Debt is certain (but maybe)

Chartered Accountants insist that they are only watchdogs but not bloodhounds.  As a corollary, perhaps we should simply let sleeping dogs carry on snoring and leave them severely alone.  However, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon remains unconvinced.  He wants to tackle the global debt problem and the role of chartered accountants in creating debts or writing them off!!  He has read the over one thousand pages of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Act which was passed at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, United States of America in July 21, 2010.

His conclusion is that Chartered Accountants, especially the “Big Four” have a lot of explanations to render.

Additionally, Ban Ki-Moon after deep reflection on the petition and recommendation of the “Seventy senior elders” has agreed that instead of the United Nations General Assembly attempting to tackle all the problems of the world at the same time, the UN should just focus on one country and solve its problems before moving to the next country.

Consequently, the General Assembly will have only one item on its agenda from 16th September to 29th September 2014, namely: NIGERIA.

For good or evil, the main focus is our beloved country and it is Boko Haram that has pushed us that far … into the abyss of terror and terrorism.  The United Nations is genuinely worried that a country that has all it takes to be number one is swiveling from one crisis to another … driven by blood-thirsty militants, fundamentalists, kidnappers, rapists and bandits.  They kill and destroy with unparalleled barbarism and brutality.  Large segments of the country have been consumed by chaos and mayhem with security of lives and property as the first casualty.

Ban K-Moon is right in insisting that sympathy alone will not do.  What is required is action.  The United Nations must intervene now before matters get completely out of hand.

Perhaps it is not too late to rally forces and ensure that we subdue the demons of Sambisa Forest who are raping and shooting everything in sight with reckless abandon.

Besides, an interview granted by Chief Anthony Ani, former Chairman of KPMG Nigeria and Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance as well as former Foreign Minister to the “Economist” (Economy) magazine is all over the internet and is generating a lot of attention by the United Nations; the World Bank; the International Monetary Fund as well as both the London Club and Paris Club of creditors.

Here is an extract:

“I was appointed on 17th October 1994 as acting Minister of Finance but I did not resume until 19th October 1994.  Then I had never been to the World Bank but in my capacity as the Senior Partner of KPMG, Nigeria I was internationally known.  I had done a lot of work on Nigeria’s Fiscal Policies and I had written books on Nigerian taxation.  I was very well known internationally.

I reduced inflation from 88% in 1994 to 8.5% by the time General Sani Abacha the Military Head of State died on 8th June 1998.

Exchange rate was maintained at N82 to a dollar all the years till Abacha died.  The budget deficit of 14 per cent was turned to a surplus of 3 per cent in 1995.  We had 1.5% negative growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and by the time I took over; it was 3.5% positive growth in GDP in the first year, because I was implementing something.

I implemented reforms and sanitized the oil sector.  I stopped oil dedication and monetized all capital expenditure.  I stabilized foreign exchange mechanism by introducing the Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market.  I changed the tax system to exempt money brought into Nigeria from taxation.  This enabled Nigerians in the Diaspora to remit money to Nigeria through Western Union and MoneyGram.  Thus the exchange rate mechanism was stabilized at N82 to the dollar throughout our stay in office.  Also, throughout my stay at the Ministry of Finance we did not borrow internally or externally.

By 1994, nobody knew how much our debts were.  But we were able to analyze our debt to establish how much of the original dollar or yen we had borrowed and this was very little.  The bulk of our debts were interest, interests upon interests, reschedulement interest, fines and penalties.

These accounted for 75 percent of our debts.  We reconciled our debts with each creditor and then visited the project sites.  We found that a lot those projects were not on ground and that the money borrowed had been shared between the borrowers and the lenders.  I reported this in my budget statement of 1997.   In so far as our government was concerned, General Abacha had approved that we should go to court and that we should not repay those loans.”

However, there are many who are convinced that the only remedy that would salvage Nigeria from looming disaster is divine intervention as espoused by the Head of the Anglican Church.

Front page headline in “Nigerian Tribune” newspaper (June 5, 2014):

INSECURITY:  ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY VISITS JONATHAN

“The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rt Reverend Justin Welby, was at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday to pray with President Goodluck Jonathan over the current security situation in the country.

He told State House correspondents after the closed door session that he condoled with the President over the victims of terrorist attacks in the country and particularly regretted the recent bomb blasts which occurred in Jos, Plateau State, and a city he said he was very familiar with.

“The bombing in Jos was deeply disheartening because I know Jos very well.  I came to pray with His Excellency and express our condolence for the losses,” he said.

Citing the scriptures, the archbishop urged Nigerians not to despair over the security situation, but to always look towards God for solutions.

He added: God is faithful.  In one of the letters that Paul wrote to the church, he talked about the sufferings they were going through being known throughout the world and that is certainly true here because the suffering in Nigeria is known throughout the world.

“People throughout the world pray for the country.  It is a country for which I have profound respect and deep love.  And like many, I am deeply grieved by what is happening but God is faithful.

He is always faithful to us and as Christians, in Jesus Christ we believe in His faithfulness and we can trust Him for the future.

“I don’t have words to describe the good potential this country has.  There is great difficulty at the moment, but it is a country with such enormous potential.  I think Nigerians by nature are joyful, hopeful and vigorous.  They work hard.

The country has so much going for it.  In the meeting, the President talked about the need of a solution that will reach all people, not just the security but economy, spiritual and every part of the human life.”

The Head of The Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has been stomping the grounds on behalf of the abducted Nigerian girls in addition to agonizing over Nigeria itself.

Here is what he wrote in the May 2014 edition of UK’s “Church Times” (not to be confused with “Times of London” or the “Financial Times”):

“External help (to tackle Boko Haram terrorists) should involve advice where it can be offered, support for those who are displaced, expertise in training and development and above all, support for reconciliation which will be long and difficult.

The crisis has claimed many lives.  We need to offer help humbly and respectfully to a people suffering in a country of great talent and potential.”

The Archbishop also addressed the entire Anglican congregation and friends of Anglicans on BBC Radio 4:

“Even though Boko Haram is a distinct and irrational group (separate from mainstream moslems); Nigerian authorities should try to negotiate with them.  Boko Haram is very difficult to deal with and utterly merciless.  They have a very difficult inner core and negotiating with them could be extremely complicated, though I think you need to try.”

J.K Randle