By Zuwaira Yunusa Ahmed
In what is regarded as a landmark judgement, a Federal High Court in Lagos held that successive governments since the return of democracy to Nigeria in 1999 have breached the fundamental principles of transparency and accountability for failing to reveal details about the expenditure of the recovered Abacha loot, including publishing those details on dedicated website.
Presided over by Justice M.B. Idris, the Court ordered the government ofPresident Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that his administration, the government of former President Obasanjo, former President Umaru Musa Yar’adua and former President Jonathan account fully for all recovered loot.
The judgement was delivered on a Freedom of Information suit brought by the Socio/Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), which has been unimpressed by the less transparent manner these huge recovered funds were expended, especially with regard to lack of concrete evidence that these looted funds went to the promotion of the welfare of Nigerians. I commend SERAP and the court for this landmark judgement. It is not enough to seek foreign cooperation in the recovery of looted funds, and fail to account for those funds transferred to you.
Which country would hand over looted funds only to find that the money was re-looted?
Did we ever care to pause and give a thought to why we are haunted by persistent negative perceptions by foreigners? Why do Western leaders hold our leaders in low esteem? Why are our leaders unconcerned about our country’s poor reputation? Why do foreign leaders hardly trust our leaders? Why do they perceive our leaders as selfish and unpatriotic?
During his official visit to Nigeria in 2000, former United States President, Mr. Bill Clinton, told the National Assembly that his country would support a relief for Nigeria “if we are convinced the benefits of debt relief would go to ordinary Nigerians.” Clinton’s remark was an indictment of our greedy leaders.
Western leaders know exactly the level of corruption among our leaders and how their greed and selfishness impede the progress of the country. What Clinton said was the unvarnished truth, and that is why foreign leaders neither trust nor respect our leaders because of corruption.
Now my next question: was Clinton vindicated? Indeed, he was! And the management of and expenditure of the recovered Abacha loot is a case in point. Nigerians have been told that the 700 to 1 billion dollars Abacha looted have been spent on social projects such as health, education, roads, electricity, and water. Yet, the location of these projects remains a matter of public debate because the credibility gap between what the former Obasanjo Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, claimed on paper and the situation on ground remains scandalously wide.
Nigerians were subjected to statistical obfuscation instead of being presented with practical evidence of where these so-called social service projects were located across the country. Instead of presenting a 700-page report to Nigerians to convince them that, indeed, the Abacha loot was used for their welfare, one would have expected the Obasanjo administration to show them concrete proofs of the locations of these projects.
The Obasanjo administration should apologise to the Abachas for using them to divert attention from its own moral hypocrisy. What is the point wasting the time of Nigerians, bombarding them with stories of the billions you have recovered from the Abachas, and found yourself unable to convincingly use these funds for the welfare of Nigerians?
The scandal involving the mismanagement of the Abacha loot is worse than criminal. Are the people entrusted with the management of Abacha loot morally better than Abacha? The anti-corruption crusade of the Obasanjo administration was the biggest fraud Nigerians ever witnessed. We wasted our time hailing Obasanjo when in reality he was dubious.
Apart from concentrating all his loot recovery efforts on the Abachas, he also demonstrated hypocrisy in the management of those funds. No government should overlook the scandal surrounding the management and expenditure of the recovered Abacha loot.
In fact, the length of time is not an excuse to protect any leader from accountability. Instead of answering questions honestly, Okonjo-Iweala was insulting the intelligence of Nigerians by introducing diversionary issues. For example, she attacked the integrity of SERAP by accusing its leaders of pursuing a political agenda; utter rubbish.
It is not enough to spend eight years in government holding others accountable, and then fall below the moral compass. Do you need a 700-page document to tell Nigerians how you used the Abacha loot when practical proofs are enough? Do you prove the execution of projects on paper? The communities that benefited from those so-called projects are not ghosts. Nigerians should not be intimidated with sophisticated statistics when all they need are practical proofs of the projects on which the Abacha loot was expended. With the scandal surrounding the mismanagement of the Abacha loot, it is now apparent that Obasanjo’s anti-corruption crusade was smoke and mirrors.
Nobody however powerful involved in the management of the Abacha loot should be spared. The Buhari administration should be courageous enough to investigate the management of the recovered Abacha loot. This scandal is too serious to be treated lightly, no matter who are involved.
Ahmed, a transparency activist, wrote from 58, Cairo Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja. E-mail: zuwairayunusa2009@gmail.com