By Seun Adeuyi
Former First Lady, Maryam Abacha, has refuted long-standing allegations that her late husband, General Sani Abacha, looted Nigeria’s treasury.
Abacha was Nigeria’s military ruler and commander-in-chief of the armed forces from 1993 to 1998.
He died on June 8, 1998.
In an interview aired on TVC on Sunday to mark 27 years since the death of Abacha, the former First Lady maintained that the funds were not looted, saying instead that her husband’s financial dealings were deliberately misrepresented.
Over the years, successive Nigerian governments have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars stashed in foreign accounts, widely referred to as “Abacha loot.”
These funds, repatriated from countries including Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom, have been used for various social investment programmes.
During the TVC interview, Maryam asked those making the claims to present credible evidence.
“Who is the witness of the monies that were being stashed?.
“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.
She said the constant finger-pointing at her husband reflects a deeper societal issue.
“Why are you blaming somebody? Is that tribalism or a religious problem or what is the problem with Nigerians?” she said.
“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.”
Maryam berated Nigerians for believing that subsequent administrations recovered monies stashed by Abacha abroad.
She said: “And because Nigerians are fools, they listen to everything.
“Babangida doesn’t make Nigeria alone. Abacha does not make Nigeria alone. Abiola and everybody, nobody is big enough for Nigeria. We are all very important.
“Even the single man on the street is very important. We are all human beings, for goodness sake. All these wahala should stop. Babangida cannot make things or unmake things.”
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.
“If it was him, that means he was very powerful… even more powerful than the president. If the president was there and somebody else was calling the shots, that means Abacha was the greatest.”
