annually for the announcement of further looted funds linked to Sani Abacha, especially with one of his allies, Atiku Bagudu now tasked with ensuring proper planning and ensuring that Nigeria regains all funds to sponsor its budget.
But as Nigerians await the next discovery, certain pertinent questions about the broader landscape of corruption and accountability demand answers.
Would Nigeria have been privy to these staggering amounts if Abacha were still alive?
Why did those foreign countries provide a haven for this ill-gotten funds which would have improved our economy?
If Abacha’s legacy was one of theft on such a grand scale, it beckons the question of why anti-graft agencies have not pursued those who set the stage before him and those who continue to follow his tainted footsteps.
