A recent Swiss agreement with Nigeria and the World Bank to return hundreds of millions in so-called “Abacha funds” is being hailed as a model for how other countries deal with dictators’ assets. But civil society organisations in both Switzerland and Nigeria have reservations.
Switzerland has been working for several years to clean up its image as a haven for “dirty money”, having returned more than CHF2 billion ($2.1 billion) in stolen assets since 1986. The latest example is $321 million that has already been transferred from Switzerland to a Nigerian government account, part of assets stolen by former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha (1993-98) and his family. With World Bank oversight, the funds will be used to finance Nigeria’s National Social Safety Net Project involving cash transfers to Nigerians living below the poverty line.
“I think it is a good model for other countries,” says Juliet Ibekaku, special assistant to the Nigerian president on justice reform, “because it presents an opportunity to take care of the poorest members of society, who suffer most when assets are stolen or funds that are meant for development are siphoned outside the country.”
Pio Wennubst agrees. The assistant director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation who led the Swiss government negotiating team in the Abacha fund dealexternal link calls it a “significant” amount of money that has the potential to send a strong message to the international community.
“It shows that it is possible to have financial institutions and public institutions join forces to actually serve the under-served in the population,” Wennubst says.
Civil society involvement
The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justiceexternal link (ANEEJ) is leading a group of Nigerian NGOs who will help oversee how the funds are used. ANEEJ Executive Director Rev. David Ugolor says the Abacha case was the first time that civil society groups were invited to participate in drafting an agreement for dictator asset restitution.
Could other countries follow Nigeria’s example? Ugolor is aware that not all of them have such strong civil society institutions but thinks that in such situations, “an alternative framework can be considered”.
But the Swiss NGO Public Eyeexternal link is not convinced the Nigerian restitution makes for an ideal model. While the organisation’s finance and tax expert Olivier Longchamp admits the Abacha asset deal is “a good agreement”, he points out that it’s taken two decades and an “extremely long and complicated” process to arrive at this result.
“I do not think it proves that Switzerland is the world champion of returning stolen assets,” he says.
Long process and disappearing money
And there’s still doubt over how $700 million in previous “Abacha funds”, returned to Nigeria from Switzerland in 2005, were used.
“A substantial part of that money disappeared,” says Longchamp. “That is not necessarily to say that it was stolen, but it was lost in the accounting system of the Nigerian federal state.”
Categories: Africa, Europe, Europe and Australia, Nigeria
From the old dictator to the new one?
Welcome back, I miss you few days— I heard news that it was very bad whether in Swizerland — are your wife OK, because she is a indonesian wife right? She is not used to live in cold whether.
All❤️
Some British guy once told me that there is no bad weather only wrong clothing – and he should know.