'Switzerland to transfer $300 million Abacha loot to Nigeria - Minister' - Premium Times

Have you ever imagined how monies belonging to the state find its way into foreign bank accounts? Have you for a moment imagined how this grandiose operation is carried out without our knowledge? It's unimaginable! It beats my imagination just as it does to any right thinking member of any society!

Our African leaders stealing our money and stashing them in foreign accounts has been a subject I have been pondering over for a long time. So this story about Switzerland planning to transfer some stolen money to Nigeria couldn't have come at a better time for me personally.

I think, when it comes to stealing money and keeping it in foreign accounts, the ex-leader of Nigeria, Gen. Sani Abacha's case is the most classical in the history of Africa. But this is not my subject matter in this article. I just want to interrogate this phenomenon and how it is allowed to fester as well as their modus operandi.

Let me do a little bit of questioning, rhetorical though:
How does the stolen money end up in those foreign bank accounts? I mean, was the money transferred electronically or physically? I mean, do they put it on plane and take it there?

How is such accounts opened? Is it in the form of personal accounts or it is opened in the name of the government?

Photo credit: www.naij.com

Who are/is the signatories(ry) to such accounts?

What kind of banking principle of Know Your Customer (KYC) is done on the signatory to the account by the bank? 

Is such accounts opened with private banks or state-owned ones?

How come we only get to know how much money has been stolen only when the supposed leader in whose name such accounts are supposedly opened are no more in power?

These are legitimate questions I have been thinking about and I believe you, my reader, also do same too. 

Now if you analyse all these questions critically, you'll agree with me there's some sort of connivance between the country hosting such accounts and the person stealing the money. Otherwise, couldn't the country hosting such accounts have raised alarms about this stealing upon getting to know? 

I have no doubts at all that the West and its allies have always provided the conduits for such illegalities to be perpetrated against us. Sometimes, the stolen monies are used to establish businesses that provide jobs for the citizens of those countries while we cry for jobs.

Since Gen. Abacha's passing many years ago, huge amounts of money have been retrieved and continued to be retrieved today. Come to think of it, how come we only get to know after perpetrators of that crime are no longer in power?  If indeed the West and its allies have our interest at heart as they appear to be doing in the case of Abacha, we want to see some concrete mechanisms put in place to prevent our leaders from ever stealing our money and hiding it away in their countries. They must stop providing the fertile ground for such crimes to be successful.