Relax . . . it's an article from the 70s when Nigeria was being touted as potential superpower.

Nigeria Agrees to Lend Total of $360 Million To World Bank, IMF

The Wall Street Journal, 128 words
Dec 24, 1974

WASHINGTON-The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, in separate transactions, completed arrangements to borrow the equivalent of $360 million from Nigeria.

[url]http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/djreprints/access/70960730.html?dids=70960730:70960730&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Dec+24,+1974&author=&pub=Wall+Street+Journal&desc=Nigeria+Agrees+to+Lend+Total+of+$360+Million+To+World+Bank,+IMF&pqatl=google[/url]

Update 11 years later:

Perhaps the most important promise made by the new military leaders was to reopen stalled talks with the International Monetary Fund on rescheduling Nigeria's unmanageable foreign debt, now estimated to be $22 billion to $25 billion. Half of all Nigeria's annual oil revenues ($12.4 billion in 1984), which account for 95% of its total export earnings, are believed to be sucked up by interest payments on the debt. Moreover, as the world price for crude oil has declined over the past four years, Nigeria's revenues have been cut in half. Buhari had been seeking an IMF loan of $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion to help deal with the growing economic crisis, but he had refused to accept the international agency's demands that Nigeria first devalue its currency, the naira.

[url]http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959779-1,00.html[/url]

I loved this bit:

In 1983 alone, according to Oil Minister Tam David-West, $1 billion in petroleum was secretly diverted from state oil terminals to foreign tankers, with Nigerian businessmen and politicians taking the profits. Some reports say $1 million a day was skimmed from the public treasury. Transport Minister Dikko reportedly amassed a $1 billion fortune, much of it outside the country.

This is 1989:

The fate of General Babangida's political program is inextricably linked to the performance of his economic program. And in the short term, Western diplomats and Nigerian officials believe that further strains from the austerity measures seem certain.

Less than a decade ago the picture was much different: the oil boom in the 1970's temporarily gave Nigeria the illusion of limitless wealth and opportunity. Nigeria was producing more than 2 million barrels of oil a day and earning $26 billion in 1980, much of it from sales to the United States.

But with the steep drop in world crude oil prices, Nigeria went from being black Africa's most conspicuous consumer to its biggest debtor. It now owes about $30 billion, with more than a third of that in short-term loans that the Government has been unable to pay on time.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/04/world/economic-riots-are-spreading-in-nigeria.html?pagewanted=1

Shagari and Babangida wrecked this country. Isn't it an irony that just 11 years after the World Bank was negotiated to borrow $360 Million from Nigeria, we were back negotiating with the IMF/World Bank because, we were burdened with an unmanageable $25 billion debt!

The death sentence needs to be introduced for corruption.

One of my old favourite threads. We went from a net lender to the IMF and the World Bank to a difficult structural adjustment programme within close to a decade. Don't think we have learnt much about the dangers of spending an oil boom on consumption goods and the explosive nature of debt.

Today buhari is begging for Chinese Yuan to offset his London medical bill. It shall never be well with buhari

The North has really destroyed this country.


Lalasticlala move this to FP