By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Former Nigerian First Lady has denied her husband’s involvement in the long-standing allegations of looting of the national treasury, instead claiming misrepresentation in her husband’s financial dealings.
Maryam Abacha, in a televised interview, said her late husband, General Sani Abacha, who died 27 years ago, did not loot the funds. But successive administrations in the most populous African country have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars stashed in foreign accounts, widely referred to as “Abacha loot”, named after the late dictator who died in office on June 8, 1998.
Abacha, accused of human rights violations, was military ruler and commander-in-chief of the armed forces from 1993.
“Who is the witness of the monies that were being stashed?” the former first lady queried in the TVC interview, stating that constant finger-pointing at her husband reflects a deeper societal issue.
“Did you see the signature or the evidence of any monies stashed abroad? And the monies that my husband kept for Nigeria, in a few months, the monies vanished. People are not talking about that,” she said.
“Why are you blaming somebody? Is that tribalism or a religious problem, or what is the problem with Nigerians?”
Looted funds traced to Abacha were repatriated from Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom and have been deployed to various social investment programmes in the West African nation with high out-of-school rates, maternal mortality and a large infrastructure gap.
“I pray for Nigerians. I pray for all of us. I pray that we should have goodness in our hearts. We should stop telling lies and blaming people.
“Why are we so bad towards each other? Because somebody is a northerner or a southerner, somebody is a Muslim or a Christian, or somebody is nice or… It’s not fair.”
She berated Nigerians for believing that subsequent administrations recovered monies stashed by Abacha abroad.
She said: “And because Nigerians are fools, they listen to everything.”
She also rejected claims that Abacha-led forces annulled the June 12 election under Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB).
“All I know is that the annulment was not done by my husband,” Maryam said.
