The money, which was meant for the purchase of arms to fight the Boko Haram insurgents, was seized in two batches of $5.7m and $9.3m.
A South African newspaper, The Mail & Guardian, reported on Friday that South Africa had begun to work out the process of returning the money.
According to the newspaper, the effort of South Africa is aimed at starting on a clean slate with Nigerian President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari.
The money was taken to South Africa through Lanseria Airport in Johannesburg in three suitcases by a delegation said to represent the Nigerian government.
The Mail & Guardian stated that South Africa wanted to use the money to extend an olive branch to Buhari’s government and mend relations between the two countries, which became strained during the tenure of outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan. It quoted a South African government source as saying, “The positive thing about [Buhari] is that one of the people who supported him is Atiku Abubakar. That makes him our man and he will automatically work well with [President Jacob] Zuma.”
According to the newspaper, Atiku is a close associate of Zuma. He was Nigeria’s deputy president during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo, at the time when Zuma was Thabo Mbeki’s deputy.
“Also, this man [Buhari] is a [retired] military general. It is true that the military needs some beefing up to fight Boko Haram and we should help,” the source added.
On the process of returning the money, the South African government source added, “Diplomatically you send a signal. Obviously they will have to make a request once they receive a positive signal, but the request will just be an official step to finalising the transaction.”
The newspaper stated that although formal talks had not yet begun, South Africa had apparently started sending “positive signals” through its diplomats in Nigeria and to the Nigerian embassy in Pretoria.
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