Thank God! I hope the Nigerian Senate succeeds in blocking Buhari's ill-advised move to mortgage Nigeria and our collective future.
I believe Buhari is very patriotic. So I do not know why he would want to saddle Nigeria, especially future generations, with such indebtedness, simply because they are currently having cash-flow challenges. [If we are not able to pay our bills, now, how can we do so, when we have to FIRST make payments towards the new loan.] Perhaps, he has bad advisers.] Perhaps, he is not informed about the danger (and trap) associated with foreign loans. Perhaps, he listens more to foreigners than to Nigerians. In any case, he is about to make a great mistake. I don't have time to craft something new and more current on this subject now, so to quickly buttress my point, I will in the following paragraph just adapt what I wrote many years ago as part of a chapter in my book Sustainable Development in Africa: A Mul-tifacated Challenge (Ukaga and Afoaku 2005)5.
Foreign loans and IMF /World Bank policies and debt-collection strategies tend to worsen (rather than solve) the economic, social and environmental problems of African countries, which further limits their ability to achieve their full potential. Additionally, the heavy costs of these loans and associated Structural Adjustment Programs fall disproportionately on the poor and make survival a very difficult day-to-day struggle.1 Further the current approach to the debt problem, which compels countries to disregard domestic needs and growing poverty while exporting taxing amounts of scarce resources, is both indefensible and unsustainable. As noted in the "Brutland Report," the massive flow of resources from the South to the North has not only placed a lot of stress on too many countries and people, but also has effectively limited their capacity to develop appropriately.2 For instance, in both 1989 and 1990, interest payments alone by countries in sub-Saharan Africa averaged one billion dollars a month. From 1982 through 1990 African governments remitted over 100 billion dollars to their foreign creditors. Notwithstanding these payments (which is extremely taxing for the relatively poor countries), the debt load of sub-Sahara Africa more than doubled during the same period reaching 164 billion dollars in 1990.3 The problem of ever-expanding burden of debt in Africa continues unabated. Between 1973 and 1999, debt service ratio (percentage of imports) for Sub-Saharan Africa increased from 9.7 to 19.1, while the ratio for all Africa increased from 11.6 to 19.6 4 Given the size of Africa's debt burden relative to its economic capacity, such a high debt service ratio, based on ever-expanding debt, not only promotes unsustainable levels and methods of exploitation and exportation of natural resources, but also limits an African country's ability to invest in what the people really need- education, agriculture, healthcare, power, energy, infrastructure, research, etc, etc,
All well-meaning Nigerians and friends of Nigeria should stand up and oppose this ill-advised move by Buhari and co before they plunge Nigeria back into avoidable debt. Instead, they should collect and recover huge sums owed to and looted from the country. For instance, they can go after the large sum mentioned recently by John Kerry rather than burden the ordinary citizens with debt that is sure to make no positive impact on their lives. If past experience is any guide, the funds (from any new loans) will quickly disappear back to foreign bank accounts with nothing to show for it on the ground in Nigeria, while the people will be saddled with debt payments for many years to come (if not forever). One major accomplishment of PDP/Obasanjo / Okonjo-Iweala is the elimination of foreign debt. And now, Buhari and co are about to plunge Nigeria back into debt with potentially disastrous consequences This is not about APC, or PDP or Buhari or anyone else. It is about the future of Nigeria and ordinary Nigerians.
Let's stop this loan before this loans stops Nigeria and Nigerians.
Regards,
Okey Ukaga
1 See George 1994, for a brief discussion of the problem with IMF and World Bank policies in Africa. See also George 1998 The Debt Boomerang, Pluto Press for a lucid discussion of how not only the so called Third World, but also the West must pay for the negative consequences of World Bank and IMF policies; and Michael Barret Brown, 1996 African Choices After Thirty Years of the World Bank, Westview Press, for an examination of what Africans are saying and doing regarding self-transformation of the continent after 30 years of failed World Bank policies
2 Bruntland, G. (1991) "Sustainable Development: The Challenges Ahead" in Sustainable Development edited by Olav Stokke, Frank Cass, London, Pp 29-31.
3 George, S. (1994) "Forward: Exported to Dearth-The World Bank and Africa" in Short-Changed: Africa and World Trade by Michael Barratt Brown and Pauline Tiffen , Pluto Press, London.
4 Global Coalition for Africa (2001) Annual Report 2001/2002 of the Global Coalition for Africa, Global Coalition for Africa, Washington, DC.
5. Ukaga, O. and Afoaku O.G. (2005) Sustainable Development in Africa: A Multifaceted Challenge, Africa World Press, Trenton, NJ.
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Executive Director, Northeast Minnesota Sustainable Development Partnership
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." - Richard Buckminster Fuller
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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