It is important to note that the relief is for Debt owed to multilateral lending institutions like the World Bank, IMF and the ADB. It does not cover debts owed to private banks, companies and individuals. The UK’s contribution to the relief programme will be almost US$1B in 10 years. The US will contribute up to US$1.75B to this relief effort over the same period. Even when the second batch of HIPC qualify in 18 months time and bring the figure up to US$55B, this represents relief of about 1/6th of Africa’s total debt burden of about US$300B. We still have along way to go.

This relief does not benefit Nigeria because Nigeria is not listed as a HIPC and most of our US$35B debt is owed to the Paris Club of private banks, which is not covered under the agreement reached today in London by the G8 Finance Ministers. This is not good news for Nigeria but is obviously good news for those countries benefiting from the deal (like Ghana), good news for Africa and good news for common humanity.

It is important to remember that someone is paying for this debt relief- it is the world’s richest countries (G8). They have to settle these debts over a period of time with the IMF, WB and ADF from their own coffers, bearing in mind that these institutions have had to borrow the initial money from a source and in turn need to fulfil their obligations to their lenders, share/ stake holders. The relief declared today is to be used for democracy, transparency, HIV /Aids relief, education, infrastructural projects etc. It is not to end up in the private bank accounts of our leaders. This was made clear and mechanisms are being put in place to ensure this does not happen. If Nigeria eventually gets total debt relief, I would suggest that we set aside at least 50% of the savings for HIV/Aids Relief and Health Care. We are just not allocating enough resources to tackle the greatest tragedy of our time.

Does this deal really put money back into the treasury of African governments? Will it mean more money for HIV/Aids, for Schools, Hospitals, Water, Electricity, Basic Housing, etc? Well, some economists and development specialists have argued that it really does not because most of these countries were not paying their dues in the first place anyway. They simply did not have the money to make repayments. If this is the case then it is arguable if the relief declared today will have much impact on the poor in Africa. Whatever the case, it is a great gesture and the right step in the right direction from the G8; and Africa has a great friend in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for spearheading the move within the G8. Please African leaders and Royal Fathers, when next you are giving out national honours and Chieftaincy titles do not forget the Great Friend and the Great Advocate of African honours for Blair and Brown. Please don’t ask them to pay for it! Now that we have tackled the issue of debts to the IMF, WB and ADF (multilateral lenders) we need to take the next step by bringing in countries like Nigeria into the HIPC Initiative. Under any definition a people surviving on less than a dollar per day per person must fall under the HIPC band in my view. Second, we need radical solutions from our friends in London, DC, the EU on London and Paris Club debts. This is particularly important to countries like Nigeria that has a majority of its foreign debts with these private banks. It is one thing coming to an agreement with the IMF and WB for debt relief, it is another thing to persuade the private banks to come into a similar agreement. I am not saying it will not be done. It is just going to be a bit trickier with the private lenders as we all know.

The ideal situation is for the world’s richest nations to write off completely all the debts (private or otherwise) of all African, Asian and Latin American countries and allow a fresh start for the world’s poorest people. The sad question again is: even if all the debts are written off, does it mean that in 20 years time African nations (Nigeria in particular) will be out of the poverty trap. Will GDP per capita in Nigeria, for example, rise to $5,000-10,000 per capita instead of the current $300 per capita? Will they have in place roads, schools, hospitals, drugs, and democracy for their people? Will they bridge the gap between rich and poor countries? Will they join the league of developing middle -income tiger nations in the far and near east, or will the gap be even greater in 15-20 years time? These are the sad and painful questions Africans and the world have to contend with. If Nigeria, for example, cannot make that leap in 20 years time it would be a very sad and tragic tale for Africa because about 1 in 5 African lives in Nigeria.

We need our friends in the G8 to open up their markets and liberalise their customs rules to grant poor African nations special access to their lucrative markets. We need to prevent unfair and unequal competition for cash crops and produce. Even if they open up their markets our farmers will not be able to compete with the heavily subsidized farms of the EU and North America. They need to give us assistance in the production of value added goods and services. We need trade and market entry assistance in addition to debt relief and Aid.

On our part, we also need to help ourselves. The rich nations cannot continue to bail us out indefinitely. We need to encourage diversification from crude and non-value added products and services. More effort and resources must be invested in this area by African governments. We need to invest heavily in education, health care and development infrastructure. We need to ban completely the importation of non-essential goods that can be easily produced at home in African. We need to organise ourselves for self -help and self- reliance. It is becoming clear that our regional economic unions, like Ecowas, are not working. We need to broaden the remit of the AU and turn it into a proper common market for labour, goods and services across the continent so that countries like Nigeria and South Africa will have a market of over 500 million people for her goods and services. What is the point of these borders, anyway? We cannot feed our people, why then are we locking in people we cannot feed and locking out people who might be able to help us feed our people. It just does not make sense. Africa must become one big internal market either by design or by default. That is the sensible way for the future.

The need for the total liberalisation of customs rules across the continent is greater more so now than ever before. We need to start merging and consolidating the most efficient power, energy, telecom, utilities, and financial services corporations across Africa if we are to stand a chance of being able to compete with the multinational corporations of Europe and North America and the Far East. That is our only hope. Each nation trying to do it on its own is pretty futile. We just don’t have the resources to organise and run these corporations at the level of efficiency required for profitability and competitive advantage- we just do not. We know so; our people know so; and our leaders know so. We have tried in Nigeria, for example, our own airline, our own power supply company, our own railway etc; and it has failed woefully. If the Ghanaians and South Africans are better at it, let us all merge and have an inter-African corporation to provide these services to a massive market. That is what we need right now, not nationalistic sounding corporations like NEPA that cannot provide power for itself let alone the rest of Nigeria. Thank God it is gone.

Africa’s problems are so chronic right now that we need radical thinking and radical solutions. Forget about all the nationalistic and tribal rhetoric, the economic realities of life have come home to roost. We must all admit that, save for one or two nations, our approach to prosperity as Africans in the last 40 years has been a total and complete failure. By contrast, our Far and Near East cousins, who gained independence at about the same time as most African countries are moving into the middle income league of nations. They are now tiger economies. China is competing with the US for economic supremacy and by 2050 may be the world’s richest and most powerful nation; India is moving so far ahead it is unbelievable. It would not be wrong to say that ‘there is something seriously wrong with Africa’.

We need to re-examine our value systems, our beliefs, our priorities and ourselves. Of the two star players in Africa, South Africa is just about hanging on in there, and we wish them more success; Nigeria is seriously comatose and struggling to do now what she should have done over 30-40 years ago. As our Finance Minister said recently-and anyone who knows anything about development knows- we need a good 15-20 years of consistent and determined social, economic and political reforms before the average Nigerian starts to see any benefit. South Africa and Nigeria must break through in the next 20 years into Middle Income Developing Nation status for most of their people if the story of Africa is ever going to change. We will not get any good news from Radio Africa if Nigeria and South Africa don’t make it. We once had great hopes for Zimbabwe. Look at her today.

Whilst we welcome the help granted today, unless African people, leaders, intellectuals and administrators change their attitude on governance, consumption, lack of fiscal discipline, nihilistic corruption and tendencies, it may be deja vu all over again in 20 years time. The biggest relief from our pain and suffering must come from us. We know how we found ourselves today in a situation where we are worse off as a people now than at independence over 40 years ago. The reality is that the poverty has got worse and the standard of living has deteriorated, not improved, for most Africans. We must accept this fact if we are to embrace the radical changes in ideology, policies and mindset that will set us on the road to the prosperity and dignity that we all crave-a prosperity the West has achieved and a prosperity the Far and Near East is fast approaching; a prosperity that has eluded us; a prosperity that is all but a distant dream for 99.9% of Africans today. Why are we moving backwards while the rest of the world is moving forward? Where is the African renaissance? You can see why I have no time for those petty minded local and tribal champions in Nigeria who do not know what time it is.

We need to be producing most of what we consume. We need to be exporting value added goods and services that are less susceptible to international market fluctuations and manipulations. We need to help ourselves in all these vital areas -big time.

On the political front, we need to encourage democracy through out Africa- for only democracy, the rule of law, transparency and a free market economy can help Africa out of her current nightmare. We need to put in place a robust system of regional and trans-African alliances that will step in and restore democracy and the rule of law whenever there is a threat. We must never accept or deal with military dictators, ever. We need to intervene now to put an end to the various wars raging in Africa today. If the world will not do it, Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt must take the lead and send in troops to end these nonsensical wars in DRG, Sudan and a host of others around the continent. They must be given deadlines to reach agreements for peace. If they don’t or fail to then we must impose peace on them. It is time for radical solutions for Africa.

If the G8 wants to help us they must not sell offensive weapons to any African country until they can feed their citizens. The G8 must ensure that only weapons and instruments for the maintenance of internal security and stability are sold. No country should be allowed to spend more than 1 percent of its GDP on defence. No country should be given credit or loans to buy weapons. There should be zero tolerance on corruption and the looting of funds by African leaders.

I hear the new President of the WB, Mr Paul Wolfwowitz, visited Nigeria a few days ago. In mist of the clamour for total debt relief for Nigeria, the world’s premier development banker has decided the best thing to do is to open up new credit line of over a billion dollars for Nigeria. I know I am not an economist or an international banker like our Finance Minister or right hand man of GW, like Paul; but could someone tell me what is going on. We are begging that the world’s richest nations encourage their banks to write off their $35B loans to Nigeria and at the same time the WB is saying we can have a new facility of $1.5B. We should only draw on it if it’s a development grant that never has to be paid back. But if it is yet another loan that my children’s children will have to pay back, we do not want it. We are barely out of our current debt crisis and they are giving us more debt facility. What we need from the IMF, WB, ADF, G8 governments, the UN and well- wishers is to achieve a new deal for total debt cancellation for Nigeria (HIPC or no HIPC status). If the government decides to draw on the facility then there is a moral obligation on it to ensure they pay it off before they leave office. Don’t assume the next government will be able to pay it off.

We hope that our Finance Minister’s international experience, connections and persuasive ability will come in handy. She must now call in favours from her friends in the international finance community. There is only one major job for Madam Finance Minister in my book- to use her international contacts to get our debts cancelled. We don’t need new loans right now. Not in my book, at any rate. We need total debt cancellation now, not the diversion of Mr. Wolfsowitz’s poisoned carrot. I hope this is not a way of preparing us for the fact that the Paris Club may have decided not to grant us total debt relief. I hope it is not the good news before the bad. These international bankers and financiers all pretend they are separate and independent of each other; but we all know they work in concert. The next few days and weeks will tell.

I think for most Nigerians anything short of the cancellation of our unserviceable $35B debt would be viewed as a major failure; a failure of all our efforts, diplomacy, contacts, smart talk, efforts at transparency, anti corruption, economic and democratic reforms. We need total cancellation over a period of time. 75% now and 25% in 5 years time if they like, but total cancellation. The world cannot tell us that Nigerians are ‘relatively richer’ or ‘less poor’ than those who got relief over the weekend- we are all poor. In fact, in all of Africa we have more poor people in Nigeria than in any other country in absolute terms. It is a fact that 80-90% of Nigerians (about 130 million people) live on less than $1per day. If that is not abject and excruciating poverty, I don’t know what is. Because of our size, population, burdens and strategic relevance in Africa, I don’t think that many countries are more deserving of debt relief than Nigeria. We need total, not partial, debt relief from our talks with the Paris Club lenders or under the Evian Rules. That is the only acceptable moral, practical, humane and intellectual outcome. Anything short of that will be accepting the fallacy that we are not that poor in Nigeria- a big lie.

J.E.Iyobhebhe iyobhebhe@hotmail.com