The Impact Of Voodoo Economics On The Politics Of Some Emergent Banana Republics In The Gulf Of Guinea

By

Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

In 1919, the World Series baseball match between the Chicago Black Sox and the Cincinnati Reds ended in complete absurdity. The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Chicago Black Sox, who were the undisputed star team, simply because the Chicago Black Sox lost the match deliberately. At any rate, after post-mortem investigations, following the wagging of tongues, eight (8) Chicago Black Sox players were banned for life from playing professional baseball. It was felt that those players, like many pen robbers today, had breached the public’s trust.

The aura and persuasiveness of the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan, are very charming. In the course of his lofty flights of sophisticated effective presentation, he somehow always manages to ground himself long enough to display some very deep and very down-to-earth understanding of his job of providing guidance for the effective and efficient management of the economy of the United States of America. That Alan Greenspan served his country for so long (under various political persuasions and dispensations) is truly inspiring, marvellous, and indicative of his intellectual calibre. He served both the Clinton and the Bush Administrations in the same capacity.

So, what, if any lessons at all, can Nigeria learn from this model of national economic stabilisation and continuity management? Are there some inherent advantages of the US approach, in the sense that continuity is maintained over longer planning and implementation horizons? Is the seeming transient nature of policy sustainability the cause of Nigeria’s economic melancholy? Are there any fragments of wisdom extractable from the sayings and thinking of Chairman Alan Greenspan, for the benefit of Nigerians and the Nigerian economy? Let us take a closer look at one of Chairman Greenspan’s recent outings.

Recently, Alan Greenspan told the Congress of the US of A that it would benefit the citizens of the country if their businesses had something more to offer than half-baked ideas. (Fantastic! Very, very brilliant! Wow!) In a testimony he made to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee (in arcane abstractions, suitably spiced with economic jargon), Chairman Alan Greenspan again managed to drift beyond the outer fringes of esoteric logic, suggesting to the distinguished Senators that baseball is the key to understanding the ever complex global investment arena. In his presentation to the definitely flabbergasted and over-awed Senators of the Federal Republic of America, the US Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Alan Greenspan revealed, "Education can help provide individuals with the financial knowledge necessary to create household budgets, initiate savings plans, manage debt, and make strategic investment decisions for their retirement or their children's education." He went on to suggest that a proper grasp of baseball statistics (the numeric concepts that taught him basic arithmetic, and the very foundation of his celebrated statistical acumen) was the key to financial literacy. Oh, really? What genius! Fantastic! Very, brilliant! Wow!

But then, does it really matter much how financially literate an investor is, when the economic environment is boiling with foul tempered presidents, "carpet-crossing" fair-weather politicians, reformulated democratic dictators, 419ers, exploding armouries, striking policemen, official corruption, assassinations, state-sponsored terrorism, general vagueness, and complete lack of trust? Today, the roll call of suspect fraudulent financial businesses in the United States of America includes the top financial giants, but this does not seem to bother Chairman Alan Greenspan, the American economic guru. This is strange, and very, very weird!

In 2000 AD, several Information Technology firms suddenly became bankrupt. In all, some US$4 trillion disappeared, the NASDAQ lost 60% of its value, and the Dow Jones Index dropped below 10,000. In late 2001 AD, there was Enron, the energy giant that went from owning almost everything, to losing almost everything, practically overnight: Just like that, thousands lost their jobs, and millions were left holding worthless pieces of paper they thought were Enron’s stocks, or are being held liable for Enron’s woes. Apparently, the impending collapse was no secret to top Enron executives, or to Arthur Andersen, the company’s auditors. In the wake of Enron, firm after firm have been called to question. Therefore, it seems, to some extent, unfair to single out Arthur Anderson. Voodoo economics!

In early April 2002 AD, the Attorney General of New York State announced a probe of Wall Street. Now WorldCom, a publicly traded telecommunications giant, is on the verge of total collapse. Should WorldCom crash, tens of thousands of shareholders will be affected. Meanwhile, the former CEO of WorldCom, the very person who brought the company to the edge of disaster in the first place, is doing pretty fine: He got an interest-free US$366 million loan from WorldCom, the company he ruined. Fantastic! Very, very brilliant! Voodoo economics!

Meanwhile, none of these scandals has drawn more than fleeting wink of disapproval from the US Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Alan Greenspan. Instead, Alan Greenspan is happy to paint consumers as financial illiterates, and to call for more investor education in baseball statistics! Perhaps, he should carefully re-examine his cute little very brilliant baseball correspondence theorem. The current level of financial deceit in both the United States of America and Nigeria can only bring to mind, that famous World Series baseball swindle of 1919. Just a fast rewind:

The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Chicago Black Sox, who were the better team of the 1919 World Series baseball match. The Chicago Black Sox lost the series deliberately. However, tongues started to wag. Subsequently, eight Chicago Black Sox players were banned from ever playing professional baseball again in their lifetime: In fact: forever! It was felt that those players, like so many white-cooler criminals in the US of A, the EU, Japan, Russia, Australasia and Canada, and pen robbers in Nigeria today, had breached the public's trust.

Déjà vu? Clearly, the adamant refusal to ban for life, Nigeria’s (Chicago Black Sox-like) fraudulent government and business players for recurring and on-going breaches of public trust, is symptomatic of our quasi-banana republic voodoo economics, whose predictable outcomes are summarised in the current unenviable hopelessness of Nigeria’s national politics. Let us take a random walk through some emergent banana republics within the Gulf of Guinea, and observe the effects of their voodoo economics on their voodoo politics, and vice versa.

Geographically speaking, the Gulf of Guinea is situated in the mid-Atlantic, starting from the extreme west coast of ECOWAS, around Sierra Leone, and terminating at the "armpit of Africa", around Rio Muni, in mainland Equatorial Guinea. Historically, the Gulf of Guinea comprised the Groundnut Coast (of Senegal, Gambia and Sierra Leone), the Ivory Coast (of Cote D’Ivoire and Liberia), the Gold Coast (of Ghana and Togo), and the Slave Coast (of Benin Republic, Nigeria,, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea), all within the axes of the evil of invasive European entrepreneurship of the 16^th, 17^th, 18^th, 19^th and 20^th centuries.

République d’Haïti (or Haiti, for short), is our benchmark banana republic. Haiti is in the Caribbean Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, with its history deeply rooted in about four centuries of European-financed international trading of human beings from the Gulf of Guinea (a crime against humanity). Haiti is the world's first black-led republic, and the first Caribbean nation to achieve independence. Haiti’s pride has been bruised by several decades of abject poverty, environmental degradation, state-assisted brutality, social, political, and economic disequilibria, further aggravated by civilian and military dictatorships, which have left the country as one of the poorest countries in the known universe.

Haiti's location, history, and culture, epitomised by Voodoo, a variant of ancient indigenous religions of the Gulf of Guinea., with its associated metaphysics, chants, music, claps, percussion, drumming and gyroscopic dancing, once made it a prospective tourists’ paradise on earth. However, instability and rampant violence over the past 20 years have obliterated that prospect. For years, Haiti had been notorious for the brutal dictatorships of the Voodoo physician, "Papa Doc" Francois Duvalier, and his son, "Baby Doc" Jean-Claude Duvalier. Hopes that the election of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1990 would herald a brighter future crashed when he was overthrown by the armed forces, seven months later. Although economic sanctions and US-led military intervention forced a return to constitutional government in 1994, Haiti's fortunes have crashed, amid allegations of repeated electoral irregularities and continuing extra-judicial killings, torture, and bloodbaths.

As with most banana republics, Haiti is in the tropics. Adult death rates in Haiti are about the highest in the world, and infant mortality rate is about three times higher than the birth rate. The population distribution is skewed towards the middle-aged and the geriatric. The population density of Haiti is very high, at about 251 persons per square kilometre. About 80% of the population lives in dismal poverty. Annually, close to 3% of Haitians migrate elsewhere, by any means necessary, preferably to the United States of America, in hot pursuit of a better life.

Nearly 70% of economically active Haitians are peasant farmers. The country has experienced little job creation since 1996. Following elections that were fraught with irregularities in 2000 AD, international donors, mainly the United States of America and the European Union, suspended almost all aid to Haiti. This destabilized the Haitian economy, and, combined with a 40% fuel price hike, caused widespread social entropy, and state-sponsored violence. Haiti has 13 airports, of which only three (3) have paved runways, while ten (10) are unpaved makeshift airstrips. As at 2000 AD, Haiti had three (3) Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and 861 Internet subscribers per million Haitians. There are about nine (9) fixed telephone lines per 1,000 citizens, and zero mobile cellular lines in Haiti. The regular Haitian Army, Navy, and Air Force have been disbanded, but still exist on paper until constitutionally abolished. Voodoo politics!

About 89% of Haiti’s exports go to the United States of America, while the EU gets just 8%. The major exports of Haiti are mangoes, bananas, sugarcane, corn, and firewood. Electricity consumption per capita is about 90 KWh. The GDP per capita in 2000 AD was US$1,800. Haiti is a major Caribbean point of massive trans-shipment for cocaine, en route to the United States of America and the EU, its major trading partners. Haiti is the money launderer’s paradise.

Christopher Columbus landed on Haitian soil five hundred and ten (510) years ago, in 1492 AD, and named it Hispaniola (Little Spain). Four years later, the Spaniards established the first European settlement in the western hemisphere at Santo Domingo, the present capital of Dominican Republic. 205 years after Christopher Columbus landed in Hispaniola, the Spanish transferred the colony to the French, who renamed it Haiti, (Land of Mountains).In 1801 AD, Toussaint L’Ouverture, a former black slave, turned freedom fighter, liberated Haiti, abolished slavery, and proclaimed himself Governor-General of an autonomous government over all Haiti. In the following year, 1802 AD, French legionnaires attempted to crush the rebellion but failed. Two (2) years later, in 1804 AD, Haiti gained its independence, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a former slave, declared himself Emperor of Haiti. Barely two (2) years into his reign as Emperor, Dessalines was assassinated, and Haiti was divided into a black-controlled North, and a mulatto-ruled South. Between 1818 AD and 1843 AD, one Pierre Boyer unified Haiti, but excluded blacks from political power. In 1915 AD, the United States of America invaded Haiti following a clash between blacks and mulattoes, which Americans thought endangered American investments in Haiti. US troops withdrew from Haiti some 19 years later, but maintained direct economic control of Haiti for another 13 years. In short, for some 32 years of the early 20^th century, the United States of America controlled the destiny of Haiti directly.

In 1956 AD, a Voodoo physician, "Papa Doc" Francois Duvalier, seized power in a coup d’état, to became the president of Haiti one year later. Eight (8) years after seizing power, "Papa Doc" Francois Duvalier declared himself "President For Life", and established a dictatorship with the help of his special private militia, the "Tontons Macoute", very much like Nigeria’s OPC (in the South West), and the Bakassi Vigilante Group (in the South East). Fifteen (15) years after seizing power, "Papa Doc" Duvalier died in 1971 AD, and was succeeded by his son, "Baby Doc" Jean-Claude Duvalier, who also declared himself "President For Life", at a tender age of 19!

Fifteen years later, when he was 34 years old, "Baby Doc" fled Haiti following escalating general aggravation. One Lieutenant-General Henri Namphy replaced him as head of an interim national government in 1986 AD. Two years later, one Brigadier-General Prosper Avril led a coup d’état, and installed a civilian government under his remote military control (from his mountain top mansion), in a diarchy, similar to Chief Ernest Shokekon’s ING in Nigeria.

In 1990 AD, democracy returned to Haiti, and Jean-Bertrand Aristide became the president, only to be kicked out the next year in a coup d’état led by one Brigadier-General Raoul Cedras. This triggered sanctions by the US and the Organisation of American States. In 1993 AD, the UN also imposed sanctions after the Haitian military regime rejected an arrangement to facilitate Aristide’s return. The Haitian military dictatorship finally collapsed in the face of an imminent US invasion in 1994 AD, and Aristide returned from exile, with US forces already positioned in Haiti to "oversee a peaceful transition to civilian rule". UN peacekeepers replaced the US troops in 1995 AD; and Rene Preval was elected later that year to replace Aristide as president, with the support of Aristide’s supporters. For close to two years, there was serious political deadlock in Haiti, and in 1999 AD, Rene Preval began to rule by decrees. In November 2000 AD, Aristide was re-elected president amid allegations of overt rigging and violence.

Incidentally, the then President-for-Life, "Papa Doc" Duvalier of Haiti, recognised the sovereignty of the Republic of Biafra. One is completely at a loss as to what his strategic intentions where. For sure, the quality of life in the Republic of Biafra was far better than that in Haiti. What exactly could Haiti offer Biafra, if not to drain Biafra’s resources, and further aggravate its desperation to evade premature extinction? On the other hand, was it just Voodoo politics? Voodoo diplomacy? Was there any time that the likely input of Haiti’s state religion, Voodoo, into the dynamics of the Nigeria-Biafra war was ever contemplated by the Biafran status quo, despite their diametrically opposite posturing, to the rest of the world, about the dire and endangered condition of their subjects’ Christian souls? In essence, Haiti had nothing to offer (even itself), apart from Voodoo. Maybe, Haiti’s recognition was, as usual, a bad omen. Nothing good seems to come out of Haiti, only God knows why. Haiti is like hell on earth. It could have been a paradise, if not for its politics and economics.

Nigeria’s total land area is 33 times that of Equatorial Guinea. In short, Equatorial Guinea is about the size of an average Nigerian State, and about the size of Haiti. However, its population is about 7% of Haiti’s. Infant mortality rate is as high as Haiti’s. The population distribution is skewed towards the geriatric. The population density of Haiti is very low, at about 17 persons per square kilometre.

Equatorial Guinea has three (3) airports, of which only two (2) have paved runways, and one (1) is an unpaved makeshift airstrip. As at 2000, Equatorial Guinea had one (1) Internet Service Provider (ISP) and 464 Internet subscribers per million. There are about eight (8) fixed telephone lines per 1,000 citizens, with no mobile cellular lines throughout Equatorial Guinea.

Equatorial Guinea’s exports, comprising mainly petroleum, cocoa, yams, cassava, bananas, timber, and palm kernels; are distributed as follows: US of A 62%, Spain 17%, China 9%, France 3%, and Japan 3%. Domestic electricity consumption per capita is about 40 KWh, less than half of that consumed by an average Haitian. The GDP per capita of Equatorial Guinea was US$2,000 in 2000. Military expenditures constitute less than 1%of national GDP:

Precisely 531 years ago, in 1471 AD, twenty-one (21) years before Christopher Columbus landed in Haiti, another Portuguese navigator called Fernao do Po sighted an island in the Gulf of Guinea, probably while enjoying a tropical leisure cruise in his private galleon, and named it after himself, Fernando Po. Subsequently, the island was assumed the property of the monarchy and good people of Portugal. Today, the island of Fernando Po is called Bioko. In 1477 AD, Portugal ceded Fernando Po to Spain. 367years later, in 1844 AD, the Spaniards finally made up their minds to settle in what became the province of Rio Muni in mainland Equatorial Guinea. In 1904 AD, Fernando Po and Rio Muni become Spanish Guinea.

On independence in 1968 AD, Spanish Guinea became the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, with Francisco Macias Nguema as President. Four years later, President Nguema succeeded himself and became "President for Life". Barely seven (7) years into his life presidency, Francisco Macias Nguema was overthrown in a coup d’état led by his nephew, Teodoro Mbasogo Obiang. The first ever-multi-party elections in Equatorial Guinea took place some 25 years after independence in 1993 AD, but were generally condemned as fraudulent, and consequently boycotted by the opposition.

Seventeen (17) years after deposing his uncle, President Obiang assigned 99% of votes to himself in an election that was characterized by widespread irregularities. One month after President Obiang’s "landslide victory at the polls", Mobil Oil Corporation of the US of A announced the discovery of new and sizeable reserves of both crude oil and natural gas in Equatorial Guinea. Amnesty International reported the arrest of scores of Bubi minority activists in the wake of attacks on military posts on Bioko Island in January 1998 AD. A military tribunal sentenced 15 of them to death for separatist agitations on Bioko Island in June 1998 AD. In March the next year, the ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea won most of the seats in elections that are condemned as very fraudulent. Voodoo politics!

Paradoxically, since 2001 AD, the economy of Equatorial Guinea has emerged as one of the fastest growing in the world because of petroleum exploitation. IMF projected 52.7% growth in 2001. Opposition voices complain that the trickle-down effect of this growth is too slow, and too little. In Nigerian English, the people of Bubi ethnic nationality in Equatorial Guinea want "Resource Control"! Meanwhile there are up to eight opposition coalition parties exiled in Spain, itching to "overhaul the politics" of Equatorial Guinea, back home.

Incidentally, in July 2001 AD, President Obiang was "endorsed", yet again, by his ruling Democratic Party to run in the 2003 AD Presidential election in Equatorial Guinea, as their "consensus" democratic civilian presidential candidate, two (2) years in advance of the elections!

Incidentally, Bioko Island (former Fernando Po) is next door to Cross River State, Nigeria It is a haven and co-ordination centre for trans-national syndicates of petroleum products smuggling mafias of the Gulf of Guinea, operating at Tiko, Duala, Brazzaville, Kinshasa, Benguela, Calabar, Seme, Bonny, Cotonou, Abidjan, Okrika, Atlas Cove, Freetown, Effurun, and. Monrovia.

Nigeria’s total land area is 13 times that of Sierra Leone. The Republic of Sierra Leone is slightly smaller than South Carolina, US of A, and about 3 times the size of either Haiti or Equatorial Guinea. However, its population is slightly less than Haiti’s, but 11 times that of Equatorial Guinea, with both the adult death rate and infant mortality rate higher than Haiti’s. Sierra Leone’s population distribution is skewed towards the pre-teenage group. The population density of Sierra Leone is low, at about 76 persons per square kilometre.

Sierra Leone has eleven (11) airports, of which only one (1) has a paved runway and ten (10) are unpaved makeshift airstrips. As at 2000 AD, Sierra Leone had only one (1) Internet Service Provider (ISP) and 369 Internet subscribers per million. There are about three (3) fixed telephone lines per 1,000 citizens and just 650 mobile cellular lines available in the whole of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone’s exports, comprising mainly coffee, fish, cocoa, palm kernels, groundnuts; and diamonds, are distributed as follows: Belgium 38%, US 6%, Italy 4%, and UK 4%. Electricity consumption per capita is about 41 KWh, less than half of the amount consumed by an average Haitian. The GDP per capita of Sierra Leone was US$510 in 2000 AD. Military expenditures amount to 6% of national GDP:

Twenty-one (21) years after the establishment of the slave settlement of Freetown, the British upgraded it to a proper Crown colony. Some eighty-eight (88) years after the establishment of Freetown Colony, the rest of the hinterland of Sierra Leone became a British Protectorate in 1896 AD, very similar to the colonisation of Eko (Lagos) and the "protection agreements" with the Northern and Southern hinterlands of Nigeria. Incidentally, the British administered Eko (Lagos Colony) , located on the "Slave Coast", from the slave settlement of Freetown in the mid-19^th century, and subsequently from Accra, in the "Gold Coast". By the way, Furah Bay College, Freetown, then an overseas campus of Durham University, England, was the very first Eurocentric institution of higher education in British colonial West Africa.

In 1954 AD, for the first time ever, the Colonial Office in London appointed an indigenous Sierra Leonean, Sir Milton Margai, the leader of the Sierra Leone People’s Party, as the Chief Minister of Sierra Leone, some 167 years after its creation by British abolitionists and philanthropists. Sierra Leone became independent in 1961 AD. Six (6) years afterwards, just like in Nigeria, a military coup d’état deposed Prime Minister Siaka Stevens’ government in 1967 AD. Following a counter coup d’état in 1968 AD, Siaka Stevens returned to power to head a civilian government. In 1971 AD, Sierra Leone became a republic, and Siaka Stevens was its first Executive President. Seven (7) years into his Executive Presidency, Siaka Stevens proclaimed the Republic of Sierra Leone a one-party democratic state, with his party, the All People’s Congress (APC), as the only registered, and therefore, the only legitimate party in Sierra Leone. Voodoo politics!

After ruling Sierra Leone, firstly, as the Prime Minister for almost ten (10) years, then, as the Executive President for 14 more years, Siaka Stevens "stepped aside" in 1985 AD for his personally "endorsed" and anointed successor as President, on behalf of the good people of Sierra Leone, a soldier politician called, Major General Joseph Saidu Momoh, an old boy of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), and a personal friend of Nigeria’s military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.. Two (2) years into his transformation experiment, President (Major General) Joseph Momoh declared a state of economic emergency throughout Sierra Leone in 1987 AD. Voodoo economics!

In 1991 AD, a civil war erupted when an ordinary ex-serviceman, ex-Corporal Foday Sankoh, and his band of rag-tag village urchins, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) began guerrilla campaigns against the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Sierra Leone, ex-NDA cadet Major General Joseph Saidu Momoh, capturing towns on the Liberia- Sierra Leone border. Later that year, President (Major General) Joseph Saidu Momoh announced a brand new Constitution providing for a multi-party system in Sierra Leone. A few months afterwards, Major General Joseph Saidu Momoh was overthrown in a coup d’état led by one Captain Valentine Strasser. In response to international pressure, Strasser announced plans for the first multi-party elections in 24 years. Voodoo politics!

After ruling Sierra Leone for four (4) years, young Captain Strasser was deposed in military coup led by his own Minister of Defence, Brigadier Julius Bio, in January 1996. One month later, Brigadier Bio handed over power to Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who was elected President in February 1996. President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah also signed a peace pact with ex-serviceman ex-Corporal Foday Sankoh later in 1996.

President Tejan Kabbah was toppled by a coalition of regular army officers led by one Major Paul Koroma and members of the Foday Sankoh-led RUF guerrillas in May 1997 AD. As usual, successful coup plotter Major Koroma suspended the Sierra Leonean Constitution, banned demonstrations, and abolished political parties. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah fled to Guinea to "mobilise external support". The Commonwealth later suspended Sierra Leone. The United Nations Security Council imposed stiff economic sanctions against Sierra Leone, barring the supply of arms and petroleum products. A British company nonetheless, supplied "logistical support", including rifles, bazookas, tanks, vehicles, grenades, mortar bombs and intelligence information to self-exiled Tejan Kabbah and his allies. In February 1998 AD, the Nigerian-led West African intervention force, Ecomog, stormed Freetown, and one month later, in March 1998, Tejan Kabbah made a triumphant re-entry into Freetown amid scenes of public jubilation, adulation, and praises for Nigeria, Nigerians and General Sani Abacha, the then Commander-in-Chief of the victorious Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In 1999 AD, when General Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar became the Commander-in Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, rebels backing the RUF leader, ex-Corporal Foday Sankoh, seized parts of Freetown from Ecomog. After weeks of bitter fighting, they are driven out, leaving behind a devastated city. After some six (6) weeks of talks in Lome, Togo, in July 1999 AD, when General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR) had become the democratically elected civilian President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, a peace agreement was signed, under which the RUF rebels received ministerial and other high positions in the Sierra Leonean government, with assurances that they would not be prosecuted for war crimes. UN troops arrived subsequently to Sierra Leone to police the peace agreement. Shortly afterwards, Ecomog troops are attacked again outside Freetown. Voodoo politics!

In early 2000 AD, UN forces came under fierce attacks. At first fifty (50), then several hundred UN troops were abducted. In mid 2000 AD, rebel leader and Jungle Expert, ex-Corporal Foday Sankoh was captured. In August 2000 AD, a renegade militia group called, the West Side Boys, took some eleven (11) British paratroopers hostage. British forces mounted fierce rescue operations for their colleagues. By January 2002 AD, the UN troops completed disarming about 45,000 RUF guerrillas. The UN intends to set up a war crimes court subsequently.

"The Generals Are Coming. Why Not?" by Professor Omo Omoruyi.

The land area of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is slightly more than twice that of California, US of A, about 13 times the size of Sierra Leone, and about 33 times that of Equatorial Guinea or Haiti. However, its population is about 23 times that of Sierra Leone, 261 times that of Equatorial Guinea, and 18 times the population of Haiti. Voodoo demography! Both the adult death rate and infant mortality rate are lower than that of Sierra Leone or of Haiti. Nigeria’s population distribution is skewed towards the pre-teenage group. The population density of Nigeria is about half that of Haiti, at about 137 persons per square kilometre.

Nigeria has seventy (70) airports, of which only thirty-six (36) have paved runways and thirty-four (34) are unpaved ad-hoc airstrips. As at 2000 AD, Nigeria had eleven (11) Internet Service Provider (ISPs) and 94 Internet subscribers per million Nigerians. There are about four (4) fixed telephone lines per 1,000 citizens, and 141 mobile cellular lines per million Nigerians.

Over 95% of Nigeria’s exports are crude oil, and natural gas, distributed as follows: US 36%, India 9%, Spain 8%, Brazil 6%, France 6%. Electricity consumption per capita is about 137 KWh, about one and a half times the amount consumed by an average Haitian. In 2000 AD, Nigeria’s GDP per capita was US$950, less than that of Haiti, or Equatorial Guinea. Military expenditures amount to about 10% of the national GDP. Nigerian drug barons facilitate the movement of heroin en-route from South East Asia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Lebanon, and the Arabian peninsular, to the United States of America, Canada, and the European Union.

Nigeria is progressively becoming a favoured business partner of crooked European, American, Lebanese, Israeli, Arab, Pakistani, Korean, Indian, Burmese, Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, Singaporean, Brazilian, and various other international scamming entrepreneurs, who, at minimum provocation, invoke the full support of their home governments to smear and demonise Nigeria, Nigerians, and everything Nigerian, with the reverse blackmail of "419", whenever their Nigerian joint venture partners-in-crime outsmart them. Furthermore, Nigeria is fast becoming a transit route for cocaine from various banana republics in South America, for onward delivery to their loyal customers resident in the EU, Asia, Australia, Canada, and the United States of America, the world’s major consumers of high-purity psychoactive neurochemicals.

In order to better appreciate Nigeria’s progressive slide into full-blown banana republicanism, we will now take a case example from a recent commentary on the mechanics of the country’s economic ruination: ⁽¹⁾

At the opening of this year’s Enugu International Trade Fair, the Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Anyim Pius Anyim (GCON) represented the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and President, His Excellency, General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR). Very, very strange! Where was the Vice President or any other bona fide member of the Presidency? Why does the President repeatedly send the Senate President on executive errands? To prove a point? At any rate, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim announced that Nigeria spent a staggering amount of US$877.3 million on food imports in 2001 AD. Of that amount, US$100 million was wasted exclusively on fruit juices. However, the Senate President did not provide any data on the value of Nigeria’s food exports, to enable his thinking listeners to clarify if Nigeria, under General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo, the originator of "Operation Feed the Nation" (OFN) some 25 years ago, the proprietor of a large expanse of farmland in Otta, turned presidential "endorsement" arena is, indeed, a net exporter or importer of food. Nevertheless, it may be inferred that Senator Anyim’s disclosure of the Nigeria’s annual expenditure on food imports derives from genuine concerns about a general exasperation that results from such mindless spending profiles.

One year ago, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR), provoked an over-heated national debate when, during one of his 87 field trips abroad since May 29, 1999, specifically, during his visit to Burkina Faso, he sighted mountains of beans, and reportedly directed that trailer loads of beans be delivered to Nigeria, with maximum alacrity. Maybe it was all a harmless expression of executive humour. However, simply because there are no available and reliable census figures and agricultural output records, Nigerians may never know whether there is national self-sufficiency of beans in their country. Voodoo statistics! Voodoo economics! Voodoo politics!

Like magic, rice has suddenly become so plentiful in Nigeria, yet it is not produced in Nigeria. Regularly, dilapidated ships from all over Planet Earth berth at Nigerian ports, spewing out container loads of rice. For every bag of rice off-loaded, there is a foreign exchange deficit to Nigeria. Add to all these, the cream crackers, milk, noodles, curry, macaroni, cookies, tooth picks, corned beef, sardines, turkey and chicken parts, tea, coffee, cereals, canned beer, ice cream, candies, balloons, vegetable oils, cashew nuts, nutmegs, garlic, salad creams, table wines, brandies, groundnuts, pop corns, spaghetti, ketchup, sausages, baked beans etc, that find their way into our supermarkets, and subsequently on our dining tables, and you will appreciate how much Nigeria bleeds itself to death spending US$877.3 million (N118.billion ), importing food.

The porosity of Nigeria’s borders, airports, and seaports is legendary. Any conjecture of curtailing the leakage is academic and practically futile. The message of the War Against Corruption (WAC), and the need for probity, accountability, and transparency have no meaning whatsoever to the officers and men of the Department of Customs and Excise of Nigeria, from where, incidentally, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the executive-in-charge of Nigeria’s economic strategies, His Excellency, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku (GCON), retired, after a meritorious service to the nation as a superior officer. Thus, after taking into consideration the impact of smuggling and under-invoicing on the Nigerian economy, including various other fraudulent activities at the borders, airports, and seaports, under the direct glare of the officers, men and women of the Department of Customs and Excise, what Nigeria actually spent on food importation may be a figure far higher than what the representative of the President at the 13^th Enugu International Trade Fair, Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim, announced.

It is simultaneously tragic and comic that the Federal Government appears to do no more than express the hopelessness of the situation. Beyond telling us that Nigerians spent about N118.billion importing food, what next? There are no indications of fresh and adequate policy measures taken by government in response to the problem generated by the reckless squandering of Nigeria’s foreign exchange on food imports. There are ample indications that the Federal Government just does not have an idea of the gravity of Nigeria’s economic cholera, and the modus operandi for effective national economic recovery.

Earnings of about US$55 million are pouring in daily from the sale of crude oil, and so, the Nigerian government does not bother itself to think beyond awarding "dividends of democracy" for "alleviating the poverty" of its cronies. Elsewhere, where every naira counts, the expenditure of every kobo is certainly not seen as trivial. Let us take a moment, and attempt to compute how much Nigeria spends on importation of fabrics, given that the exact records are not available:

Allowing for the key officers and executives of the Presidency, the National Assembly, Ministers, Advisers, Special Assistants, Governors, State Executive Councils, State Houses of Assembly, and local Government Councils, including their major and minor spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, concubines, and praise-singers, approximately N15 billion (US$111 million) ~ N20 billon (US$148 million) will be spent this year, furnishing the wardrobes of just government officials alone in Nigeria from the public treasury! Voodoo economics! This compares very well with the amount spent importing fruit juices into Nigeria in 2001 AD, and it is over three (3) times the total budget of Equatorial Guinea in the same year.

Daily, used, and brand new cars pour in through Nigerian seaports. The roads and "fly-overs" of Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Port Harcourt and other cities are choked to the brim with motor vehicles and motor cycles. Meanwhile, the Federal Government spares little thought on the attendant foreign exchange implications. Virtually most motor assembly plants in Nigeria today, either are working very much bellow installed production capacity, or are completely dysfunctional, building up sustained pressure on the naira, which incidentally, bankers help to further ruin by their underhand subversion of banking transaction regulations.

It must be such an admission of extraordinary failure of General (Chief) Obasanjo’s ten-days-per-month shuttle economic diplomacy that his efforts over the past 36 months have been rather useless. Very recently, British Baroness Lynda Chalker, the Chairperson of Obasanjo’s Honorary Presidential Advisory Committee on Investment (in Nigeria), stated at a press conference in Abuja that her Committee was worried about the futility of General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo’s overseas travels to attract foreign investors. On the contrary, she said, other African countries were doing much better in attracting foreign investors. The situation must be a combination of Nigeria’s domestic economic and political environments, and the targeting of the wrong kind of investors. It would be an acidic joke to say that the totality of General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo’s perambulations abroad can be found in the ship loads of rice, tinned carrots, containers of hot dogs, fruit salad, guava juice, cornflakes, wafer biscuits, noodles, diet Cola, Remy Martin VSOP, Just Juice, Pringles, cheese, "ice fish", tooth pastes, toot picks, yogurt, spaghetti, baked beans, and all such food items on which Obasanjo spent US$877.3 million in 2001, on behalf of Nigerians.

The lure to armed robbery is high in Nigeria because there are no jobs. Local industries are dying daily because of the injection of all manner of useless items into the Nigerian economy. Meanwhile, Nigeria has a few specialised "Universities of Agriculture" that produce hundreds of graduates in Crop Science, Animal Husbandry, Soil Mechanics, Agric Extension (whatever that means!), Agricultural Economics, Veterinary Medicine, etc, and yet the country spent such on massive food imports. The figures for 2002 AD are not likely to be any less, given that "food and dividends of democracy" will be campaign issues in the 2003 elections. Voodoo economics! Voodoo politics

In the final analysis, every country must decide what it wants to be, and how it intends to actualise that vision. Obasanjo has failed to recognise that Nigeria is doomed to economic haemorrhage and resource diarrhoea with such unplanned procurements of goods and services from countries that are managed more efficiently. Nigeria’s population (which since colonial times was inflated, and remains unknown to date) is definitely no justification for the quantum of expenditure on imported food.

During his first term as a military dictator over a quarter of a century ago, General Obasanjo launched his Operation Feed the Nation OFN), which many still make fun of because of its utter simplistic and half-baked conceptualisation, horrendous insincerity, and eventual failure. However, in his second term (1999 AD ~ 2003 AD), General (Chief) Olusegun Aremu Mathew Obasanjo (GCFR) should, at least, try very hard to articulate fresh policies without necessarily labelling them "Operation" whatever. (We are not all soldiers, for Christ’s sake!) Obasanjo should ensure that Nigeria attains self-sufficiency in food production, and ultimately becomes a net exporter of food, if possible, before handing over to a freely, and fairly elected democratic civilian President and Commander-in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (in 2003). A giant that cannot feed himself properly, ends up being a dwarf, and a laughable citizen of a banana republic. Voodoo economics or not. Voodoo politics or not.

May 2002