Since the death of late dictator, General Sani Abacha, Nigeria has received $3.61 billion of the money looted by his military government with the latest being the $311m returned by the US and the British dependency of Jersey.
Under a repatriation agreement the money is to be spent on infrastructure projects in Nigeria despite the country battling the coronavirus pandemic.
General Abacha ruled Nigeria for five years from 1993 until his death in 1998. According to anti-corruption agency Transparency International, the military ruler stole as much as $5bn during his time in office.
Switzerland is believed to have returned around $1bn over the last decade. But who has received what from the Abacha loot.
Chronicle NG looks at how much successive government have received from the Abacha loot.
Former head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar received $750 million of the Abacha loot despite serving as de facto President of Nigeria from 1998 to 1999. He succeeded General Sani Abacha upon his death.
It is unclear what he did with the money returned to Nigeria.
General Abubakar was succeeded by President Olusegun Obasanjo as Nigeria returned to democracy in May 1999. The former military ruler got a whooping $2 billion during his two-term in office last eight years.
According to Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) there are no records of the exact amount of loot received by the Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan governments.
According to SERAP, Mr Abubakar Malami, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice said: “We have searched our records and the information on the exact amount of public funds stolen by Abacha and how recovered loot was spent from 1999–2015 is not held by the Ministry.”
Late President Umaru Yar’Adua government did not receive any Abacha loot according to Chronicle NG findings. It is the only administration that did not receive from the Abacha loot since his demise in office.
His Vice President and successor, President Goodluck Jonathan received $227 million of the Abacha loot. There are also no record of what the returned money was used for according to Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has so far received $633 million, this is in addition to the loot returned on 4 May 2020.
According to the Buhari government, a total of $322 million was recovered from Switzerland in January 2018 and the funds were used for Social Investment Project.
According to the Mr Malami (SAN), the $311 million recovered from the Island of Jersey in collaboration with the US will be used for infrastructure specifically the construction of Lagos—Ibadan Expressway; Abuja—Kano Expressway, and Second Niger Bridge.”
So far, Nigeria has received a total of about $3.61bn from the estimated $5 billion looted by Abacha. Most of the monies were re-looted according to the US and Switzerland governments which led those governments initiating repatriation agreement with the Buhari administration.
Chronicle NG reports that repatriation agreement has made it mandatory that the Nigerian government spends those returned funds for specific purposes.
The repatriation agreement the Switzerland government had with the Nigerian government before $322 million was released to the Buhari government is that the money will be given to the poorest of the poor in the country.
This birthed the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme under the Social Investment Programmes. The repatriation agreement was that poor households will receive N5,000 monthly.
The programme is supervised by the World Bank and Civil Society Organisations.
