In June of 2014, Nigeria received another slice of the famous loot of former leader General Sani Abacha.
The $227 million piece of the pie came from Liechtenstein. The government knew what would follow: that Nigerians would question how the money would be spent. It quickly announced that President Goodluck Jonathan had set up a ministerial panel to determine how it would be spent.
I did not believe a word of it. On July 5, citing precedence, I forecast in ‘Next Re-Loot: The Lichtenstein $227 Million’, that within three years all of that money would have disappeared.
“I predict that no project worth the name, let alone the money, will be completed, and that nobody will account for their role in the disappearance of the money.
“This was always true, but it is perhaps even more so now that the current government has advised government officials that stealing is not corruption.”
I advised Nigerians: “If you do not like that story as your future, now is the time to speak up. They will take the money and use it against you and the rural areas, like Chibok.”
Last week, Francoise Marie-Nelly, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, told Premium Times that the inter-ministerial committee the government said it had set up nine months ago has yet to agree on modalities to invest the funds.
That is particularly interesting when you consider that in reference is a stealing-is-not-corruption government that may already have been booted out of power by the time you read this. Tell me you believe they left the money untouched pending re-election and I’ll show you Mrs. Pope Francis.
Last week, in the face of reports that yet another $380 million of the Abacha loot was to be returned to Nigeria, Swiss civil society groups again expressed disappointment about the lack of transparency in the handling of the funds being returned, especially by their government. With this new figure, the Swiss alone would have returned well over $1billion to Nigeria.
The Swiss groups are faulting the decision not to have determined how the money would be spent before the repatriation of the funds, arguing that only a transparent process, including the involvement of Nigerian civil society, can ensure that the funds would ever benefit the Nigerian people. A few years ago, some of them alleged that about $250m had disappeared on its way to Nigeria.
Back home, David Ugolor, the Executive Director of the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), has also expressed outrage about why the agreements between the Swiss and Nigerian governments, as well as the World Bank over the returned funds are shrouded in secrecy.
Similarly, Dauda Garuba, the Nigeria Programme Coordinator for Natural Resource Governance Institute, who was involved in the initial arrangement in 2005 to monitor the use of the returned monies, has expressed disgust with what is going on.
“I don’t know what is going on between the World Bank and the Federal Ministry of Finance,” he said last week. “But, with the progress made since 2005 on the issue we should by now have gone beyond where we are today.”
Meanwhile, another Nigerian group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) last week sent to the U.S. Department of Justice a new repatriation proposal which would “limit control or management of $480 million forfeited Abacha funds by the Nigerian government to the extent necessary to ensure that there is transparency and accountability in the process.”
The United States took control of the $480 million in August 2014 following a court order. Earlier, in March, U.S. District Judge in Washington DC had ordered that the funds, which were frozen by the Justice Department, be forfeited to U.S. control.
The Department said it froze more than $458 million in corruption proceeds hidden by Abacha and his conspirators in bank accounts around the world. The US was working on a civil forfeiture complaint seeking recovery of over $550 million, described by the Justice Department as the largest kleptocracy forfeiture action in its history.
SERAP said its letter, dated 25 March 2015, became necessary “in the light of the unflattering indicators that the Nigerian government condones corruption in public service and its precedent on repatriated funds.”
The problem is that kleptocracy is not a problem for Mr. Jonathan, who famously granted state pardon to Dipreye Alamieyeseigha, his friend and former boss who had been convicted for corruption. Almost every top government official who has been accused of corruption under his watch, no matter how heinous, has kept his or her job.
In the case of Alamieyeseigha, the United States had also invited Mr. Jonathan and Attorney-General Mohamed Adokie to claim for Nigeria a $700,000 Maryland mansion and a Massachusetts investment account worth about $400,000. Both had been recovered from Alamieyeseigha, but Jonathan and Adokie apparently did not want to confirm and broadcast his guilt. As a result, the US kept the mansion and the account.
Jonathan and Adokie, by the way, are widely-known to have ethical issues of their own, including Mr. Jonathan’s refusal to declare his assets, and his tacit endorsement of kleptocracy as state policy.
Mr. Adokie however bragged that he would lead Nigeria’s claim of the $458 million the US had frozen. But if they cannot invest the Lichtenstein funds, is it any wonder that neither he nor Mr. Jonathan has said anything further about the $458m?
In its letter, SERAP urged the Department of Justice to listen to public suggestions and proposals before drafting for court approval a proposal for repatriation and disbursement of Abacha assets.
As a Nigerian, we owe these patriots, who are not paid a penny for their advocacy, a debt of gratitude. They represent the best of a nation which starves for patriotism at the highest levels.
But some of them are still asking the wrong question. Like many other Nigerians, they ask: “Where is the money?”
I have answered that several times, in one word: Gone! The repatriated funds—now about $4billion—are gone.
And as long as we have in place a looting platform where character is of no consequence and it is yours if you can snatch it, any funds being repatriated to Nigeria simply feed and embolden the corruption monster.
As long as we have a system where Nigerians do not insist there can be no credibility without accountability, that monster will continue to grow, and to eat Nigeria’s children alive.
Where are the returned Abacha funds, dear Nigerian? Lying government officials say they are being “well spent” on “public projects” and in the “rural areas”.
Someday, we will establish, first, exactly what has been returned of the stolen funds. And then, we will put these same men and women in a chair and ask them a few questions.
That is because in order to have a future you must understand your history.
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Twitter: @SonalaOlumhense