“Borrow, Borrow Make Me Rich”
Nigeria has been offered a loan of $3 billion US dollars by the World Bank because of the improvement of its economy. The loan which is being offered to build our infrastructure is said to be interest free. It also has "a service charge of 0.5 per cent and non-utilisation fee of 0.75 per cent". My mathematics may fail me but surely others can make the general calculation or speculation of the true cost of taking this loan throughout its 35-40 years repayment period.

Currently Nigeria has a foreign debt of $3.5 dollars which we hope will not translate to over thirty billion dollars like our most famous loan: the one which required our government at the time, to reduce our universities, from 28 universities to a mere 5 (a condition of the loan). What hidden conditions are behind the current offer of loan? And what should we expect if we take it. In a past interview one activist reflects about the days of the notorious loan which eventually resulted in the devaluation of our currency which once was stronger than the dollar:

"There had been series of countrywide debates about the loan and the conditionalities attached to the loan. The result of the debate was not in favor of receiving the loan, but the military government went ahead to receive this loan. The resultant was the removal of all subsidies in all social sectors of the economy. Education subsidy was removed while fees were introduced at secondary level and in some states primary level. Many students from poor families dropped out of school. Health was then privatized making it only affordable to the rich.

Minor pain killers disappeared from public hospitals. All public owned services like the telecommunications and the national electric power were all privatized. Nigeria has yet to recover from the burden of this loan." -Gloria Kilanko If our fathers and leaders have forgotten the pain of those times, we their children, have not forgotten. Yes we need infrastructure in Nigeria but not from an organisation that will demand a pound of flesh.

In the ‘70s when I was a child, we had this slang we used for castigating ourselves when we took upon ourselves what was not really ours, when we became 'copycats' or 'posed' with items that were others'. We also used it when we laughed at those who did the same or who we thought were gloating in things that were not theirs. For us this was foolishness. We knew not the economics of borrowing as a business principle or an economic phenomenon. However, as children we recognised it was not wisdom to bask in contrived glory.

It was better, we thought, to boast and gloat (if we had to) in only that which was truly ours. In my childhood innocence, how could I have known that my country Nigeria was at the time heading into the doldrums of the consequences of an act of uncontrolled recklessness; borrowing when it really did not need to? The early 1970s in Nigeria were not significant for me a small child. I was too young to understand the economics of Nigeria and its dependence on its black gold called crude oil.

It was a peaceful world for me, not as frightening as the civil war which I did not know and the economic one which battled our country from the 1980s. My world revolved around school and home. I recall our daily route from Apapa to Yaba through the congested flyovers that took me from home to school and back in two different school buses. Sometimes we entered the one we called 'longi-elele' and other times we entered 'Ojoro' bus: the shorter one which had a knack for being able to navigate through intense traffic in those days. 'Longi-ele' for us was the big fool.

It did not have the ability to navigate through tight spots; it was big, long and clumsy a bit like the legendary giant of Africa. I was a child of the Nigerian army and I knew the security of a protected life which was largely unchallenged during the earlier days of military rule. The relative peace of the 1970s, however, gave way to the turbulence of the 1980s. All the walls and arms in all the barracks of Nigeria could no longer protect us from economic turbulence. It was evident in the barracks where pride had given way to humiliation.

Very few were now immune from the reality of a Nation which once so rich, was now begging bread. The political landscape did not escape my childish eyes. There was insecurity; what, with two different coups within a space of a few years. It seemed as if it was becoming fashionable to stage a coup. Fear began to creep into my childhood castle built in thin air. The military class had taken over from the recent political class which had had a brief stint of power.

This political class from my childhood recollection had suddenly exposed my generation to the knowledge of corruption. Like the fruit which Eve gave to Adam we had began to eat of new knowledge as we were surrounded by a new perspective that merit was no longer important. In my early teens, my innocence had been broken by the knowledge of what they called 'long-leg'. In Nigeria of the ‘80s it had become evident that without this and what they also called 'man-no-man' you could not 'make it' in Nigeria. And if you did just manage to, you were the exception and not the rule.

Although my childish conscience taught me that that this could not be right, we had become caught in a trap that would turn the nation from a potentially strong giant to a colossal failure and mostly because we had danced to the tune of 'borrow, borrow; make me rich!' which the Nigerian military continued to play. A great scenario, however, began to play out. Nigerian greed had given way to economic distress.

The realisation began to come: our nation was caught in a web of debt. We had sung like little children: 'borrow, borrow make me rich!' now we were caught up in a backlash of pain derived from a needless debt. We began to learn new slangs '1- 0-1' meaning breakfast; no lunch; and dinner and '0-0-1' (no breakfast, no lunch then dinner)'. For some it became 0-0-0 (no breakfast, lunch or dinner). Nigerians were reeling in pain and our loan of several million dollars had multiplied to several billions of dollars. Today Nigeria has managed to repay its debt.

It has, as a result, become a most attractive potential borrower. A trap appears to have been set for our country and we must 'jump and pass'. As the debate rages again about the loan offer of $3 billion dollars, I commend all Nigerians who are saying not again. We need to remember the pit from which we were dug out. Let's not keep silent and join those who cannot forget. Lets cry out, pray, argue, debate and do whatever is objectively necessary to stop Nigeria from dancing to that morbid tune of 'borrow, borrow; make me rich!’

Timi Hyacinth


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