Odious Debts Online
March 11, 2005

This week, Nigeria’s parliament passed a non-binding resolution demanding the country suspend repayment of its US$35-billion foreign debt. On Tuesday, Nigeria’s House of Representatives moved to repudiate the external debt, the highest of any African nation, comparing Nigeria’s situation to that of “countries emerging from war.”

Parliament’s resolution said Nigeria’s economy had been “devastated by a series of military regimes from 1984 to 1999, who stole billions of dollars from state coffers.” However, parliament does not have the authority to halt foreign debt repayments and the nation’s Senate later voted to honour debt servicing this year. Forbes.com reports the House of Representatives had criticized foreign creditors for “failing to give Nigeria debt relief despite government efforts to do ‘all that is humanly possible’ to reform the economy.” Foreign governments and international financial institutions take a different view; they argue Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo has not done enough to curb  corruption in the country, even though his government is alleged to have expended more  time and resources on the fight against corruption than previous administrations.

Nigeria is ranked as the world’s third most corrupt nation by global graft watchdog  Transparency International.