Abacha has been very much vilified home and abroad no thanks to his plundering of our national wealth. He has been named and shamed and rightly so but I dare say his very public trial and subsequent reputational execution is a smoke screen, what's more, he was dead and conveniently so.
Despot he may have been but he was only one of many in a history replete with military interventions, what's to say others before him - and after - didn't plunder the nation even more?
Immediately after the absolute ruler's sudden demise, a man he imprisoned came to power, he was eager to burnish his anti-corruption credentials and who does he reach for, the man who threw him into prison.
While the gullible public is fixated on the 'Abacha loot', other heists were hushed up and everything was business as usual. Abacha was the sacrificial lamb who had to die that others may live.
We are going down that route again, it has been tagged the Arms Deal Scandal aka Dasukigate and eerily, the plot is very much like that of 1999.
I hold no brief neither for Abacha nor Dasuki, anyone caught with fingers in the cookie jar should face the music but they are not the only culprits.
If we are to tackle corruption in this country, all and every case must be opened and laid bare, we ought to learn from history and get it right else we are doomed to chasing our tails.
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