geerufus:

JUST SURPRISED WITH THE WAY U PPLE HAVE BIN JUBILATING ON DIS WOMAN'S RETURN TO FINISH THE DAMAGE SHE DID TO HER FATHER LAND DURING OBJ'S TIME.
SIT DOWN AND ANALYSE DIS – OKONJO IS FROM THE WORLD BANK.
THE WORLD BANK/IMF – BRETTON WOODS INSTITUTIONS HAVE NOTHING POSITIVE OR DEVELOPMENTAL TO OFFER THE THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES, BUT RATHER TO PLUNGE THEM DEEP INTO DEBT AND POVERTY.
THE LAST DEBT CANCELATION SHE BROKERED WAS ALL A CHARADE. THE WORLB BANK SAW THAT OUR FOREIGN RESERVE FIGURE WAS HITTING THE ROOF, AND THEY SIMPLY SUCCEEDED IN USING HER TO COW THE IDIOTS WU CALLED THEMSELVES OUR LEADERS INTO DEPLETING THIS RESERVE UNDER THE GUISE OF DEBT CANCELLATION.
SHE HAS NO INTEREST OF NIGERIA AT ALL, SHE REPRESENTS THE IMF/WORLD BANK, HER MASTERS.
INFACT I HATE HER FOR DOING SUCH A DISSERVICE TO HER FATHERLAND.

enyojo:

^^ Shagamite,
Take it easy. What Gerufus is saying is that her being from World bank is something we should worry about.
I'm personally skeptical of World Bank/IMF BUT I love Ngozi as a person.
World Bank's strategy against developing but Oil-rich nations like Nigeria is to groom the best of brains send them to take charge of the Financial reins of the Developing Nations then after their tenures in those governments, the World bank or IMF re-absorbs them back into its folds.
However, this is not the case with Ngozi (by my own estimation sha)

Saharareporters spoke to an analyst who said, “Though the IMF has approved the PSI for Nigeria to exit from the Paris Club, the international financial institutions are not really fooled by the Nigerian government.” Another contact close to the two institutions who is also knowledgeable about the “Debt Relief” package said, “They know that the Obasanjo regime has been poor and weak in terms of institutional development.” Furthermore, the analyst told Saharareporters that the international community knows that offloading $12 billion dollars for debt repayment is not a wise decision.[/b]They were more concerned about the corruption which, as they know too well, Mr. President wasn’t fighting.

[b]According to our contact, the international community sees Nigeria as a father of four kids who withheld the school fees and feeding allowances of his children so that he can pay his debtors. It never made sense to them, and it never will. They knew all along that the “Debt Relief” package was bribe money offered by Obasanjo to buy the international community’s opinion to perpetuate his stay in power

http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/obasanjo-plans-squander-nigeria%E2%80%99s-foreign-reserve-saharareporters

To expose the flaw, some historical perspective is requisite. In 1985, Nigeria's external debt was $19 billion, of which $8 billion was owed to the Paris Club creditors, $2 billion to other creditor countries e.g., Bulgaria, $8 billion to commercial creditors, and $1 billion to multilateral agencies (mostly the World Bank and the African Development Bank). At the end of 2004, the Nigeria's external debt was $36 billion. Of this amount, $31 billion was owed to Paris Club creditors, almost nothing to other bilateral official creditors, $3 billion to multilateral agencies, and $2 billion to commercial creditors.

The appropriate question to ask then is this; why did Nigeria's Paris Club debt balloon by $23 billion over the past 20 years? In brief, the Paris Club creditors stopped advancing new loans to Nigeria because they disliked the country's military dictatorship some of whom signed for the loans. The bulk of the $23 billion increase represents interest arrears, interest charged on these arrears, and penalties that accumulated after 1992 when the Paris Club creditors refused to negotiate a debt workout for political reasons, compounded by adverse exchange rate changes. It is instructive to mention that less than $400 million of the debt represents post-1985 borrowing.

Interestingly Nigeria has received virtually no new loans from the Paris Club creditors after 1992. On the other hand, she has paid almost $8 billion to these creditors since then. Yet, she still owes them $14 billion more than she did in 1992. Moreover, instead of applying Nigeria's payments to post-1985 loans to make these performing loans, the creditors have applied the payments against arrears and penalties. Thus, the post-1985 loans continue to accrue their own interest and penalties without challenge from all the Ministers of Finance since 1985, including the World Bank agent, Okonjo-Iweala.

Given the exceptional nature of Nigeria's debt problem, an exceptional solution is called for. A strong case can be made for debt cancellation phased over 2-3 years on the order of 80 percent, blowing the froth off the debt. A buyback of half of the remaining $6 billion of debt would leave Nigeria with $3 billion of the Paris Club debt, putting these creditors at par with the country's multilateral and commercial creditors.

[b]If a non-political, businesslike approach had been taken to Nigeria's debt servicing, the first question that the Nigerian government should have asked is the indenture to the loan. Every loan carries an indenture, which dictates the terms of the loan. It spells out what projects were to be executed, to which companies the contracts were awarded etc. A review of the loan agreement would have revealed that the contracts were awarded to certain companies in America and Europe. These companies were required to be paid based on percentage of completion, and that being true, Nigeria ought to have asked the question, where are the projects for which $8 billion was paid that attracted almost $23 billion in interest and penalty? In essence, the bulk of these loans which the government of Nigeria is cajoling her citizens to rejoice for, never left the shores of some of the 15 countries that form the Paris Club.

Equally worthy of note is the long-standing strategy of these moneylenders. Once they lend us money, they usually lobby the IMF and World Bank for us to devalue our currency so that we would end up paying more than the amount owed by the percentage of the devaluation. For illustration purpose, if they lend us $1,000 and if we were to pay back at the then exchange rate of $1 to N85, we would have paid N85,000. But then the leaches would now call their brothers at the IMF and World Bank to instruct the Negroes at the helms of affairs in Nigeria to devalue. If we now devalue to N140 to $1, we would end up paying back N140,000 instead of N85,000. Do you see how much gain accrued to the master-creditors?

It is also instructive to know that the great United States of America owes a lot of money to China, Japan etc. But because, they have patriots running the affairs of their great country, and they know the kind of horses usually ridden to meet with other peoples' mothers in camera, the U.S always borrows in her own currency. So if you go to the IMF or World Bank to ask the U.S. to devalue her currency, she has nothing to lose because she would still pay you the same amount of dollar borrowed from you. Now if you ask Chief Olu Falae, the Yale Graduate, or Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the World Bank expert, they would recite a politically motivated economic theory that is not employed in the writer's country to explain why Nigeria could not borrow in her own currency. What a chattel! [/b]

Let me now diagnose the prescription of our economic doctors, the IMF and World Bank. The IMF/World Bank in Argentina told us about a decade or so ago that their prescription for Argentina will make them the envy of the World, and lay the frame work to get other nations out of debt and on the road to development. Today, it is crystal clear to every watching eye that their prescription killed Argentina financially, economically and politically. [b][/b]Like Nigeria, they appointed their slaves as Finance Ministers to administer the prescriptions. In the case of Nigeria, their agent Okonjo-Iweala never went to the table with Nigeria interest at heart. She thinks she has nothing to loose, in as much as she dances to the tune of those who pay her in dollars. Her insistence on being paid in dollar is extremely unpatriotic. More than any other factors, it underscores her lack of confidence both in Naira and in her own ability as well as that of the administration to save our rotten Naira. Just like her Master, the creditors, the more Nigerian Naira is devalued the better for her. This is similar to the Nigerian governors and president who have no reasons to build good hospitals with state of the art medical equipment and well-trained doctors in any state in Nigeria, because the hospitals in London, Israel, America and Germany were built for them. Why do they have to care about the rest of us? If Iweala had demanded to be paid equal amount or more of her salary in Naira, she would perhaps care about the value of our Naira.

If Iweala had the interest of Nigeria at heart, she should have called for due diligence on these loans to determine whether we truly owe the money. The president who respects court order on Babangida only but not the release of fund for the Lagos State local governments or on the restoration of Governor Ngige's security details, should have been able to determine who and who siphoned the money and charge them to court for prosecution.

General Obasanjo said the debt relief is a dividend of his globetrotting and a product of Okonjo-Iweala's ability to speak in their Master's own tongue. Foul! I say it again, Foul! The leaders of all those countries that officially and genuinely received debt relief, including Ghana and Ethiopia did not waste the resources of their country to deliver to the Masters how well they are ruining their various countries to the contentment of the West. Chief Obafemi Awolowo, of blessed memory, successfully challenged the economic theories of the Europeans during his tenure as the Minister for Finance with the interest of his country foremost in his heart. He did not speak their language, yet he earned their respect.


All our rulers today develop inferiority complexes and stumble through life with a feeling of insecurity, a lack of self-confidence, and a sense of impeding failure. Fear of what life may bring outside government encourages them to sacrifice all of us to the powerful countries with mighty Army and wander aimlessly along the frittering road of selling their people for destruction. Why our rulers continue to trust these Europeans and their descendant worldwide, even with their records all over the world is cloudy to me.


Lo! Something about evil we must never forget, evil is recalcitrant and determined. It would never voluntarily relinquish its hold without a persistent, almost fanatical resistance. It would give you its agent that is called by your name "Okonjo" to help, which is why Muhammad Gaddaffi advised his fellow African rulers to discontinue begging, but they are not deep enough to understand. These beggars usually wait in the hall, while their Masters, the G-8, hold meetings on how they would render the assistance that pays them more than us. These are the beggars Governor Ahmed Bola Tinubu should take off the streets of our country and continent, not the ones that were compelled to become beggars by the wicked actions and inactions of their rulers. With this kind of mentality, the black race would continue to be regarded as an inferior specie of Homo sapiens and we would continue to be held in thrall and public odium[/b]

http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/banjo/072905.html

Damn- i mean ive always known pdp kiss imperialist Bottom but didnt know to what extent.
It makes sense africom is co-ordinating the attacks but ive always maintained NATO was a simple cover up for the US to continue its worldwide spread of terror under the pretense the rest of the world agrees.
Apparently half of the EU arent even in agreement with the situation in libya, i wont be surprised if its left with the US, UK and france to continue.

But on the case of buhari it makes more sense that jonathan most likely rigged the elections, sums up what he was doing in the US prior to the election and the lack of coverage on the terror attacks in Nigeria by the western media.
'If its not on sky news it must not be happening'

So in your opinion provided the US dont otherthrow the rest of the world 'armaggedon style' with this major arms race thats goin on- whats Nigeria going to be like 2020 provided our imperialist masters continue to have thier way??

cap28:

queensmith said:


NATO are running out of bombs to drop on libya - this was a statement released  by the US defence secretary robert gates a few weeks ago, america (which is bankrupt) can no longer afford to finance this war and they are getting fed up with having to carry the   bulk of the financial responsiblity , they want the european nations to take up a greater share of the funding, italy has said they've had enough of this and are now talking about calling for a ceasefire, however britain and france are still hell bent on seeing this murderous rampage through to the end.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/world/europe/11gates.html?_r=1

Jonathan is nothing more than america's hired help - he is just a glorified houseboy carrying out the instructions of his masters in washington, he went to america just before the elections to plead for Obama's support and was told that as long as he assisted america and europe in their planned takeover of  libya and ivory coast he would be allowed to win the upcoming elections in nigeria.

As long as Nigeria continues to kow tow to washington and london it will continue to be a nation of huge inequality, suffering, misery and poverty for the vast majority of the population.   This is because Nigeria is still adopting economic policies which do not benefit the masses but are designed to enrich only the international financial institutions, the nigerian elite and the multinational corporations.

instead of looking at ways to diversify the economy nigeria STILL carries on down the suicidal route of almost complete reliance on oil exports whilst neglecting industries like agriculture which nigeria should be exploiting in order to wean itself off foreign food imports.

does not control the price of its own commodities and is totally at the mercy of the WTO (world trade organisation)

takes on western trained so called experts like Okonjo Iweala who are merely agents of neo colonialism, these supposed "experts" do not have nigeria's interest at heart and are only interested in lining their own pockets

continues to  sell off valuable public assets to foreign investors which again enables foreigners economic control over valuable public and state owned assets

alex_101:

@ cap28, you made some interesting point with respect to Iweala and GEJ as agent of neo-colonialism,,,,some I entertain, others I don't.
On the issue of nigeria's overbloated debt, the fact is the loan was taking out by a nigerian administration at one point in time (though with crooked high interest), hence; we are oblidged to pay. One thing africans (in this case nigerians) had failed to realise is that the west don't give a damn about nigeria,,,,they are just about exploiting nigeria. It's up to nigerians to be smart and be ahead of the game. Don't you think they tried to exploit the chinese, but because the chinese love china and are more patriotic, hence their leaders don't sell out.

Now contrast "one-nigeria" where nobody really believe in nigeria, but only in OIL money allocation. The bottom line is that "one-nigeria" is vulnerable to exploitation because the leaders are not sure if they will wake up the next day and find nigeria intact. It is with this notion that the owners of nigeria are all sold out to the west.   

queensmith:

I was hoping things will take a turn for the better soon. God forbid we have any major catastrophe the fact we dont even produce our own food is going to lead to economic disaster. *sigh*
Just on one point, I could very easily have the total debt cancelled by proving the Paris Club were aware the money will be squandered when it was lent to the country. Its called responsible lending ,greed and corruption let them dish thier money and If i were in charge they will very much lose it.

I wont pay a penny unless they can produce the solid assets the invested thier billions on- schools ,hospitals, refineries the likes. 30 billion dollars is a damn lot of money to be paying off just like that. I will maintain they continue to chase the past leaders who have stolen it to get it back.

Sounds crazy i know, but even banking laws are on our side on this one.

alex_101:

@ cap28, you made some interesting point with respect to Iweala and GEJ as agent of neo-colonialism,,,,some I entertain, others I don't.
On the issue of nigeria's overbloated debt, the fact is the loan was taking out by a nigerian administration at one point in time (though with crooked high interest), hence; we are oblidged to pay. One thing africans (in this case nigerians) had failed to realise is that the west don't give a damn about nigeria,,,,they are just about exploiting nigeria. It's up to nigerians to be smart and be ahead of the game. Don't you think they tried to exploit the chinese, but because the chinese love china and are more patriotic, hence their leaders don't sell out.

Now contrast "one-nigeria" where nobody really believe in nigeria, but only in OIL money allocation. The bottom line is that "one-nigeria" is vulnerable to exploitation because the leaders are not sure if they will wake up the next day and find nigeria intact. It is with this notion that the owners of nigeria are all sold out to the west.

rhymz:

@Caps24
Without mincing words, that article you posted is conjectural crap and deliberately overlooks facts. The writer's aim is obviously to maneuver the real issues and facts by giving vague explanations to buttress his points.

Instead of mouthing off about how the minister is a dollar-paid agent of the west, he should be more concerned with the facts that showed how our debt profile ballooned from  $12billion in 1985 to $35billion in 2005.

Can you actually blame all that on the minister? These are the facts we need to face:
· More loans were obtained from both bilateral and multilateral institutions.
· More loans were sourced from the international capital market at "commercial rates".
· The accumulation of "trade arrears" (somebody defaulted on payment & the punishment was the accumulated trade arears we had to pay, am sure we agreed on that terms before taking the loans)
· Fines/Penalties on the debts arising from over-due scheduled payments (And you blame your creditors? Did Nigeria agree to those terms or not before securing the loans?)
· The capitalization of unpaid interests ( thesame issue of default payment)

Depreciation of the US dollars against other major international currencies in which the loans were taken( now this is where I felt Mr Banjo or whatever his name is  peaked up his sentimental article. Like for real, we should have borrowed in Naira from these creditors; he must think these guys are dunce and do not understand the strength of our unpredictable naira currency. To even assert that after the creditors granted us loans, there was some sort of immediate calls to their sister institutions to put pressure on the government to devalue the Naira is prepostrous and shows his unwillingness to admit that successful administrations goofed big time with the management of these loans which led to serious economic problems that in turn led to IBB's introduction of SAP against strong advice from renown economicsts at that time.

The bottom line is, whether IMF prescribed the devaluation is not the crux of the issue, the issue is what realy led to the problems that culminated to succumbing to the pressure of introducing SAP?

It is instructive to state that debt service payment for Nigeria's debts started on a soft, tolerable level in 1958 until it became a hard bargain years later. The average debt service in the late fifties was N3.2m annually which worked out at 0.2% of the GDP. In other words debt serving was not a big cut on the nation's purse initially. However, later, debt serving became much of burden for Nigeria to bear. Matters came to a head in 2003 when one of Nigeria's creditors the Paris Club demanded an all- time high $3 billion annually for debt service payment. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala considered the payment economically unsustainable. She therefore negotiated with the club and got to accept $1.7 billion debt service payment annually. This left an unpaid debt service of $1.3 billion, which the club added to the principal alongside other interests. This is one reason the nation's total debt stock kept on rising.

If you observe very well you will notice that the difference between loans secured from the Paris club and multilateral institutions is in its terms agreed upon and the size of the loans. While it is obvious that the debt potfolio from the latter is manageable as they were secured under concessionary arrangement with little or no interest rates; with 10 years moratorium and about 30 years payment period. The same cannot be said for the former. Hence the need to seek for debt forgiveness and pay off the remnant and move on, let's not forget that was not the first time Nigeria had sought for debt forgiveness. One thing a lot of us have refused to acknowledge is that you can't take away the intrigues of politics when seeking for debt relief from these creditors, all these baseless cries about Ngozi being a stooge is conjectural crap. Somebody should state clearly where and when the woman has sold the country's interests to the west without resorting to what the small devils and demons crip-walking on your shoulders and whispering to your ears in paranoia. Enough said abeg, the woman is exactly the kind of experts we need, people with both the expertise, reach and courage to face the job, not these ugly, colourless Aganga that is so very much busy doing nothing.

rhymz:

You obviously do not have zilch knowledge of what you are talking about, no wonder you are taking Caps24 white-man paranoia seriouly to a laughable height. We are all aware of the injustice, blood, power and corruption going on in Libya, I personally do not support NATO dropping bombs in Libya in the guise of stopping Ghaddafi from killing so-called "inocent civilians" but that does not mean I must see every move by the west as bad and start conjecturing baseless conspiracy theories that makes one look like a schizophrenic.

One Paul valley writing in today’s (16th May, 2006) Independent glorifies the finance minister of Nigeria, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the woman who has power to change Africa. My worry about this article is the sheer empty praise singing devoid of any sound analysis of issues as expected of a journalist for a reputable organisation like the UK Independent newspaper. The fact that Mr.Paul travelled all the way to Abuja to interview the so-called wonder woman gave him ample opportunities to explore or assess the developments on the ground, but he chose not to see anything that counters the western chosen view that the worst government in Nigerian history is doing well. A genuine journalist could have marched rhetoric with investigations or interviews with both ordinary people and key opinion leaders and of course, political opponents. One greatly doubts how this Paul would fare in a test of honesty because; only rogues and idiots (which include lousy people singing praises ignorantly) have seen any progress in the present Nigeria.


The unfortunate thing about the new era of mental colonialism is that rogues and white supremacists disguise themselves as friends of Africa. Nigeria under Obasanjo has recorded an unprecedented rise in revenues for about 7years, courtesy of oil boom [b]yet, Obasanjo's regime in its 7th year has not marched Gen. Abacha's of less than 5years in infrastructural development. This is a matter of fact, not opinion! [/b]Obasanjo's regime has equally achieved the highest scales of corruption, official wickedness, police brutality, suppression/assassination of opponents, election malpractices etc. Only genuine western observers like some of those in the Human Rights Watch have seen this glaring fact that the so-called democracy in Nigeria is a disaster.


[b]Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a thoroughly colonised text book economist who knows nothing about Nigeria. And probably knows not that she is being used by the west to achieve their selfish goals. The simple question which any sensible economist in Nigeria ought to face is why the average barrow pusher can afford a better standard of living than the average farmer in Nigeria? Yet another issue is the salient fact that Nigeria exists without the people. If any major disaster destroys Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt (but, God forbid!), 90% of Nigerians would still be enjoying three square meals per day because 90% of us exist without the government. Nigeria exists more as a colonial trading post than as a state involving people who trust their destiny in it. This cannot be said of any of those countries whose economies Okonjo-Iweala has acquired knowledge of.


[b]The fundamental issue is that Nigeria and other failed Black states need to look inwards rather than outwards to the same white men who are their curse for survival. It is disgraceful to the entire Black race that Nigeria with over 70 universities and many thousands of first class economists would allow a group of white supremacist merchants dubiously titling themselves the world bank (to bamboozle colonial idiots) would at this stage of human development be manipulating the destiny of over 130 million people (the supposedly most enlightened black society).

The World Bank obviously promoted Okonjo-Iweala as bait knowing fully well, it would wow majority of colonised Black people who approve whoever has been approved by white men. Gen Obasanjo appointed her based on his primitive mentality that he cannot do without the white man. Perhaps, due to her ignorance coupled with the idiocy of Nigerian elites who shiver around her, she has not even realised that her position is serving no good for the future of Nigeria. Of course, many more Nigerians would be used by other international gangs like the World Bank to derail development in the guise of reforms.

One cardinal question any sensible observer ought to ask is where the economic reform which has been painted on newspaper pages about Okonjo-Iweala/Obasanjo lies. Nigeria is going down and down due to unprecedented levels of corruption yet, journalists across the world who ought to be on the side of the truth are singing hallelujah! Economic reforms which concentrates on sacking hapless messengers and low level workers which include many disabled and elderly people while the government is over bloated with irrelevant political appointments must be fake. An economic reform which borders on dubiously selling the juiciest public enterprises to white men is most unfortunate for the Black race. Of course, there is no doubt about the fraudulence of the so-called crusade against corruption which only spots political opponents. If only one tenth of what has happened in Nigeria could happen in Zimbabwe, God knows how the international media would have been reacting.[/b]

http://www.dawodu.com/iteshi3.htm