Nigeria’s former First Lady, Maryam Abacha, has robustly rejected persistent claims that her late husband, General Sani Abacha, misappropriated state funds during his military administration between 1993 and 1998.
The widow’s controversial defence came during a televised commemorative interview marking 27 years since the former Head of State’s sudden demise.
She characterised her husband’s financial activities as legitimate national reserves management, suggesting subsequent administrations had deliberately misrepresented these transactions.
Her intervention directly challenges the established narrative surrounding billions of dollars recovered from foreign jurisdictions – funds internationally recognised as proceeds of corruption.
Successive Nigerian governments have systematically repatriated what became known as the “Abacha loot” from financial institutions across Switzerland, the United Kingdom and United States.
These recovered assets have been formally deployed through various social investment initiatives under multilateral supervision.
“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.”
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