By Darlington Onedibe
Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, has dismissed the widely publicized “Abacha loot” as a hoax, asserting that the late military dictator, General Sani Abacha, never stole money from the country.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Saturday Sun following the unveiling of his memoirs at the Presidential Villa, Abdulsalami argued that the billions of dollars traced to foreign accounts were actually national savings, not stolen funds.
According to him, Abacha acted on the confidential advice of several international leaders to safeguard Nigeria’s finances against impending global sanctions.
Abdulsalami explained that during Abacha’s regime, prominent African leaders advised the late military ruler to secure Nigeria’s funds abroad to keep the country afloat if Western nations froze its official accounts. “It is very, very unfortunate that the issue of the money he was trying to save for Nigeria is being referred to as Abacha loot.
I am sorry to say I differ from the generalization,” Abdulsalami stated. He named former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and former Benin Republic President Mathieu Kérékou as some of the leaders who counseled Abacha.
“They were the ones that advised Abacha to start saving for Nigeria, otherwise, the international community would freeze the accounts and he will not be able to do anything for the country,” Abdulsalami added.
The former Head of State maintained that General Abacha’s only mistake was operating the reserve system in total isolation, failing to take members of his own administration into his confidence.
Abdulsalami revealed that the military high command was entirely unaware of the strategic reserves during Abacha’s lifetime. It was only after Abacha’s sudden death in 1998 that visiting foreign leaders informed the succeeding administration about the hidden funds.
Abdulsalami pointed out that the hidden reserves were occasionally used for national security, noting that Abacha drew from those specific funds to purchase Tata vehicles and other logistics for security agencies. Abdulsalami’s latest remarks represent a sharp departure from historical narratives and previous government actions.
Following Abacha’s death in 1998, it was Abdulsalami’s own transitional government that set up the initial Special Investigation Panel (SIP) which uncovered massive systemic fraud and recovered the first tranches of what became globally known as the “Abacha loot.”
Over the last two decades, successive Nigerian administrations have successfully repatriated more than $3.5 billion from Switzerland, Jersey, the United States, and the United Kingdom, funds international courts explicitly ruled were embezzled through security vote fraud and inflated contracts.
Defending his stance against public skepticism regarding his prolonged silence on the matter, Abdulsalami concluded, “To me, General Abacha was a very loyal man to his friends. And the Abacha I know is not the Abacha the press is painting him to be.”
