By Fada John Chinenye Oluoma
June 8, 2026
The shocking things I have heard about the man I was made to see as the worst thing that happened to Nigeria, and whose death was the best thing that happened to Nigeria came from two unlikely sources.
One is a Southern Kaduna state born Christian, a parishioner of mine when I worked in St John Vianney catholic church Trademore. He was a journalist who covered the presidency as a staff of Radio Nigeria. He told me that what we call Abacha loot is no loot. We were told Abacha stashed billions of Nigerian money in foreign accounts for himself. That’s what I believed all my life until I met him.
What we call Abacha loot were money Sanni Abacha saved in foreign accounts to save the country from harsh economic sanctions imposed on it by US and Allies. The money was actually saved using some prominent Nigerians as proxies since the West saw Abacha as a dictator.
Through those savings, Nigeria was to be able to do international trades while growing the domestic economy. When Abacha suddenly died, the story changed, giving birth to the lazy but duplicitous theory of Abacha loot.
You have no idea how shocked I was until more persons confirmed the story.
The second one is from an Igbo brother. We got talking about the country today and how it is suffocating to live in Nigeria now. He said one of the best presidents Nigeria had was Sanni Abacha. Now, that statement shot straight into my medulla oblangata like no other one he’s made all day.
He gave two instances. There was a riot at Kano and one Gideon Akaluka was beheaded. He said Abacha ordered that all the culprits, muslims of course, should be executed within 24 hours, and they were except for one connected to elites that was secretly whisked away to avoid the fate that befell others. He said Abacha wasn’t a man to pander to religious fanaticism.
The second one is the transition to democracy. He said Abacha funded it and got all the egg heads from the six (6) Geopolitical regions (which he created by the way) to work on a new constitution. The proposed constitution which he was ready to sign was to have a term of six (6) years for the President. Under the President, each geo political region would produce a Vice President. So, Nigeria will have a President, six Vice Presidents. Each Vice President will have portfolios assigned by the constitution not the president.
The presidency will then rotate among the geopolitical zones. If the sitting President dies or is incapacitated from governing, the Vice President from his or her region will automatically take over and a new vice is elected from that region.
This arrangement would have had every region by now producing a president, enriching a culture of healthy competition as each region will have significant autonomy to develop at their pace. We wouldn’t be having all the perfidies and wastes and issues we have today with elections. Yes, of course Abacha planned to be the first civilian president under this arrangement. It sounds selfish, but that’s the fish that would have given us a better country.
What I don’t understand is why our journalists in Nigeria have not investigated and written on these issues before, or have they?
If these accounts are true, it simply means that Nigerians have no idea who their enemies are. We are conditioned to think our enemies are the people of ‘other’ religions, tribes and ethnicity, this is the insidious belief an average Nigerian holds.
According to Yuval Noah Harari, one of the tough things about truth is that it is costly and that’s why people settle for falsehoods. Have we been sedated with falsehoods perpetually in Nigeria?
I wrote this piece more than 3 weeks ago but for some reason was lethargic about publishing it. Today is exactly 28 years since Gen Sanni Abacha died, I guess it is the most appropriate day to do it.
The man I ignorantly rejoiced over his death because of lies and half truths probably would have been the best thing to have happened to Nigeria. I’m just wondering how many other falsehoods about Nigeria we have comfortably, conveniently and lazily embraced as truth. This is no sympathy or nostalgia for military dictatorship, just an expose on TRUTH via analysis of history. Anywhere I am wrong, correction is accepted in advance.
RIP Gen. Sanni Abacha
– Reverend Father John Chinenye Oluoma, known as Fada Oluoma, is an outspoken Catholic priest of the Abuja Archdiocese, recognized as a preacher, gospel singer, and social commentator. He leverages social media for theological teaching and critical discourse on Nigerian societal issues, challenging mainstream narratives.
