From John Abba-Ogbodo, Abuja
DETERMINED to secure cancellation to her debt burden by creditor nations, Nigeria has taken the issue to the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU).
A statement issued in Abuja yesterday by Mr Austin Uganwa, special assistant to Deputy Speaker said the issue of Nigeria's foreign debt was the crux of a presentation made by a delegation led by the deputy speaker to the recent IPU conference in Manila, Philippines.
Nigeria, according to the statement, pleaded with parliaments of the creditor nations to put pressure on their governments to provide a window for this country by way of debt relief programmes, stressing that no nation could make meaningful progress with such a debt burden.
The delegation told the conference that frustrated by the debt burden, the House of Representatives recently passed a motion urging the Nigerian government to declare a unilateral moratorium on the servicing of the debts.
According to the deputy speaker, Nigeria with her huge population required enormous resources for development and servicing the debts would deny the citizens much-needed infrastructure.
The move, if adopted, Opara said, would substantially assist Nigeria in meeting her obligations to the citizens.
"A large percentage of our national earnings, which would have otherwise gone to development projects, is now being channelled to servicing debts," he said.
Opara, in his presentation, described the debt situation as pathetic and appealed to his colleagues to assist by making their home governments appreciate the Nigerian situation.
He also urged them to increase the volume of their investments in the country, stressing that the current administration had taken the war against corruption to an appreciable level.
The deputy speaker pledged the support of the National Assembly for the reform process of the United Nations, noting that enlarging a vital organ like the Security Council to accommodate the current dynamics of the world was a welcome development. Nigeria's total external debt profile today stands at about $35 billion.`
© 2003 - 2005 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited (All Rights Reserved).
Tiny Uganda's Red Ink is some US $4.5 Billion -- 60% of the annual GDP, and growing furiously. Barely three years ago it stood at $3.5Billion.
Another way look at it is that every, man, woman and child in Uganda owes about $200. With rh annual per capita income in the neighborhood of $200, it would take each Uganda to work for an entire year to pay off the debt -- and that is without spending on anything else during that year.
Now of course the "Bannakyeyo" could retire the entire current debt -- all be it in 10 years --- if every cent they annually were used to pay it off, ..... er and no additional interest accrued in the mean time .....
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