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| The intention of some of our leaders! |
By Olumide T. Agunbiade
Several years ago, two notable economists, Arvind Subramanian
and Xavier Sala-I-martin, in a paper for the IMF said Nigeria was a ‘metaphor
per excellence of a failed development experience,’ describing the government
as so damaging to progress that Nigeria would be better off if someone sat down
and wrote out cheques to every citizen to the portion of their share of oil
receipts.
Nigeria is not quite the
most corrupt country on earth. But according to Transparency International,
which monitors international financial corruption, it is not far off — coming a
shameful 172nd worst among the 215 nations surveyed.
Only countries as
dysfunctional, derelict and downright dangerous as Haiti or the Congo are more
corrupt.
In theory, Nigeria’s 170
million-strong population should be prospering in a country that in recent
years has launched four satellites into space and now has a burgeoning space
programme.
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| Our Money. |
Moreover, Nigeria is sitting
on crude oil reserves estimated at 35 billion barrels (enough to fuel the
entire world for more than a year), not to mention 100 trillion cubic feet of
natural gas.
It also manages to pay its
legislators the highest salaries in the world, with a basic wage of £122,000,
nearly double what British MPs earn and many hundreds of times that of the
country’s ordinary citizens.
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| A Great Nation. |
The oil industry is highly
corrupt, with 136 million barrels of crude oil worth $11 billion (£7.79
billion) were illegally siphoned off in just two years from 2009 to 2011
No wonder the ruling elite
can afford luxury homes in London or Paris, and top-end cars that, across West
Africa, have led to the sobriquet ‘Wabenzi’, or people of the Mercedes-Benz.
Yet 70 per cent of Nigerians
live below the poverty line of £1.29 a day, struggling with a failing
infrastructure and chronic fuel shortages because of a lack of petrol refining
capacity, even though their country produces more crude oil than Texas.
And that poverty is not for
want of assistance from the wider world.
70 per cent of Nigerians
live below the poverty line of £1.29 a day, struggling with a failing
infrastructure and chronic fuel shortages
Since gaining its
independence in 1960, Nigeria has received $400 billion (£257 billion) in
aid — six times what the U.S. pumped into reconstructing the whole of
Western Europe after World War II.
Nigeria suffers from what
economists call the ‘resource curse’ — the paradox that developing countries
with an abundance of natural reserves tend to enjoy worse economic growth than
countries without minerals and fuels.
