Nigeria just defaulted on $33 Billion debt!

BBC ^

[BlackJack]

Nigeria has said it can no longer afford to service its $33bn foreign debts because of plunging oil revenues and the failure of some of its privatisation plans.

Consequently, the country has suspended payments on its debts, said Central Bank governor Joseph Sanusi.

Last month Nigeria - one of the world's largest oil-producing nations - held foreign exchange reserves of only slightly more than $8bn, down about a fifth since December. The external sector of the economy was under pressure during the period under review.

Mr Sanusi said he had decided to halt all debt repayments rather than to eat further into the reserves.

Most of Nigeria's debt is owed to foreign governments, members of the Paris Club of official creditors.

Earlier this year, Nigeria parted company with the International Monetary Fund about how best to achieve a turn-around in its economic fortunes.

[gunnedah]

This is what is called "The Rule Of Law".Lets us all declare bankruptcy and start over.We can start from scratch with American Foreign Aid and we can work it out.

[Gorzaloon]

Maybe they could devise a new e-mail scam and use the proceeds to retire the debt

This probably explains the recent surge in scam spams I have been getting! It appears to be Nigeria's only real industry.

Let's nuke it.

[ChadGore]

Re:"Maybe they could devise a new e-mail scam . ."

We need to get them on the internet right away !
Don't they know that they can "GET RICH FAST!" ??

[CatoRenasci]

Not a bad idea, in the abstract, most of those nasty little countries were much safer and healthier, better run, when they were run from the Colonial Office. The problem is that it would cost a great deal to resume the white man's burden (being quite blunt about the problem -- black africans and the arabs and other moslems seem incapable of running countries other than as nasty tribal satrapies) and I doubt that America, let alone Britain or any of the other former European colonial powers, is willing to make the sacrifice in terms of money, materiel and manpower necessary to put things back into an order even as good as existed in Africa and Asia in 1914.

[MadIvan]

Not a bad idea, in the abstract, most of those nasty little countries were much safer and healthier, better run, when they were run from the Colonial Office. The problem is that it would cost a great deal to resume the white man's burden (being quite blunt about the problem -- black africans and the arabs and other moslems seem incapable of running countries other than as nasty tribal satrapies) and I doubt that America, let alone Britain or any of the other former European colonial powers, is willing to make the sacrifice in terms of money, materiel and manpower necessary to put things back into an order even as good as existed in Africa and Asia in 1914.

Ah, but in this instance, we merely negotiate with BP, Shell and the other oil companies, and in return for stability and good governance, they pay a fee to maintain the colonial troops. It can't be any more than what they were paying in bribes.

Regards, Ivan

[CatoRenasci]

Won't work, IMHO. Surely, you recall the difficulties with private colonialism in the form of the East India Company. Not to mention that you would not be able to raise the troops or provide the administrators at any reasonable cost. I wish it weren't so, but I'm very pessimistic about Africa. I think it will take a complete collapse of the economies, mass starvation and mass murder, not to mention epidemics of AIDS and other diseases like ebola and the old traditional tropical diseases we thought pretty much conquered, before the survivors invite the whites back on acceptable terms.

[MadIvan]

Won't work, IMHO. Surely, you recall the difficulties with private colonialism in the form of the East India Company.

I envision a tax, rather than granting a colonial concession to a company.

Not to mention that you would not be able to raise the troops or provide the administrators at any reasonable cost.

As bad as the Belgian Congo model of colonialism was, there is one element we can take from it - they recruited locals to be the troops into a body known as the Force Publique. Such a body, run without the sadism that the Belgians used, could be quite effective. Plus it would give the former Nigerian Army something to do. Administrators would indeed have to come from Europe, but given all the white collar unemployment about in recent years, not that difficult I'd say.

I wish it weren't so, but I'm very pessimistic about Africa. I think it will take a complete collapse of the economies, mass starvation and mass murder, not to mention epidemics of AIDS and other diseases like ebola and the old traditional tropical diseases we thought pretty much conquered, before the survivors invite the whites back on acceptable terms.

On this I agree.

Regards, Ivan

[fone]

>>>Earlier this year, Nigeria parted company with the International Monetary Fund <<<

Ooopsey! Choose one:

a) Bite the hand that feeds you
b) Stiff the global loansharks
c) Go bankrupt

[CatoRenasci]

I question the ability to use local troops. They'd need total retraining and discipline, and we'd need at least a division of white troops (at least for a decade or so) to be able to convince them that their interests lay in doing what their Americna/British (mostly white) officers told them to do. I know all of the colonial powers used native troops, from the Belgians to the Natal Native Contingent (who ran away wholesale when facing the Zulus to the German Askaris. That was before 50 years of marxism and liberation nonsense. I think it would take 20-50 years of direct rule with American or British troops, behaving rather more brutally than we do now, to have the populations sufficiently reeducated that we could raise reliable native troops.

[MadIvan]

If this were Zimbabwe, I'd throughly agree. However I do think that the Nigerians have a stronger link with British military tradition (In contrast, Zimbabwe brought in the North Koreans to train their troops).

We would indeed need a division of colonial troops for a while, but I am being a bit more optimistic in my assessment of the length of time we'd need before Nigeria was back under control. After all, the people who live there are heartily sick of their government, which is our most potent ally. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

You can have their email industry - we'll take the oil!

What little infrastructure they have, they got from us. Pardon me, but WE will take our share of the oil.

Regards, Ivan

[xsive_guy]

"Any outfit that lends Nigeria that kind of money deserves to be stiffed"

Well, that outfit would be me, an american taxpayer, because it would be my government that guaranteed the loan with my tax dollars. Isn't the WMF great? It's funded by little ol' me.

xsive_guy

[CatoRenasci]

You may be right on Nigeria, although, I remember their civil war in 1970 or so, just a decade after independence, which was a tribal extermination war against the Ibos. Nasty stuff, and I don't trust the most persistent scam artists in Africa. However, my point was directed at Africa generally, and I was thinking more directly of places like Rhodesia (you won't find me using the Z word), Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, Rwanda, and the like. South Africa is going to be the worst mess of all before this is through, unless the millions of whites leave pretty soon. Australia would be a good place for them, it would make Oz more conservative and give it a healthy dose of immigration -- far better than all the moslems now ruining the country.

[MadIvan]

I can tell you right now the Afrikaners will not fit in Australia. I was married to one (emphasis on was), and there is a connection that the Afrikaners have to their particular patch of earth that makes it very difficult for them to leave South Africa. I suspect they will stay and fight even if it turns out to be the last battle of the Boer War.

Much of the English community there is already leaving.

Best Regards, Ivan

[nina0113]

Maybe they could devise a new e-mail scam and use the proceeds to retire the debt.

Come to think of it, we have been seeing a lot more of those lately.

[CatoRenasci]

I recall your mentioning an Afrikaner wife a couple of years ago, sorry it didn't work out. The Dutch are known for being the most stubborn people in Europe, and it seems to have magnified after 400 years in the South African sun. I've known a few Afrikaners, some of whom fit well here in the US, others who did not. One's daughter recently returned to SA to go to university (free, I guesss), which struck me as insanity. The Boers may not be the best fit in Oz, but it's their best and perhaps only shot. They could pretty much settle into one or two of the less inhabited states that are similar to the land in SA and do their own thing. But, sigh, I suspect you're right that they'll laager down and fight, with tens of thousands dying.

[OldFriend]

No doubt Greenspan will rush him some of our hard earned money.

[monkeyshine]

I have no oil!

That's ok. We'll squeeze your zits until we're even.