Abacha’s corruption rating

Three former military heads of state have just risen in stout defence of the tenure of their late colleague, General Sani Abacha, with a common verdict that he did not loot the nation’s treasury. The trio of Generals Ibrahim Babangida, Mohammed Buhari and Abdulsalami Abubakar had at the 10th anniversary prayer for the late Sani Abacha passed a collective clean bill exonerating him of any misdeeds while he held sway as the nation’s number one citizen.

Whereas Buhari said all the allegations levelled against the person of Abacha will remain mere allegations, Babangida gave a finality to the matter when he said very emphatically, that all allegations of looting against Abacha are “unfounded and baseless.” For Abubakar however, he views it as quite unfortunate to accuse the family of the late Sani Abacha of looting public funds.

Since these statements became public knowledge, they have attracted vehement condemnations from a broad spectrum of the Nigerian population. This is to be expected as the statements have largely been seen as a puerile attempt to re-write history.

Moreover, the facts on the ground do not lend any support to the sweeping assertions and vile conclusions of the three former leaders whose performance rating while they superintended over the affairs of the nation are at best very questionable.

Given this background, there is the fear that the three former leaders may be up to something else. There is the suspicion that this may be part of the hidden agenda by these former military helmsmen to defend one of theirs and in the process throw spanners into the wheels of the current probes aimed at instilling probity and accountability in governance. This suspicion was further reinforced when one of them had the effrontery to call for a halt to the current probes on the grounds that nothing will come out of them.

The three former leaders are entitled to free commentary in this matter or any other. But in the instant case, it will amount to an insult on the sensibilities of Nigerians to seek to exculpate the late Abacha as far as helping himself with public funds is concerned.

It is curious that the three former leaders had to wait for 10 years and for Obasanjo to exit from power before realizing that Abacha did not dip his hands into the public treasury. Why did these revisionists not speak up when the details of the looting and the amounts recovered from the family both domestically and from foreign governments were being publicized?

In effect, the banters thrown by the former leaders must be ignored for lacking merit. It is nothing but part of the larger conspiracy by all those who have kept this nation down through years of misrule and profligate spending to seek relevance for interests that are less than ennobling.

This is more so as facts on the ground have already rendered any such attempt a nullity. In 2002, the Obasanjo regime froze monies close to $2billion said to have been looted by the Abacha family. Reports also had it that a total of $800 million was recovered from the Abacha family’s vault in domestic institutions and $505.5 million retrieved from the Swiss government.

Ample evidence abound regarding the monies hidden in foreign accounts both those recovered and the ones that are still trapped there. In the face of these startling realities, it will amount to a slap on the face of the nation for any person in his right senses to publicly exonerate that family on the issue.

Moreover, such unguarded statements have the capacity of whittling down all the efforts that are being made by the current administration to discourage sleaze in public offices. It is for these reasons that the statements have been roundly condemned by well meaning Nigerians. If the former leaders had said that Abacha may not be the worst looter of public funds given what we now know, that could have made more sense.

But to argue very conclusively that he is a saint when ample evidence exists to the contrary is to all intents and purposes vile. It is also senseless to suggest that since Abacha has not been duly convicted by any court of competent jurisdiction all the discovered and recovered monies looted by the family are still mere allegations.

Perhaps, the views of the trio have once again reinforced the great need for a comprehensive probe of successive administrations in this country. With such a probe, all the characters that have connived to hold this nation down despite its enormous resources will be unmasked. Then, an end would have been brought to the recklessness represented by the statements of Babangida, Buhari and Abubakar on the Abacha loot.