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 yesterday 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”
According to the group, “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,” the organisation also said.
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.”
Earlier, SERAP had on 21 September 2015 sent an access to information
request to Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group urging him to
“exercise the Bank’s prerogative to release documents relating to
spending of recovered assets stolen by Late General Sani Abacha”.
The group also asked Mr Yong Kim to “disclose information about the
Bank’s role in the implementation of any projects funded by the
recovered assets and any other on-going repatriation initiatives on
Nigeria with which the Bank is engaged.”
The request was “pursuant to the World Bank’s Access to Information
Policy (The Policy), approved by the Board on June 30 205. SERAP notes
that one of the Policy’s guiding principles is to maximize access to
information. There is also clear public interest in Nigerians knowing
about the Bank’s supervisory role and specific
