The tip of the iceberg
Icebergs are foreign to Nigeria. Unlike corruption. Sani Abacha has the reputation of being the most corrupt and most brutal of Nigeria's heads of state.A recent burglary brought his name up again.
The final paragraph is the key one for students of comparative politics.
Nigerian police recover part of Sani Abacha's $4.3bn hoard from robbers
Officials in arid Kano, in northern Nigeria, said four men swiped $125,000 (£77,000) of jewellery last year – a staggering 20m naira in local currency, or 100 years' income for the average Nigerian – after raiding one of many sprawling, lavish homes of the former military ruler Sani Abacha.
"We are still investigating. Not all the stolen jewellery has even been recovered," said a Kano police inspector, Ibrahim Idris, as officials displayed a glittering pile that included two dozen gold necklaces and some 40 pairs of gold earrings.
The greed of Abacha, who ruled for five years after a 1993 coup, shocked even Nigerians used to plundering on a grand scale. He is believed to have stolen $4.3bn while in office. In one case, he was accused of gutting a $500m state-owned steel plant. The tradition has continued as Nigeria's oil wealth continues to be looted. In April, James Ibori, an influential governor, was jailed in the UK for looting $250m over eight years…
Abacha
A push to recover $4bn squirrelled away into the [Abacha] family's private accounts in Switzerland forced the tax haven to relax banking secrecy regulations after landmark rulings. In 2006, the Swiss authorities returned $500m to Nigeria – the first time European banks had returned looted money to an African country.
Nigeria's anti-corruption agency estimates about $400bn has been siphoned off from the oil-rich country into private pockets since 1960. Globally, developing countries lose up to $40bn a year through corruption, according to the World Bank.
One of the problems is the endemic nature of corruption.
Nigeria anti-fraud EFCC agents jailed for taking bribes
Two anti-corruption agents in Nigeria have been given five-year prison terms for accepting bribes.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said its officers had been found guilty of asking for about $630 (£390) from a politician to stop a supposed investigation.
He informed the EFCC which organised a sting operation to catch the agents...
BBC Nigeria correspondent Will Ross says that, to many Nigerians this is yet another case to prove that when it comes to corruption, only relatively minor cases are ever dealt with.
After all what is $630 compared to the billions of dollars that are believed to have been stolen in a fuel subsidy scam, he says...
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Labels: corruption, Nigeria, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:00 AM
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