₦airaland Forum

Witcher:
What people now mischievously refer to as “the Abacha loot” was the money the country kept in foreign banks deliberately to ward off the plot by the foreign powers to block our foreign reserve. This shows that Gen. Abacha was ahead of his time".

stonegarden:
And yet they say Abacha is not corrupt. All the problems were caused by GEJ

Witcher:
Gen. Sani Abacha Was Largely Misunderstood
The painful death of Gen Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s former head of state and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Ordinarily, twenty-one years is a long enough period for the living to forget the dead. But a lot of sentiments still trail Gen. Abacha’s name both in Nigeria and elsewhere. Why is it so? It is because the man had the infectious grin, the energy, the faithfulness, the shining confidence, the sagacity, the courage and the zest that leaped out of a background of solid patriotism hitherto unknown and yet to be rivaled in Nigeria. Therefore, to remember him now, twenty-one years after his untimely death, with the image of a living man in our hands, shows that Abacha is larger than life, in the memories, emotions, and minds of his fellow Nigerians. After death, the real Abacha is now the symbolic man, the figure about who have clustered the yearnings, the lofty ideals and the aspirations Nigerians have for themselves and their country.

Having worked himself up the hallowed cadre of the Nigerian ruling class as Head of State, Abacha, in his passion, concern and vulnerability, was one of the representative men of his generation. His personal quest for identity, understanding and power mirrored the turbulence, paradox and dream of mid-twentieth century Nigeria. He lived through a time of unusual turbulence in the history of the country, and he responded to that turbulence more directly and more sensitively than any other political leader of the era, at least in Africa. Gen. Abacha was equipped with certitudes of courage, faith and love for country- attributes that sustained him till death. But they were the premises, not the conclusions of his life. For he possessed, to an exceptional degree, what literary experts call “an experiencing nature”. History changed him, and had time permitted, he would have changed history. His relationship to his era makes him, unarguably, one who embodies the consciousness of an epoch, who perceives things in fresh light and new connections, who exhibits unsuspected possibilities of purpose and action to his contemporaries.

Indeed, Gen. Abacha never had the time to fulfill his own possibilities, which is why his memory haunts so many of us now. Because he wanted to get things done; because he was often impatient and combative; because he felt simply and cared deeply, he made his share of mistakes, and enemies. He was a romantic and also an idealist, and he was also prudent, expedient, demanding, fearless and ambitious. Yet the insights he brought to governance- insights earned in a labour of self-discipline and self-purgation that only death could stop- led him to see power not as an end in itself but as the means of redeeming the powerless. Abacha was to Nigeria what Charles de Gaule was to France: a man with military background but, who, ironically, brought uncommon composure and dignity to statecraft. This is not to say that military personnel possess exceptional leadership qualities. Far from it! Those ones only worked up themselves to become the tribunes of their generations. It only brings us to the incontrovertible fact that democracy is still preferred to the most benevolent military dictatorship anywhere, anytime. Abacha was indeed a diamond among stones. But because he was maligned and castigated by a section (Lagos/Ibadan axis) of the Nigerian Press due largely to political considerations, he became the most misunderstood of Nigerian leaders.

In fact, the emotional legacy left by Gen. Abacha is so intense in Nigeria, but it is yet deeper and even more fervent in the entire West African sub-region. This point is important and thus could be made with an antidote: since a man is not measured by what he did before he became a leader, or by what he said and did after he was a leader, but by what he did, and not by what he said while he was a leader, we can now comprehend the passionate veneration of Gen. Abacha’s memory. Today, we seek a sense of the man in order to understand the deep emotional response to the memory of the man. We know what happened and we cannot undo that knowledge. Even as his immediate friends and successors started destroying what he stood for soon after his painful exit, we cannot but get the record straight. But the meaning of that straightened record is inextricably involved in the meaning we also try each day to discern in the confusion of the living present. It is a tragic reality that those who thought to have upheld his enviable legacies have demonstrated a grand betrayal of what the man stood and died for. Could Abacha have built mansions, bought limousines, owned oil wells and own universities while in power? The answer to this poser is a loud NO!

The conditions of misery and inequality that troubled Abacha still persist among Nigerians while people in power remain untroubled. Despite his extremely emotional bent, Abacha’s youthful vigour and impressive grasp of the black man’s burden won for him national and international acclaim. His administration which lasted for about five (5) years was most memorable, leaving a 36-state structure for the country and achieving a leadership for Nigeria in Africa through a decisive foreign policy thrust that was basically Afrocentric, and a clearly defined anti-corruption war. Perhaps, the most concrete demonstration of this was his mobilisation of West African leadership to restore order in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Under his watch, Nigerian soldiers restored democracy to those West African countries. In 1996, Gen Abacha created a number of new states to give some marginalised people a sense of belonging: Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Gombe, Nasarawa and Zamfara.

An expression of his unrelenting crusade against corruption was accentuated in the setting up of the Anti-Failed Banks Tribunal and the National Deposit Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NDIC). Even though his actions had some unintended consequences, his anti-corruption campaign was not merely cosmetic. It was on the basis of the depth and spread of his anti-corruption campaign that analysts had a unanimous position that his attempt at sanitising the system was total. But not for his mature and courageous handling of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election crisis, Nigeria would have relapsed into another civil war. Despite the Afrocentricism of Nigeria’s foreign policy thrust under Gen. Abacha, Nigeria was not a big brother without a home, her impact was deeply felt in all the four corners of Africa. When Cameroon tried to annex part of the Nigerian territory in 1995, Abacha sent Nigerian troops to check that country’s egocentric maneuvering. Under him, the Nigerian economy was most stable throughout his years in power despite being branded a pariah state as a result of international conspiracy against Nigeria. Throughout Gen. Abacha’s five years in the saddle, Nigeria did not owe any external debt.



What people now mischievously refer to as “the Abacha loot” was the money the country kept in foreign banks deliberately to ward off the plot by the foreign powers to block our foreign reserve. This shows that Gen. Abacha was ahead of his time. He was a very trust-worthy man who never disappointed his friends. His composite love for Nigerians was legendary. Of all the military men who ruled Nigeria from 1976 to 1999, after the assassination of Gen. Murtala Muhammed: Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, and Abdulsallami Abubakar, Abacha was the best in terms of managing the economy for the good of all Nigerians. His economic team led by Prof. Sam Aloku, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, Dr. Paul Ogwuma, and Chief Anthony Ani, remains the best till date.

Can there be any wonder, therefore, that Nigerians in their millions cannot fail to contemplate the shrew, practical, resourceful and often irritatingly dynamic leadership qualities of their only leader who came close to possessing the ennobling ethos of a national hero? It can be said emphatically that Nigerians can appreciate good things and love to celebrate a hero when they see one. The Nigerian intelligentsia including scholars, students in Nigeria and the world over still celebrate him. Which is why twenty one years after his untimely death, memories of Abacha’s pragmatic leadership still linger in their consciousness. It is as a result of the scarcity of men of Abacha’s latent qualities in leadership positions that Nigerians are yearning for him twenty one years after. But a time will surely come again when the most endowed nation in Africa will overcome its indifference to the degradation of its citizens. Only then can Gen. Abacha’s tall legacies be seen to have exemplary values.

J111333:
Hian, this kain grammar for this midnight. Sorry oga, Abacha is corrupt.

Officialgarri:
If people could still defend Jonathan's government and consider him a hero, then I'm not surprised Mustapha still considers Abacha a legend

Jonathan's government could steal a triple of Abacha's if God hadn't sent Buhari to oust him


Al-mustapha wants us to believe that the monies moved belonged to government and for government purposes.

Jonathan's government did exactly the same thing. For example, the Malabu oil deal. Despite the fact that Malabu oil deal was related to Abacha, wasn't it Jonathan that went ahead to run the scam deal using federal government account?

When Dasuki and Jonathan were sharing the $2 billion arms deal, did Olisa metuh and the rest not say it was National assignment, so they didn't need to know the source of the loot.

So what's the difference between Jonathan and Abacha and Obasanjo and Abdusalam ?

Xisnin:
Evidence?

unmask:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/03/revelations-on-abacha-loot-how-funds-were-taken-out-of-nigeria-al-mustapha-2/

GidiWoodsMan:
the journalists who keep going to this guy for such interviews, need to have their heads examined.

no one alive or dead would not exonerate themselves if they happened to be judge & jury on their own case

GEEBITE:
You believe the parrot called Mustapha.He only understands how to shoot gun not finance and economics. Another army officer that did not pass staff college exams.The Major rank he wore was a donation. His oga Abacha is even worse than Buhari,he was drafted from middle school(equivalent of JSS 3 now) to the army.These are the folks who had been elevated to leadership positions in Nigeria.

unmask:
In all these there is always a hidden message.....we don't have to believe all that everyone says

Witcher:
Gen. Sani Abacha Was Largely Misunderstood



Indeed, Gen. Abacha never had the time to fulfill his own possibilities, which is why his memory haunts so many of us now. Because he wanted to get things done; because he was often impatient and combative; because he felt simply and cared deeply, he made his share of mistakes, and enemies.

Abacha was to Nigeria what Charles de Gaule was to France: a man with military background but, who, ironically, brought uncommon composure and dignity to statecraft. This is not to say that military personnel possess exceptional leadership qualities. The Joke of the century

But because he was maligned and castigated by a section (Lagos/Ibadan axis) of the Nigerian Press due largely to political considerations, he became the most misunderstood of Nigerian leaders.

Could Abacha have built mansions, bought limousines, owned oil wells and own universities while in power? The answer to this poser is a loud NO!
Why waste his time building mansions and universities when he can create offshore accounts and transfer the country commonwealth or should I say oil wealth

In 1996, Gen Abacha created a number of new states to give some marginalised people a sense of belonging: Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Gombe, Nasarawa and Zamfara. Abacha made the people more marginalised, the following six states sit at the bottom of the economic charts

What people now mischievously refer to as “the Abacha loot” was the money the country kept in foreign banks deliberately to ward off the plot by the foreign powers to block our foreign reserve. Kai this man think that we are trained in Almajiri school

.

tiredoflife:
The yoruba people and their thieving elites called NADECO are responsible for the propaganda
Abacha lived above them all
He was killed not by any eating indian apple
But evil men whose goal was to continue the looting he stopped
His problem was he was weak
He didnt play smart by bringing all these thieves to a party to tell them he wants to hand over and kill them all

Kubernetes:
Abacha met $200 Million Dollars in foreign reserve and built it to $9billion in five years when fuel was $8/pb.

Waooo.... he tried

Kubernetes:
Clap for yourself since you are more educated and intelligent than Abacha and Buhari.
But one fact remains clear,they were once and still the Nigerian president...

I guess you will one day be president of NIGERIA since u are more educated than them...abi?

Freestyl:
This means that the governments of Abdulsalami and Obasanjo looted more...

cdcd76:

Witcher:

What people now mischievously refer to as “the Abacha loot” was the money the country kept in foreign banks deliberately to ward off the plot by the foreign powers to block our foreign reserve. This shows that Gen. Abacha was ahead of his time".

surely the truth but western Nigerian's Newspapers opt for propaganda to sell fast.

tiredoflife:
The yoruba people and their thieving elites called NADECO are responsible for the propaganda
Abacha lived above them all
He was killed not by any eating indian apple
But evil men whose goal was to continue the looting he stopped
His problem was he was weak
He didnt play smart by bringing all these thieves to a party to tell them he wants to hand over and kill them all

Mikehot:
There is a ruling in Islam that its members are not supposed to keep money in banks.

I'm so sure abacha swore to uphold this oat as a true Muslim that is why the grand commander of jihadist Islamic Fulani affairs today denies any evidence of the money

sulaak:
What has this got to do with Yoruba people? This is about whether Abacha was a crook or not.

Focus on the subject and stop behaving like a primitive tribal peasant. If in your own word Abacha was weak, why do you support him?

donprinyo:
All diz confusion were created by one man. Tinubu

Witcher:
Gen. Sani Abacha Was Largely Misunderstood
The painful death of Gen Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s former head of state and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Ordinarily, twenty-one years is a long enough period for the living to forget the dead. But a lot of sentiments still trail Gen. Abacha’s name both in Nigeria and elsewhere. Why is it so? It is because the man had the infectious grin, the energy, the faithfulness, the shining confidence, the sagacity, the courage and the zest that leaped out of a background of solid patriotism hitherto unknown and yet to be rivaled in Nigeria. Therefore, to remember him now, twenty-one years after his untimely death, with the image of a living man in our hands, shows that Abacha is larger than life, in the memories, emotions, and minds of his fellow Nigerians. After death, the real Abacha is now the symbolic man, the figure about who have clustered the yearnings, the lofty ideals and the aspirations Nigerians have for themselves and their country.

Having worked himself up the hallowed cadre of the Nigerian ruling class as Head of State, Abacha, in his passion, concern and vulnerability, was one of the representative men of his generation. His personal quest for identity, understanding and power mirrored the turbulence, paradox and dream of mid-twentieth century Nigeria. He lived through a time of unusual turbulence in the history of the country, and he responded to that turbulence more directly and more sensitively than any other political leader of the era, at least in Africa. Gen. Abacha was equipped with certitudes of courage, faith and love for country- attributes that sustained him till death. But they were the premises, not the conclusions of his life. For he possessed, to an exceptional degree, what literary experts call “an experiencing nature”. History changed him, and had time permitted, he would have changed history. His relationship to his era makes him, unarguably, one who embodies the consciousness of an epoch, who perceives things in fresh light and new connections, who exhibits unsuspected possibilities of purpose and action to his contemporaries.

Indeed, Gen. Abacha never had the time to fulfill his own possibilities, which is why his memory haunts so many of us now. Because he wanted to get things done; because he was often impatient and combative; because he felt simply and cared deeply, he made his share of mistakes, and enemies. He was a romantic and also an idealist, and he was also prudent, expedient, demanding, fearless and ambitious. Yet the insights he brought to governance- insights earned in a labour of self-discipline and self-purgation that only death could stop- led him to see power not as an end in itself but as the means of redeeming the powerless. Abacha was to Nigeria what Charles de Gaule was to France: a man with military background but, who, ironically, brought uncommon composure and dignity to statecraft. This is not to say that military personnel possess exceptional leadership qualities. Far from it! Those ones only worked up themselves to become the tribunes of their generations. It only brings us to the incontrovertible fact that democracy is still preferred to the most benevolent military dictatorship anywhere, anytime. Abacha was indeed a diamond among stones. But because he was maligned and castigated by a section (Lagos/Ibadan axis) of the Nigerian Press due largely to political considerations, he became the most misunderstood of Nigerian leaders.

In fact, the emotional legacy left by Gen. Abacha is so intense in Nigeria, but it is yet deeper and even more fervent in the entire West African sub-region. This point is important and thus could be made with an antidote: since a man is not measured by what he did before he became a leader, or by what he said and did after he was a leader, but by what he did, and not by what he said while he was a leader, we can now comprehend the passionate veneration of Gen. Abacha’s memory. Today, we seek a sense of the man in order to understand the deep emotional response to the memory of the man. We know what happened and we cannot undo that knowledge. Even as his immediate friends and successors started destroying what he stood for soon after his painful exit, we cannot but get the record straight. But the meaning of that straightened record is inextricably involved in the meaning we also try each day to discern in the confusion of the living present. It is a tragic reality that those who thought to have upheld his enviable legacies have demonstrated a grand betrayal of what the man stood and died for. Could Abacha have built mansions, bought limousines, owned oil wells and own universities while in power? The answer to this poser is a loud NO!

The conditions of misery and inequality that troubled Abacha still persist among Nigerians while people in power remain untroubled. Despite his extremely emotional bent, Abacha’s youthful vigour and impressive grasp of the black man’s burden won for him national and international acclaim. His administration which lasted for about five (5) years was most memorable, leaving a 36-state structure for the country and achieving a leadership for Nigeria in Africa through a decisive foreign policy thrust that was basically Afrocentric, and a clearly defined anti-corruption war. Perhaps, the most concrete demonstration of this was his mobilisation of West African leadership to restore order in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Under his watch, Nigerian soldiers restored democracy to those West African countries. In 1996, Gen Abacha created a number of new states to give some marginalised people a sense of belonging: Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Gombe, Nasarawa and Zamfara.

An expression of his unrelenting crusade against corruption was accentuated in the setting up of the Anti-Failed Banks Tribunal and the National Deposit Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NDIC). Even though his actions had some unintended consequences, his anti-corruption campaign was not merely cosmetic. It was on the basis of the depth and spread of his anti-corruption campaign that analysts had a unanimous position that his attempt at sanitising the system was total. But not for his mature and courageous handling of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election crisis, Nigeria would have relapsed into another civil war. Despite the Afrocentricism of Nigeria’s foreign policy thrust under Gen. Abacha, Nigeria was not a big brother without a home, her impact was deeply felt in all the four corners of Africa. When Cameroon tried to annex part of the Nigerian territory in 1995, Abacha sent Nigerian troops to check that country’s egocentric maneuvering. Under him, the Nigerian economy was most stable throughout his years in power despite being branded a pariah state as a result of international conspiracy against Nigeria. Throughout Gen. Abacha’s five years in the saddle, Nigeria did not owe any external debt.



What people now mischievously refer to as “the Abacha loot” was the money the country kept in foreign banks deliberately to ward off the plot by the foreign powers to block our foreign reserve. This shows that Gen. Abacha was ahead of his time. He was a very trust-worthy man who never disappointed his friends. His composite love for Nigerians was legendary. Of all the military men who ruled Nigeria from 1976 to 1999, after the assassination of Gen. Murtala Muhammed: Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, and Abdulsallami Abubakar, Abacha was the best in terms of managing the economy for the good of all Nigerians. His economic team led by Prof. Sam Aloku, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, Dr. Paul Ogwuma, and Chief Anthony Ani, remains the best till date.

Can there be any wonder, therefore, that Nigerians in their millions cannot fail to contemplate the shrew, practical, resourceful and often irritatingly dynamic leadership qualities of their only leader who came close to possessing the ennobling ethos of a national hero? It can be said emphatically that Nigerians can appreciate good things and love to celebrate a hero when they see one. The Nigerian intelligentsia including scholars, students in Nigeria and the world over still celebrate him. Which is why twenty one years after his untimely death, memories of Abacha’s pragmatic leadership still linger in their consciousness. It is as a result of the scarcity of men of Abacha’s latent qualities in leadership positions that Nigerians are yearning for him twenty one years after. But a time will surely come again when the most endowed nation in Africa will overcome its indifference to the degradation of its citizens. Only then can Gen. Abacha’s tall legacies be seen to have exemplary values.

sirabu:
.

You are an agent of the devil, for making up lies against Islam. Is Jaiz Bank not an Islamic Bank ?.
Islam is only against Interest & Usury in Banking sector, even Jesus Christ is against it, both the old & new testament are against usury. Your ignorance will only lead you to hell.

sirabu:
.

You are an agent of the devil, for making up lies against Islam. Is Jaiz Bank not an Islamic Bank ?.
Islam is only against Interest & Usury in Banking sector, even Jesus Christ is against it, both the old & new testament are against usury. Your ignorance will only lead you to hell.

Officialgarri:
If people could still defend Jonathan's government and consider him a hero, then I'm not surprised Mustapha still considers Abacha a legend

Jonathan's government could steal a triple of Abacha's if God hadn't sent Buhari to oust him


Al-mustapha wants us to believe that the monies moved belonged to government and for government purposes.

Jonathan's government did exactly the same thing. For example, the Malabu oil deal. Despite the fact that Malabu oil deal was related to Abacha, wasn't it Jonathan that went ahead to run the scam deal using federal government account?

When Dasuki and Jonathan were sharing the $2 billion arms deal, did Olisa metuh and the rest not say it was National assignment, so they didn't need to know the source of the loot.

So what's the difference between Jonathan and Abacha and Obasanjo and Abdusalam ?

Perfecttouchade:
I never finish reading my Bible, na dis long thing I wan read dis early mormor..ok, we all know sey abacha loot and the money plenty wey everybody dey eye the Money

moscobabs:
Al-Mustapha know more and I believe him, if this guy should talk, Nigeria would be on fire. But believe me, the money stole in this country in 1999-2007 is far more than this Abacha loot.

If dead could defend himself Sectionalism have killed Nigeria and Nigerians. Call a spade a spade.