The
immediate past Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has
revealed how the massive loot of the late Nigerian Military Head of
state, General Sani Abacha was spent.
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late Head of State, General Sani Abacha
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The former Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister for the
Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told the World Bank that about $500
million (N65bn) recovered from the late Head of State, General Sani
Abacha in Switzerland was spent in the 2004 and 2005 budgets on roads,
electricity, education, water and health across all six geo-political
zones of Nigeria.
This was contained in the documents the World Bank sent to
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, following
enquiries made by SERAP on how the money, tagged Abacha loot was spent.
A statement issued on Sunday, November 29, by SERAP executive
director Adetokunbo Mumuni, said the organization has “received several
documents from the World Bank totalling over 700 pages on information on
the spending of recovered assets stolen by the late General Abacha,
with some of the documents suggesting that the Abacha loot was spent on
roads, electricity, education, health and water.”
The organisation said: “SERAP can confirm that last week we
received several documents from Ann May of the Access to Information
Team of the World Bank following our Access to Information Request to
the Bank. We also received a letter dated 24 November 2015 from Mr
Rachid Benmessaoud, Director of the World Bank in Africa.”
“In total, SERAP has received over 700 pages of documents,
which we are now closely studying and scrutinising with a view to
discovering whether the documents contain details that Nigerians would
like to see and whether the information correspond to the facts on the
ground. After this analysis, we will respond to the Bank and consider
our options, including filing an appeal before the Bank’s Access to
Information Appeals Board and taking other appropriate legal actions
nationally and internationally to discover what exactly happened to
Abacha recovered loot,” the organisation said.
The organisation said that “In the meantime our preliminary
review of some of the documents and the letter from Mr Rachid
Benmessaoud have revealed certain facts which raise more questions about
what exactly happened to Abacha loot: First, that Mrs Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala as Minister of Finance in a letter dated 9 January 2005
explained to the Bank that around $500m (N65bn) of Abacha loot received
from Switzerland was programmed into and spent in the 2004 and 2005
budgets on roads, electricity, education, water and health across all
six geo-political zones of Nigeria.”
“Second, Mrs Iweala explained to the Bank that N18.60bn was
spent on roads; N10.83bn spent on health; N7bn spent on education;
N6.20bn spent on water; and N21.70bn spent on electricity. She also said
that part of the funds were spent on new and ongoing investment
projects. Mrs Iweala said that relevant federal ministries have the full
details on the spending of repatriated Abacha loot. The Bank noted that
there was no funds monitoring and tracking mechanism in place to trace
the spending of Abacha loot,” the organisation also disclosed.
“Third, Mr Rachid Benmessaoud confirmed that the World Bank
played a monitoring role in a return of assets by Switzerland but that
the Bank is not currently involved in the monitoring of spending of
Abacha loot that have been returned to Nigeria in recent years. He said
that the Bank would be prepared to set up a mechanism to monitor the use
of Abacha loot if the Nigerian government request the Bank’s assistance
in this respect.”
"SERAP then argued that “given Mrs Okonjo-Iweala’s involvement
in the spending of Abacha loot, President Muhammadu Buhari should
urgently probe the role of the Ministry of Finance and relevant federal
ministries at the time in the spending of Abacha loot particularly given
the strong allegations of mismanagement that characterised the use of
the funds
The group said: “Although Mrs Okonjo-Iweala said that Abacha
loot was spent in the 2004 and 2005 budgets on roads, electricity,
education, water and health across all six geo-political zones of
Nigeria, there is no evidence of such projects as millions of Nigerians
continue to travel on dead roads, while they continue to lack access to
adequate electricity supply, water, health and quality education.
Therefore, President Buhari can no longer continue to remain silent on
this issue of public interest if Nigerians are to continue to trust him
in his fight against corruption.”
It will be recalled that in a letter dated 15 October 2015 and
signed by Ann May of the Access to Information Team, the Bank said that
“In response to your request under AI3982, we would like to inform you
that we are still considering your request and need additional time to
provide you with a more comprehensive response.”
The letter reads in part “In most cases, we will be able to respond
within twenty (20) working days from receipt of a request for
information. However, we may need additional time in special
circumstances, for example, if the request is complex or voluminous or
if it requires further review by or consultation with internal World
Bank units, external parties, the Access to Information Committee, or
the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors.”
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