By ‘Tope Fasua

The other day I was asked to come on Silverbird TV to speak on the issue of the Paris

Club refunds. As usual I like to do a bit of research on a subject before going on air. And I was still researching as I got to the studio. I was reading Nonso Obikili’s piece on the subject matter. And I was stunned.

You see, in Nigeria, we often get one mantra or cliché or the other that overtakes everything and becomes received wisdom.

We repeat such phrases without thinking. Those who control stuff in Nigeria have done well in the mind control department. They have us where they want us.

That is the story of this Paris Club refund business. When it started, I didn’t pay much mind to it. I just felt, “OK so Paris Club deducted too much when we paid them, and now they are repaying? Well, good luck to the governors”.

But that is not the case. Nonso’s piece was where I first found out that not a dime has been refund- ed to Nigeria by the Paris Club, or any club for that matter.

And not a dime is refundable! When Nigeria paid that Club of lenders the sum of $12,215,000,000 (over twelve billion US dollars in 2006), the entire business was concluded on all loans taken up to that point.

The issue of any refund could no longer come up because we were owing over $30billion to the said club and $18billion was written off. Clean slate.

Start afresh. Some well-meaning foreigners even complained about why the club (or the rich countries), should collect that much (40 percent of loan book) from a poor country such as Nigeria. They said Nigeria was rich, or mid-income. I wrote about some of that last week.

As I write this, Nigeria is actually owing the ‘club’ $290 million (see screenshots below from the website of the Paris Club). So, they don’t owe us a farthing.

A bit of background. These ‘clubs’ Paris and London  were formed circumstantially. They never set out to be groups as such but the necessity of countries like Nigeria with their hands permanently in the cookie jar made it a reality, because the rich countries had to unite to en- force compliance with the terms of their loans to the profligate

countries. Brazil recently joined the club. Can you beat that? To qualify, Brazil can now be de- scribed as a nation with ‘large exposure to other nations’.

Other members include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, UK and USA; basically, all countries that make sense in this world.

I intend to ask some questions about this celebrated Paris Club refund matter. The questions are meant to expose the fraud being perpetrated right under our noses.

But before I proceed, I recall I was a mere teenager in 1985/86 when General Ibrahim Babangida sought to collect a loan for Nigeria from the IMF/World Bank.

Even as a military man, he threw the debate open and Nigerians vented their spleens (verbally at least). Even I had something to say on the loans as I trekked a kilometre to buy newspapers for the old man and read most of it on my way back.

It is remarkable how today, Nigerians have become self-worshippers, a selfie generation soaked in the delusion that all that matters are to make personal money, or that at the end they will conquer their neighbours financially.

Today, under a supposed democratic government, no questions are asked, and no answers are offered, as a new-fangled rape of the future occurs, right under our very beautiful powdered noses.

My questions, which I want Nigerians to ruminate over are:

1. Why is Nigeria’s federal government refunding the states?

2. What is the basis of the calculations for whatever was overcharged?

3. Why are we not having the calculations in the public?

4. Does the federal government have the liquidity with which to pay the states out of hand, or are our recent borrowings directed towards paying the states? Did we all agree to that?

5. Are the powerful governors arm twisting the president because of politics and re-election gambits?

6. What is the basis of considering the historical facts of Nigeria e.g. How many states were in existence in the period under contention (1992-2005), compared to those who are receiving refunds now?

9. What is the idea of paying ‘consultants’ up to 30 percent of the refunds in some states? Is it true, as alleged by some Nigerians including Col Abubakar Umar (Rtd), that these consultants were brought in to cream off part of the monies for the governors?

10. What roles could the consultants really perform when this is strictly a matter between the federal and state governments, which have full compliments of finance ministers/ commissioners and accountant generals among others?

11. In reflecting on the ‘refunds’, was the fact that $18 billion was forgiven by the Paris Club considered? What proportion of the ‘refund’ due should the states also write off as a result of this debt forgiveness?

12. If the monies were due to states, how come some of it passed through the “Governors’ Forum” accounts for disbursement to ‘consultants’ for which state take part in the negotiation of the huge fees being paid to contractors? Or have we all turned to zombies with no thinking faculties?

15. Why is the lie that Paris Club is paying any money back to Nigeria as refund being pro- moted by elements in and around the governors, subtly and overtly? Is that not dishonesty and fraud?

16. Is it wise for the federal government to be borrowing hugely from abroad in order to pay slush funds to governors who were supposedly unable to pay salaries; monies that Nigeria will have to grapple with because we are in another debt trap?

17. Did the contestants for governorship positions not do any thinking before vying for the positions? Why do they kill themselves to be governors when they should have known that it’s a useless position?

18. Are all these problems not showing us clearly that our economy is totally shambolic, lacking in imagination, comatose, and that we have to throw away everything and start again  urgently?

19. Are we not seeing now that we have bled this economy to death and looted it to stupor; that our budgets are too tiny because our leaders are afraid to go after their tax-dodging, waiver peddling, asset stripping friends?

20. Are states and local governments actually claiming that they borrowed nothing from the Paris Club in the 80s and early 90s? I have the record, but if the DMO is not ready to avail them, the newspaper houses do. I have a cut out of the list of unbelievable loans from PUNCH and Tribune way back from 2006.

21. Why did the governors and the president rush the DMO to conclude the reconciliation in 12 months, instead of the 22 months they asked for, according to the minister of finance?

22. Why did the governors stampede Buhari into paying a refund that they couldn’t extract even from Goodluck Jonathan, Obasanjo or Yar’Adua?

23. With the promise to RECOUP excesses later if any state is found to have been overpaid, WHY SHOULD FUTURE GOVERNORS pay for the heist of today? And why should our people at the states suffer from today’s robbery by the governors?

24. Why is there no total transparency around the issue, and why is it not Nigerians determining who gets what? Yes. Why are the claims not subject to public verification?

25. Has the federal government considered the ramifications of this extra-budgetary expenditure on the economy at large? The states claim about N2 trillion was deducted. Some accounts say N3 trillion. About N800 billion has been released thus far without any appropriation bill. Some have said this is totally illegal. But I am concerned about the distortionary effect, the inflationary effect, and the awful fact that the entire funds is without audit or control!

26. What is the role of the Senate president as alleged? Is it true that he benefited from some of the releases and that that is why the entire National Assembly are rather getting in on the action by harassing the state governors rather than pointing out this constitutional breach?

27. How will incoming governors fare, given the many problems that state governors recount?

http://orientdailynews.com.ng/politics/paris-club-refund-governors-twisted/

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