Friday, July 01, 2005

Breaking News! Nigeria Gets 60-70% Debt Relief

This huge..Nigeria gets a 60-70% debt relief worth 18-24 billion dollars from the Paris Club and gets to exit the authoritarian and I contend a neo-colonialist debtor nations group to this creditor nation cartel. Additional 1 billions dollars are specifically freed from debt servicing and would be spent on social programs - i.e. education, health, social amenities. This is by far the greatest achievement of the Obasanjo's administration and is indeed a great thing for Nigeria. Nigeria would further pay of 6 billion dollars from our 23 billion dollars foreign reserve -which stood at a meagre 3 billion dollars at the inception of this adminstration if you believe the most optimistic figure(to avoid future interest accumulation) and would buy back the rest of the foreign debt by using local bonds further deepening our local capital market. As a vociferous critic of this administration especially of the frequent penchant of the foreign travels of Mr. President, I can say we are proud of you Mr. President and I am glad it panned well afterall. Let the critics come around and join all Nigerians to congratulate our indefatigable economic team led by a true Nigeria woman -Dr. Okonjo Iweala - this shows the quality of our women and that the future of our nation trruly lies in them. Congrats to all members of the economic team from Mallam El Rufai, to Dr. Soludo (CBN Chief), to Mr. Ekindayo head of Debt Management Organization in the Presidency, to the lady who heads the Due Process Office that cuts government waste even to Dr. Akunyili the head of NAFDAC that have made us proud. Last but not the last to the head of EFCC Mr. Ribadu- these young and courgeous Nigerians have given us a new image and a new lease of life- we are turning around an image of corruption to that efficency through a dedicated and purposeful government of 2 years.For an overview of the works of these youngs guys , read up on their institution of change at http://www.nigeriafirst.org/institutional_profiles.shtml . Indeed to read the address of the president on this matter click this link(http://www.nigeriafirst.org/article_4345.shtml).what do U think? New news..Russia just cancelled 2.5 bln dollars owed by Africa..it is in addition to to 40 bln cancelled by the G8 , congrats to the Live 8 organizers and the world agencies that have sought to eliminate our continent's debt..May it never happen again!

10 comments:

t said...

Wow! I didn't expect it so soon.

DonCasiragi said...

Me too..Indeed good things happen to those who persist!

t said...

not directly related...
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Dora Akunyili ought to have wikipedia articles, but they don't. yet. Peace.

t said...

by the way, just how big is this? (i don't know a lot about how debt relief works)
Why did we get it this time?
What anti-corruption measures have been taken?

DonCasiragi said...

Yeah this relief has many things to do with the government economic reforms- NEEDS and the AFrican based initaive- that emphasizes trade and democracy not aids. The recent anti-corruption drive have nabbed 2 ex governors, 3 sitting governors, the ex-IG of police presently undergoing trial and the ex senate president and minister for education all in court for bribe taking/asking. These initaives coupled with the privatization drive, the monetry discipline that saw that all windfalls from crude sale boom is saved instead of spent and the reforms ongoing in banking, manufacturing and the civil service have attracted the attention of the financial institutions. Believe me this is big- it would free 1 billion dollars yearly for education, health and infratructure funds that worldbank and the federal government would monitor and not just dissapear in the budgetry process.

DonCasiragi said...

The african initiative that have the democratic countries in africa participating is NEPAD. Botswana, South aFrica, Ghana , Senegal, Rwanda, Kenya are among other countries in it with Nigeria- the peer review mechanism of the program have been hailed as a success. (see : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2779573.stm )

DonCasiragi said...

http://www.nigeriafirst.org/article_4254.shtml for links on result on peer review mechanism

t said...

thanks for the leads and links. i'll look up all this stuff soon.

t said...

where have i been? i remember seeing lots of really beautiful people on TV talking about something called LIVE8, and i didn't know it was like now. the concert's online, and i'm moved, amazed, ... Enjoy! http://music.channel.aol.com/live_8_concert/highlights/turbo.adp

t said...

*someone* on another group i belong to posted "is this what they call debt relief?" i found the original article, as well as a very enlightening response online.

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