Friday,Mar 22,2013
Putin Welcomes China's Xi for Landmark Talks
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and China's new leader Xi Jinping are to hold landmark talks on Friday in the hop.... By AFP
Tuesday,Mar 19,2013
30 Killed in Blast at Motor Park in Kano
Over 30 people were killed following a bomb blast in a motor park in the Sabon Gari area of Kano State at about 4.0.... By Jakky Bankong-obi
The recent revelation of the avowed intention of the Nigerian federal government to remove fuel subsidy and devalue the national currency (the naira) in 2012 should not surprise Nigerians who have observed the conduct of government in Nigeria in the past twelve years. Rather, Nigerians should be concerned about the capacity of the social power zones in Nigeria to resist the policy intent until certain minimal conditions are satisfied. Is the organized labour capable of resisting the Nigerian government? Has the Nigerian student body lately demonstrated adequate understanding of the implications of government decisions and responded appropriately? Has the formal news media shown through unassailable intellectual dexterity that it is able to puncture disingenuous arguments of government officials and guide the Nigerian people through the web of deceit spun endlessly in the corridors of power? Has the organized civil society in Nigeria earned for itself the capital of trust of the Nigerian people for selfless advocacy on their behalf without betrayal, and the capital of honour from the Nigerian rulers for its uncompromising dispositions during mutual engagements? I can bet that majority of readers would answer in the contrary.
My purpose here is to separate facts from falsehood, and to remind Nigerians of the past—the relevant past—that we have hurriedly forgotten.
UNCONVINCING PRECEDENT
SAVINGS FROM SOVEREIGN DEBTS: Towards the end of the Obasanjo government, Nigeria earned—yes, earned—“debt forgiveness” from the Paris and London clubs of creditors. Nigerians were told, as it was equally made a condition for the “forgiveness”, that the resulting savings from sovereign debt servicing would be invested in critical sectors such as education, health, and public infrastructural development. In November 2006 (the same year Nigeria formally exited indebtedness to those clubs) President Obasanjo flagged off the construction of a modern dual-track rail network that would cover more than 1,300 km from Lagos to Kano. The completion date for the project was in 2010! The cost of the project was about 8.3 billion US dollars. Trains running on those tracks were to move at about 160 km per hour; that means a trip from Abuja to Lagos would take less than 5 hours, while less than 9 hours would be travel time from Lagos to Kano.
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