The man believed to have impoverished Nigeria, General Ibrahim Babangida, has come to the defence of his close associate, the late dictator, General Sani Abacha, saying: "It is not true that he (Abacha) looted public treasury, I knew who Abacha was because I was close to him."
Speaking in Kano at the 10th anniversary lecture in memory of the late Abacha, whose loot is still being recovered from foreign banks, Babangida described the allegations of looting against the late General Sani Abacha as baseless.
Babangida described Abacha as a courageous, loyal and honest leader, who stood for the country’s unity and development during his eight years regime.He added that Abacha’s regime has brought positive changes the country which everyone should emulate.
According to him, 10 years after death of the former head of state, his contributions to the national economy are indelible.
"There is no doubt that during his administration as head of state, the late Abacha contributed his best to the nation’s economy which we are still enjoying.
"Things have been done wrongly in the past, what should be done was not done, but we believe that the subsequent administrations would build up positively from where the previous governments stopped," said Babangida.
Another former military leader, and close friend of Babangida, General Abubakar Abdulsalami, praised Abacha for initiating the vision 2010, saying, the recent economic mission of the present administration termed as vision 2020 was a replica of General Abacha’s vision 2010 initiative.
Abdulsalami urged politicians to concentrate on how best to contribute positively to national development instead of wasting time and resources in investigating their predecessors.
"Probing past administrations will not yield anything positive to the nation and should be discouraged," he said.
Babangida's predecessor, General Mohammadu Buhari, surprisingly joined the praise gang. He described the allegations of looting against Abacha as lacking basis.
"Ten years without the late Abacha, the said allegations remain silent because there are no facts," he said.
Kano State Governor Malam Ibrahim Shekarau also participated at the 10th anniversary prayer for Abacha.
Also present at the prayer session was the founder of the Odu’a Peoples Congress (OPC) Dr Fredrick Fasehun who said he was in Kano to sympathise with the Abacha family.
Asked why he was in Kano, Fasehun said he was never against any particular person but against military rule. He added: "we are in democracy, it goes to show that every Nigerian now enjoys democracy but didn’t like military rule."
The prayer session was also witnessed by the Minister of Defence, Alhaji Ahmed Yayale, former governor of Kano State, Senator Kabir Gaya and Emirs from various northern states.
