Buba Galadima has said that the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha didn’t loot the country’s funds, but stashed them in foreign banks to avoid US sanctions.
Galadima in an interview with TheNation newspaper said Abacha saved the monies abroad to save the country from an impending US sanction during his administration.
According to him: “I have a completely different idea about what you called Abacha loot. I know as a fact that at that time, Abacha with knowledge of key members of his government, who knew about this money being stacked out, he was rightly advised by some of his colleague presidents around the world.
Saddam Hussein was one of them. Muammar Gaddafi was one of them. They advised him that there was the likelihood that the US could sanction Nigeria and as such he should save money outside that could last the country, at least, six months, even Nigeria’s account was blocked by the US, there won’t be panic.
I was a key figure in that government. I was one of the so-called Abacha boys if you must know. I was the Director-General, National Maritime Authority, whereby export and import to Nigeria, including crude, were directly coming under my desk. So, am in a position to talk about Abacha and the so-called loot.
It is true that some Nigerians believe Abacha was a monster and you cannot fault their ignorance. .
I am pretty sure that if the late Professor Sam Aluko was alive, the genius who wrote Abacha economic policy; he ran perfectly the Abacha economic policy; Aluko was a man of intelligence and integrity, he managed the economy well at that time that naira was going for 9/11 dollars.
Credit must be given to him. Aluko acknowledged the presence of these monies before he passed on.
If they say Abacha was a monster, my answer is, at least he held the country together and everybody knew you could not trample on our laws without being dealt with.”
