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Looted funds: Nigerians deserve full disclosure

*Over $600bn believed to have been looted since 1999

By Vincent Egunyanga, Cajetan Mmuta, Anthony Otaru, David Lawani, and David Eze

 

Nigerians are growing increasingly frustrated over the lack of transparency in the management of recovered looted funds, with calls for full disclosure reaching a crescendo.

The United States government returned to Nigeria on Friday $52.88m in recovered assets linked to Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, and her associates.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, and the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills Jr., signed an Asset Return Agreement in Abuja.

According to reports, over $5bn loot has been recovered from former military ruler the late Sani Abacha’s bank accounts in different parts of the world between 1998 and 2020.

The Economist magazine in October 2022 reported that an estimated $600bn was believed to have been stolen from Nigeria since its Independence in 1960.

However, in the latest recovery, the Federal Government said the agreement was being executed to ensure that the returned assets are applied directly to developmental projects—rural electrification and counterterrorism.

Fagbemi explained, “As agreed, $50m of the repatriated funds will be utilised through the World Bank to partly fund the Rural Electrification Project, which will increase the reliability and availability of renewable energy in Nigeria.

“While the balance of $2.88m will be disbursed as a grant by Nigeria to the International Institute for Justice (IIJ) to support ‘the Rule of Law and Counter-Terrorism Project’ through counter-terrorism capacity building for Criminal Justice Sector Practitioners in East, West, and North Africa.”

 

*Lawyers, CSOs want govt to give account of status of Abacha, other recovered funds

However, civil society organisations (CSOs) and legal practitioners demand that the government provide a comprehensive account of recovered funds, particularly those linked to the late Gen Sani Abacha and other high-profile cases.

The uproar over Diezani’s alleged misappropriations has further intensified the debate as Nigerians question the government’s commitment to accountability.

Reports estimate that over $600bn has been looted from public coffers since 1999.

Citizens are calling for an urgent review of recovery processes and a transparent utilisation framework to restore public trust.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (InterSociety), Emeka Umeagbalasi, described the agreements between Nigeria and other countries on the recovery of past looted funds as an exercise in futility as there is no proper accountability of the funds recovered.

He said, “There has never been any accountability, and you must know that the days are gone when you mention the name of the United States or any member of the Western world is mentioned, and it automatically connotes accountability. If you look at the plans the Western world has been lending to Nigeria from 2015 to 2017, for instance, there has never been any accountability, and that’s why some people have described such loans as roguish.

“This one ($52.88m) is also not far from being roguish because there has never been any accountability; what has been involved is paper agreements. Once it’s signed and pronounced, no effective mechanism will be put in place to ensure the practical accountability of the money.”

He noted that this type of agreement required a joint implementation team, in which the US Ambassador would play a critical role and report back to the home government through the Embassy in Nigeria.

“The fear here is hinged on accountability and not paper agreement. The agreement should go the extra mile by including a joint implementation Committee between the United States Government, represented here by the US Embassy, and the government of Nigeria.

“The US embassy will be practically answerable to the said department because at the end of each year, such department issues state of human rights and international development report regarding Nigeria.”

Umeagbalasi maintained that the US government must take further action to establish a technical implementation committee, which representatives of the US government will populate through the embassy in Nigeria and the Nigerian government.

“But if you leave it in the hands of the Nigerian government, the money will just disappear the way trillions of naira worth of loans borrowed from the Western world to Nigeria,” he added.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, noted that the recovery of the funds was in the right direction but said that looters often re-looted the funds.

Adegboruwa noted that it is unfortunate that there is no accountability, not even for the recovered funds.

He said, “I think it is a show of our leaders’ lack of empathy for the people because leadership is not about service. It shows that it is about the leaders’ self-interest.

“This is not limited to Diezani Alison-Madueke. Those who are currently in power are probably doing worse. When they leave the office, we learn about the skeleton in their cupboard. This shows our present leaders that they can learn a lesson. You cannot steal from the people and hope to sustain that ill-gotten wealth.

“So, it is commendable that the money is being repatriated. The problem is always those who are looting the looters. So, a lot of money is being repatriated from Abacha and many others. We do not know what these resources are used for because there is no accountability.

“So, it is not just to recover dollars. But tell us what it is to be used for because it is not budgeted for in the current budget of this regime. So, they should tell us what they want to do with the money. It is the money of the people.”

Also, Eze Splendour, a governorship aspirant on the Labour Party platform in the 2023 election, said the return of $52.88m was a welcome development.

“My worry about all these returned looted funds is that it does appear to me that each time this money is returned, it will be re-looted because I have never seen any meaningful projects it was used for. Take, for instance, the recovered Abacha money. What was it used for?” he queried.

A legal practitioner, Christopher Peters, said such looted funds are responsible for poverty, hardship, and unemployment, among other things, in developing countries.

Peters, who said he was among the lawyers who helped recover part of Abacha’s loot, explained that Nigeria’s problem was bad behaviour.

He lamented that parts of the looted funds ended up in the wrong hands, adding that the looted funds were re-looted.

Besides, he said the cost of International litigation is high, so huge amounts of these funds are used to pay the cost of litigation.

He called on the countries returning the stolen funds to follow the money.

He said some of the recovered Abacha funds were shared under Buhari’s administration.

He said Buhari directed that the money should be shared with the so-called poorest of the poor, questioning how the poorest of the poor were determined.

Another lawyer, Adeyinka Faseyi, said it is a good idea for the Federal Government to collaborate with or involve the international community in the fight against corruption and the recovery of looted funds.

He said the process was always tedious, but it was worth the while.

Under the President Tinubu administration, about $150m Abacha loot had been recovered since 2023.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Writer’s Association (HURIWA) has slammed the Federal Government’s purported fight against corruption, stressing that the government was only paying lip services to the graft war.

It said, “FG’s celebration of the $53m refunds from Diezani stolen money by the United States of America is diversionary.”

The group said that Nigerians will know without doubt anytime the government begins to fight corruption in the land.

HURIWA was registered in 2007 as a non-governmental organisation saddled with holding accountable the people across the board.

Speaking to ThisNigeria about the $53m the US repatriated stolen, the National Coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said nobody was fighting corruption in Nigeria.

He said, “By the way, how much is the money? It is not up to 0.05 percent of the money that was stolen in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs under the previous Muhammadu Buhari government.

“If the government is serious about fighting corruption, the Buhari administration should be probed. But with all the monies stolen by Buhari cronies, no accurate probe has been instituted.

“Where are the monies recovered from the late Sani Abacha loot, over $311.8m refunds five years ago? What were they used for? You will only discover that such refunds are re-looted; the story ends there.

“As I said, nobody is fighting corruption. The current government is not fighting corruption — the ICPC, EFCC, and the Ministry of Justice are not fighting corruption; they are only focussing on some individuals, which is diversionary.

“I want to challenge them to probe the Ministries of Defence, Aviation, NNPC, and Humanitarian Affairs under the Buhari administration where billions were stolen, culprits should be brought to book, and then we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel in the fight against corruption in Nigeria.”

In his view, the President of Young Ambassadors of Northern Nigeria (YAN), Tijani Abdulmumin, commended the laundering institutions’ efforts to ensure that money stolen by the former Minister of Petroleum was returned to Nigeria.

He, however, suggested that such funds should be diverted to developing the skills of the Nigerian masses.

Abdulmumin noted that these funds have often been said to be returned,, yet there has been no effect or impact from them.

He said, “I want this money to be channelled as a relief to the masses. The population of Nigeria is growing beyond what we are thinking. Remember, UNPF once said that if care is not taken, Nigeria’s population might rise to 400 million by 2050. So, if we don’t use these funds adequately and judiciously, we might not find things easy for ourselves.

“Let the returned money be channelled into arresting the youth restiveness ravaging the country. They should channel the funds to agro enterprises and businesses for the entirety of this nation’s youth so that they can equally tap from it.

“We have been talking of skills. People have learnt these skills but have no findings. There should also be an arrangement for soft loans for people to enter business. Other nations we have been running to today have tapped and benefitted from such skills and loans. This has improved their economy. And the country at large will also profit from it.”

He stressed that despite the funds’ echoes, their impact on the populace still leaves much to be desired.

“We have been made to understand that she actually diverted lots of funds as a former Minister of Petroleum. Even if the disclosure is not specific, we are made to know that some of the money stolen has been refunded. But until now, we have not seen the effect.

“It is not showing on the people of Nigeria. And questions have been asked over and over, yet we cannot understand what is happening. So, Nigerians must sit up and ensure the funds are returned to the everyday purse for the good of all.

“Nobody is feeling the impact of what she has returned. The woman diverted lots of money that the money laundering institutions are still returning,” he said.

Rights activist, lawyer, and public affairs analyst, Ugamah Stephen, said that for the past 10 years or more, the Swiss government has returned millions of dollars alleged to have been looted by Abacha. Stephen added that each time such a huge amount of money is returned, it is always tagged to one national development project or another, and at the end of the day, Nigerians don’t see the said projects executed for the benefit of Nigerians.

“This recent repatriation linked to the former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, won’t be an exception to the same old story we have witnessed over the years. It has been tagged as a developmental project without specifications. The mere mention of rural electrification and counter-terrorism is a mere mirage. It will not see the light of the day.

“At the end of the day, those in government will re-loot the repatriated funds. It is a merry-go-round sort of narrative. Sadly, the anti-graft agencies hardly ever convict exposed political persons. So, I do not see what to celebrate or rejoice about so far as this recent repatriation is concerned.

 

 

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