At last, we are out of this Debt.

Please read the link: http://odili.net/news/source/2006/apr/21/604.html

What do you think?

Credit has to go to OBJ and his economic team.

Lets hope we dont start borrowing again,

Take that story with a pinch of salt.

Nothing good comes easy.

no matter how much we disregard obj,we should try to acknowledge some good stuff he has done. this is one of them. he deserves some congrats on this.

ono:

Take that story with a pich of salt.

Nothing good comes easy.

Chief Ono

can you explain this sir?

The men and women that stole all of the $35billion that was owed as debt, are still here, walking free, and I dare say most are still in Government.

Their Children are now raping what their fathers couldn't loot.

As much as it is some good news, some questions remain;
What are we doing (or hoping to do) to those that stole most of the money that was collected as debt, which we are now paying?
Is that we don't know them? Like those that ensured that we used 20 years to build one (barely working)steel plant or those that used $2bn to build an aluminium smelter plant when a similar one was built for $1.2bn here in Africa at about the same time.
What is the mechanism set in place (outside third term) to ensure that some charlattan does not go aborrowing again in the near future?

@Owo
you said it all. I am so tired, shud i jump i shout whooppee doo for this news? I feel not cause like u said the thieves are still about and Nigerians seem to have a short memory

Did the Naira gain value against the Dollar,Pound or Euro? How does this news affect the common man in the Village?

Old Glory:

Did the Naira gain value against the Dollar,Pound or Euro? How does this news affect the common man in the Village?

good question old glory, i dont really know the answer.

toshmann:

good question old glory, i don't really know the answer.

But you wanted us to ''appreciate'' or ''regard'' OBJ for all he's doing. How does all this debt relief thing affect the common man. And please note what my brother Owo has written up there. You'd know that we are in a mess in this country.

Can we for once not be negative? This is a good news even though it was made possible by the high oil price not by any abracadabra by Obasanjo its a good news nonetheless.

Old Glory:

Did the Naira gain value against the Dollar,Pound or Euro? How does this news affect the common man in the Village?

There will be more money for Government to spend on the common man in the village. And the naira has been appreciating slowly but surely against the Dollar, Pound, and Euro.

[/quote][quote author=Mariory link=topic=11159.msg309751#msg309751 date=1145826719]
There will be more money for Government to spend on the common man in the village. And the naira has been appreciating slowly but surely against the Dollar, Pound, and Euro.

lol dont hold yah breathe
the common man like i believe would not agree with you here.

Like i said before amnesia Nigerians, amnesia

guys, whatever u may say, this is something positive. if u've been following my contribution in nairaland u'll agree that i'm not an obj fan, but let us agree on something good that has happened. at least in the near future we wont be spending money to pay creditors, then that money we have ipso facto saved can be put into use for something else that can benefit the proverbial common man.

i'm not an economist so i dunno the nitty gritty of the benefits but surely there will be benefits if our leaders can put the benefits into proper use,then it will get to the popular common man.

look, we may dislike the 3rd term, obj administration etc but let us not be personal about it. looks like some people see obj as devil to be destroyed ,who has nothing gud to offer, but let us be objective, a huge debt borrowed by previous administrations have been cleared making nigeria the 1st african country to clear it's debt.

let us smile at least for one minute.

I am particularly suprised about how and what you guys have to say about debt relief, obj is there or not they would definately grant us debt relief because we are classified to be a developing country, What makes you all think that we are out of debt? how about the debt with london bank, the one with the Imf, ADB, Swiss Bank and World Bank? of what good is it to borrow money from bank A to Pay bank B and you come shouting and rejoicing that you are debt free. I am sorry to say, people like you would do nothing but praise that stupid old man for doing nothing, i just pray that you wont start campaigning for third term bcus of debt relief.

Face it,

@Mariory

What is the Dollar going for today? Last i checked it was $1 = Naira 149. GBP = Naira252.50 and Euro =Naira 175. Please tell me what the rates are right now. And i need to know how much a Litre of Petrol cost today too.

Thanks in Advance.

Dollar stiill dey increase while pounds dey appreciate, i am yet to see the good thing about debt relief ooo, and pls tell me, by paying this debt relief, would it now give us a right to borrow money from paris club again? these govt. they make all naija look like fool. and the only person that gains the credit is obj and not naija, so if u ask me why obj and iweala mop all the money commot for naija, i would say it is bcus they want the paris club to remember them and not nigeria. to hell with the money wey them pay and come to think of it, them dey shout abacha loot, babangida loot and we have a coward president that can not live up to his expectation by either freezing ibb's account and having something to do with the ex. admin. him come pay debt dey find glory.

Him go see the glory for the under world, i believe

@Demmy & Toshmann

I guess you are suprised by Ono and Owo's comments.

They are like that.

I know Ono, he is a very good guy but he hates OBJ with a passion. Please read all his views in politics.

@Akolowale

You are in Nigeria right? Do u know the answer to my questions? Can u help me with current exchange rates?

How does Debt relief affect the price of Garri in the market?

Who took the loan in the 1st place and what was the loan used for, I can recollect IBB took IMF loan and what was all that money used for, and this is the same guy that wants to rule us, No way thanks to OBJ for his effort to move Nigeria to a better place.

Bottom line they are all looters and as someone said here, OBJ has no balls so to speak , if he wanted to bring change and was passionate about rescuing the country then he would distance himself from the IBBs of this world and better still go find a way of making sure they know what they did was unacceptable. But like they say only when pigs fly, I think they all looters and sorry to bring this up but i heard ppl saying how lovely his late wife was blah blah, ppl are hungry and starving yet the woman was flushing down good money while getting her self nip tucked and sucked on a surgeons bed.


Can some one tell me if they now have uninterrupted power supply in Nigeria?
Working health care ?
Safe roads?
Good policing (what happened to protect the ppl?)

The list goes on and then maybe if there are improvements i will sound the bells of Big Ben and declare OBJ and his team worthy

Do not hold your breath Glamrocka. Improvements in Nigeria will have to come at a price higher than $4.5BN. It will take more than money to get things in Nigeria to become "Stable". We need Divine Intervention. I pray that God gives our current and Ex-Leaders Heart Failures or maybe Terminal Cancer. It is a shame, but we need new people and new faces that have the people's interest close to their hearts, and people that can move this country forward.


@Anybody

Does anyone know the Exchange rate of $ - Naira? or GBP - Naira or Euro-Naira. Today or Tomorrow's rate please. Black Market rates are preferred.

@OldGlory

£1 is equivalent to 252 naira.

Who is celebrating the fact that we have cleared our "foreign debt"?
Which debt? Did Nigerians owe that debt or was it collected "on their behalf" and squandered by looters and thieves in Govt?
Where is the $12bn oil windfall from the gulf war times?

How has debt relief translated to a stronger naira? do we have better roads? Why is PHCN only at 50% capacity and the refineries working at 20% capacity? What about the deah traps called roads?

Debt relief at what cost? The systematic destruction of our democracy to be replaced by dictatorship?

Venezuela, an oil exporting nation like nigeria currently has the lowest fuel prices in the world because of the all time high world market price of oil, in nigeria our own "unique" economics dictates that we pay more for fuel with increasing oil price!

Debt relief at what price? Massive brain drain, rebel activities in the niger delta, poor human rights record or more money available to pursue the "life presidency" (aka third term) agenda?

The ultimate question is: debt relief, what benefit to the common man?

Exactly @ what cost. How does it affect the Okada man on the street?

davidylan:

Who is celebrating the fact that we have cleared our "foreign debt"?

The ultimate question is: debt relief, what benefit to the common man?

We appreciate nothing in Nigeria.



What do people like you want?

Miracle within a day.

Go and ask China how long it took them?

Go and ask Singapore how long it took them as well?


By clearing that debt, we will not be spending stupid money to service the debt, and such money can now be diverted to building infastructures et la.

Let assume OBJ has rubbished himself with 3rd term, you need to see the hope in Okonje-iwela, Ezekwezile and soludo. They know what they were doing and they were discharging their duties to the best of their ability.

I have hope in my country anyday

i tire 4 d campagner's oooo. obj is a total failure. if you saw his last inaguration @ lekki, he sat side by side with babangida & he said he's paying a debt owed by his right hand man? @ whose interest now? nigerians or babangida? its time we wake up ooo and stop sleeping and dreaming that obj is ,,,, i just dont know

like one person talk surgery @ wot cost? & fighting corruption yet it sleeps with you, stays with you and eat with u. so wot corruption are u fighting @ obj himself?

Ashiwaju:

i tire 4 d campagner's oooo. obj is a total failure. if you saw his last inaguration @ lekki, he sat side by side with babangida & he said he's paying a debt owed by his right hand man?

Na wa o.

I hate 3rd term with a passion but i will not rubbish all his programmes.

Even though i do agree that most of his reforms are for a better Nigeria but it is not having an immediate impact on the common man.

If ObJ started investigating IBB now, what are you going to call it? Definitely, you will call it WITH-HUNTING.

When he hand-over one of his best friend in S.M Afolabi to EFCC, some idiot still call it WITH-HUNTING.

Akolawole,i appreciate your sense of assessment but it seems you are yet to have the full graps with the thinking attitude of many Nigerians.I have had it and that is why i have concentrated on my one man struggle and fight for whatever i believed in.
No matter what,many Nigerians will remain cynically inclined towards anything that is not their own brainchild.While they dont have what it takes to make good impact,they are out there to destroy others that are trying their little best.They have shot the doors of all hope to themselves and so they dont hope for anything good for our dear country NIGERIA.
The irony of it all is that they will do worse than all these bad leaders they talked about if they ever at all find their way up there.
Ask them if they ever thought that the likes of El Rufai,Okonjo Iweala,Soludo,Nuhu Ribadu etc that are working overtly and covertly to move this country forward still remain in this country?
There is no doubt that all our past leaders are thieves including OBJ but if one of them is now pretending to be a repentant thief then i can see a day ahead when a truly repentant thief or a perfect saint will come and prosecute all these old thieves(OBJ,IBB,ATIKU,ANENIH,KALU,BUHARI,GOWON,OGBEH,IBORI,etc).
That time is very much around the corner when the fire they have ignorantly kindled will ultimately consume them.Then there will be no hidden place for them.
Lets all wait and see.

Nigeria is debt free Yay!

The fact is even the so-called industrialised nations are also not debt free. Every nation at one point or the other take out loans to finance various projects. It is foolhardy to think Nigeria would not be going back to these same paris club to borrow more money.
The difference is while the leaders of this industrialised nations plough these loans into their own economy to yield profits, nigerian politicians plough our loans into their pockets.

The problem is not with being debt free or not, it is with the use of the so-called loans. Now that we are debt free, may we know to what use the money meant for debt servicing will be used for? N100m to senators and N50m to the house of reps to support life presidency?

come on guys, instead of offending Obasanjo we should at leat say thanks and send him a smile. Despite massive challenges remaining, Nigeria sees is first ray of hope after the Biafra War ended, Obsanjo and his team (finance minister) has amassed HUGE FOREIGN RESERVES WHICH STILL STANDS AT 36 BILLION after paying off the country´s debt. He could have used all the money for his own pocket as most of Nigeria´s president have done in the past or spend it on silly white elephants. FROM 1999 TO NOW Nigeria has done great progress. Obsj. inherited another "Zaire" when he started his first term in 1999. (I still vividly remember the "dark ages" Today many foreign investors are flocking to Nigeria in droves and the name Nigeria starts to become presentable which was "a no go area" throughout the 80´s and especially the horrible 90´s, Governing Nigeria is not an easy and grateful task with all the people selfishly vying for power and money.

the problem will however be : once Obasanjo is gone who will assure that all the efforts have not been in vain? Nigeria does not need other Babandighas or Abachas who callously loot our country in the same grusesome fashion like Mobutu did in now war -ravaged Zaire. THESE TIMES HAVE TO BE OVER and GONE FOR GOOD