The successor government of Military ruler General Sani Abacha cancelled the project and appointed a judicial committee of inquiry.
[7] In 1988, Governor Ahmed achieved the first debt reduction transaction in the international markets by restructuring the trade arrears of Nigeria into CBN Promissory Notes.
Governor Ahmed convinced noteholders to accept the debt reduction deal by allowing creditors to set strict terms of default for the notes.
[citation needed] Governor Ahmed then initiated the first comprehensive sovereign debt buyback in the international markets, which further reduced Nigeria's foreign exchange burden, between 1988 and 1993, through an overseas subsidiary company named Greenland Holdings.
[8] In the early 1990s, Ahmed, bought a first class return ticket for a trip to London with members of his family from British Airways.
On the return journey, BA downgraded the former Central Bank governor's ticket to economy class on the basis that he had paid in naira rather than a "hard" currency.