Nigeria: Abacha Loot - Much Ado for Nothing

19 January 2018
opinion

Nigeria must have had a swell Christmas if the provision of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the Swiss Federal Council and the World Bank on December 7, 2017 for the repatriation of princely $321 million Abacha's loot confiscated by the court of Switzerland was activated.

The provision, ipso facto, explicitly asserts that the repatriation of the looted fund would begin two weeks from the day the MoU was signed. By simple calculation, Nigeria should have begun to receive the money as from December 21, 2017, barring unforeseen circumstances. Regardless of the number of tranches in which the money would come into the coffers of the Federal Government of Nigeria, it can safely be concluded that the sum by the time it is completely repatriated would represent a substantial accretion to the federation account or any account dedicated for that purpose. The Swiss government and the World Bank expect that the money would be tied to specific development projects particularly in the health and education sectors that would be of immense benefit to the country. They must have been persuaded that President Muhammadu Buhari, with his much-vaunted integrity, would be able to prudently utilise the money. Back home, the belief is that the famed integrity of Buhari was contributory to the positive international collaboration that resulted in the signing of the critical MoU and the eventual conclusion of the repatriation process.

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