Why Nigeria Is In Debt

By Sunny  Awhefeada

I must begin with a confession that I am not an economist! My dabbling into a topic with its moorings in economics is the consequence of provocation by those who rule, run and ruin Nigeria. The ruling class too of­ten feels that the rest of us do not think and are therefore bound to swallow opinions hook line and sinker without asking questions.

*Buhari and Ahmad

This tendency to undermine the people is also traceable to our docility and inability to follow through clamours for account­ability and good governance. We occasionally raise alarm and frown at some of government’s inanities, but we give up too soon and move on and those who creat­ed such discomfitures laugh and mock the brevity of our critical response and also move on to per­petuate more devious schemes that hold us down. Economics and politics are no rocket scienc­es.

They are basically a way of life with strategies which when properly deployed can advance a people beyond their imagina­tion. Conversely, both can also spell doom when negatively de­ployed. The truth is that we all run economies and also govern the spaces we call homes. And there are correlates between the home and the state. Therefore, we should no longer be befuddled by those running the national econ­omy with delusional jargons, un­truths and manipulated figures. We have had enough.

We have for too long listened and also allowed them to get away with the mis­management of our commonwealth. It should stop now as we should begin to tell them that our failures and agonies are the consequences of their acts of perfidy. A recent newspaper publication quoted the Director-General of the Debt Manage­ment Office (DMO), Mrs. Patience Oniha as ascribing Nigeria’s heavy indebtedness to “lack of revenues” and “deficit budget” which Nigeria has been operating for de­cades.

The DG was briefing the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, they belong to the same class so she could beguile them with such fib. Mrs. Oliha just needed to look to the right side on the same page her apocryphal submission appeared to know why Nigeria is broke and heavily indebted. On that page was a news item in the form of a query credited to the Controller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali, asking the Nigerian National Petroleum Corpo­ration (NNPC) why it was releasing nine­ty-eight (98) million litres of petrol instead of the sixty (60) million litres in the latter’s “computation?” The Colonel went on to ask of what happens to other thirty-eight million litres.

Madam DG, the reason Nigeria is in debt is in Colonel Ali’s poser for the NNPC. And the word for it is well known to us all; CORRUPTION. Yes, not just corruption, but unbridled corruption is the reason Nigeria is insolvent. We are a heavily indebted nation. Our indebtedness is not as a result of lack of resources or dwindling revenues. No! We are one of the most resource endowed countries in the world and our revenue profile, but for plundering, should be ranking among the highest in the world.

But the phenomenon of official graft perpetuated by a group a newspaper described as “elite criminals” has been responsible for our collective in­solvency. Theft of revenue or what some euphemistically call “revenue leakage” has become Nigeria’s bane. This is pre­dominant in the oil sector with crude oil theft. Reports have it that “elite criminals” steal crude oil worth $14.6 billion annu­ally, an amount that can turn the whole of West Africa into a paradise.

Another report says governments at all levels frit­tered $22 billion from the excess crude account in twelve years! How can a coun­try survive with such massive heists? It has also been said again and again that about seven hundred thousand barrels of crude oil are daily stolen in Nigeria. So we are unable to meet our OPEC quota of 1.2 million barrels per day. Crude oil theft has become a feature of state capture by both state and non-state actors. Nigeria is sinking.

The plundering of Nigeria’s wealth goes on unabated daily. The system has been so programmed in a manner that anti-corruption strategies are actually pro-corruption loopholes and almost ev­erybody that has an opportunity exploits them to rip off Nigeria. The magnitude of official theft going on in Nigeria is not only globally unprecedented, but almost unimaginable. Every sector is corrup­tion ridden. So much focus is on the oil sector, because it has not only become Nigeria’s mainstay, but the megabucks it spews approximate the waters of the ocean.

The figures spent on petroleum subsidy easily attest to the oceanic depth of what is stolen by the “elite criminals”. The figure for subsidy is presently at four trillion naira! Governments over the years have identified subsidy as a huge drain pipe that must be blocked. Government is unable to tackle subsidy because those who run government are the ones mak­ing billions from it. Repeated attempts to fix the nation’s four refineries have failed perennially and deliberately so.

Nothing is adding up economically for Nigeria. Not too long ago, we were told that what was spent on debt servicing was more than the nation’s revenue! A report authoritatively says Nigeria spends 118% of her revenue on debt servicing. If there was any doubt about our heavily indebted status, it has been shred. Yet, our public office holders are the most ostentatious and profligate globally.

Another instru­ment of “authority stealing” apologies to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, is the dubious phe­nomenon called security votes. There are governors collecting over two billion naira as security votes monthly, yet their states are haunted by security problems. Budget padding or project cost inflation is a leach that is also bleeding Nigeria. What can be done with ten million naira is passed off for one hundred million!

The foregoing are just a few reasons why Nigeria is indebted. Mrs. Oniha and her ilk should be so informed. Nigeria is now on a borrowing spree. Sadly, this is about the only country where government borrows to steal and recovered loots are re-looted and the nation remains stranded at point zero.

The ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is one of the many consequenc­es of stealing what belongs to all. The singsong of government is that there was no money to meet ASUU’s demands. But government must be told that only a minutia of what was stolen will solve the problems that provoked the strike. Gov­ernment should stop stealing. We do not need degrees in economics to know that Nigeria will thrive well if governments at all levels stop stealing. That is the reason Nigeria is indebted and broke. The nation has been stolen blind.

* Awhefeada is a professor of English