The Congress of the United States of America may need to vote on a bill that will enable the US government to use the ‘Abacha loot’ in its custody for victims of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. According to Premium Times, a congress woman, Sheila Jackson Lee, who had visited Chibok a few weeks after hundreds of school girls were kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorists, sponsored the bill.

Lee, a representative of the District of Texas, reportedly said that the money recovered from Abacha’s bank accounts in the US should be used to provide a relief fund for the families of the missing girls. She believes that the fund will go a long way in aiding the “broken families” in the north. While Sheila Jackson Lee’s decision is valid, there a couple of concerns by the US government that may have triggered the suggestion.

Misplaced funding priorities

Just last month, The Telegraph published a report which claimed that the £860 million foreign aid given to Nigeria to aid its fight against Boko Haram, was diverted to fund the anti-corruption drive instead.

This raised concerns among UK and US government officials as Boko Haram continued to unleash terror in the north of Nigeria. With this in mind, the US government might be wary in releasing the funds as it likely that it will also be diverted for purposes other than what it was originally intended for.

Mismanagement

Despite the efforts of the Nigerian government to rid the country of corruption, it is still firmly entrenched in all parts of society. Most Nigerians and even foreigners agree that the ‘fantastically corrupt’ label on the country is not going away anytime soon. This may be one of the reasons that the US would want to monitor its use, as most of the Nigerian government officials cannot be trusted.

However, on the other hand…

Abacha’s loot belongs to Nigeria, therefore, its government should have a right to determine what the money will be used for. The president has just signed the Six Trillion Naira Appropriation Bill, but how to fund the budget remains a mystery. The money recovered from Abacha’s loot, which is estimated at $408 million), will contribute to the implementation of some of the budget’s allocations.

Some Nigerians have hilariously hailed Sani Abacha as a man of foresight, claiming that the former Head of State kept such large amounts of money stashed away for Nigeria’s ‘rainy day.’ The rainy day is here and the Nigerian economy is at the brink of collapse. Abacha’s ‘savings’ will come in handy now.