Report of the National Political Reform Conference and
Recent Debt Relief Granted to Nigeria
Briefing by
His Excellency, President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR
To the National Assembly on the
Report of the National Political Reform Conference
and Recent Debt Relief Granted to Nigeria
Abuja, 26th July 2005
PROTOCOL
It is with great pleasure that I address you today on two issues: the Report of
the National Political Reform Conference which has just completed its
assignment, and the debt relief granted to Nigeria by the Paris Club of nations.
You will recall that when I inaugurated the Conference on February 21, 2005,
about five months ago, I made it very clear that history was providing us with
another opportunity to build new bridges of tolerance, accommodation, dialogue,
patriotism, and unity while strengthening old fabrics of our association and
relations in our country.
I also pointed out that since we have put in place a comprehensive economic
reform agenda, it was only natural that a political reform programme be
initiated in order to have a holistic environment for repositioning our dear
country for peace, security, stability, growth, development and sustainable
democracy.
I had pointed out at the same time that the Conference was an opportunity for
Nigerians to get together to discuss issues of national importance with a view
to reaching some common ground in support of our political growth and
development. Equally important, I mentioned that this Government had no hidden
agenda beyond fostering the national good, promoting unity and harmony, and
ensuring that we collectively discuss those issues that continue to mediate our
path to unity, stability and progress. The conference, in sum, was meant to
bring together Nigerians from all walks of life, irrespective of regional,
ethnic, religious, age, gender or class divisions and differenciations to
deliberate on all issues affecting the development and progress of Nigeria.
I am glad that in large measure, these objectives and more have been achieved.
You will of course recall that I held consultations with the leadership of the
National Assembly before I inaugurated the Conference. This was because I knew
that whatever may be the essential recommendations of the Conference Report that
would touch on the Constitution, amendment of existing laws or the making of new
laws would have to come to you. This was also why I had strongly advised that
members of the National Assembly should steer clear of the Conference since they
would be receiving and considering the final Report.
I believe that the Conference has done its best. It has provided an opportunity
for delegates to make new friends, exchange ideas, build new networks, share
critical information on specific issues, discuss all issues including those that
had hitherto been regarded as so-called no-go areas, and thereafter produce a
final report. It is my opinion that no matter how we look at it, the Conference
was a success. We in government were not naïve enough to have thought that there
would be no disagreements, rigorous discussion and debate of national issues,
and that there would be no political posturing and some grandstanding. Of
course, the use of walkout in this age when the entire world is voting for
negotiation, dialogue, give-and-take, consensus, and understanding is
unfortunate.
I personally do not consider walkout a desirable element of democratic practice.
I believe that many that were involved in such situations were being manipulated
and misled by persons who had little understanding of the goals or purposes of
the Conference and who might be mixing up the powers and functions of the
Conference with those of the Legislature.
I am pleased that though the Conference has come to an end, it has generated and
unleashed new discourses that will only deepen political awareness, strengthen
political engagements, and enrich our political lexicon. I believe that it has
also confirmed how much we need one another and that we should never take one
another for granted.
New friendships and relationships have been fostered. Nigerians have learned to
know Nigeria and other Nigerians better. Every participant must have learned
something thereby improving and enhancing his or her knowledge and experience.
We have shown to ourselves and to the outside world the strength and resilience
of our democracy and that we can agree to disagree and agree in an atmosphere of
harmony without bitterness, acrimony, trading of insults, issuing of threats, or
intimidation.
What we may regard as non-negotiable today, may become easily negotiable
tomorrow provided we remain on the path of democracy, dialogue, respect for one
another, love, avoidance of arrogance, and commitment to the ideal of one united
and indivisible nation. Democracy is a process, not a destination and we must
remain committed to that process. We must be democratic in our thinking, our
utterances, our organisations and systems and our actions. We must set our
hearts and minds on one ideal only- the best for Nigeria.
I must stress the point, unpalatable as it may be, that the conference, was
called for the good of our dear country; to promote unity, stability, security,
progress, development and prosperity. The excessive concentration on North or
South rather than on Nigeria would probably have disappointed some patriotic and
nationalistic Nigerians. I will like to console those who feel that way. Nigeria
has come to stay and will surely outlive the backsliders who seem not to be able
to work for the future but remain myopic, visionless, retrogressive and
parochial.
The truth is that Nigeria cannot be pulled down, we are, as a people moving
forward, and we can only pray that agents of reaction and crises will realize
that the country is greater than any of us and that unless we work for peace and
progress today to assure the future, history and posterity will hold us
accountable.
Any part is less than the whole and if we care for and look after the interest
of the whole, every part would be catered for. This is the simple reality and
truth.
I see one commonality, one identity, one goal, one aspiration, one objective,
one spirit, and that is Nigeria. Anything less, that is being propelled or
perpetuated by any individual or group is unwholesome and a great disservice to
our fatherland. For past, present, and future leaders to be so engaged is
ungainly, diminishing and diabolical. However, the responsibility has now come
to the National Assembly to move our quest for political unity, harmony,
stability, and development forward. I know of the existence of the National
Assembly Joint Committee on the 1999 Constitution Review. I hasten to brief the
National Assembly for you to see what part of the Report can be adopted, adapted
or used to enhance your constitutional and legislative work.
Whatever issues you consider of relevance that will enhance the Constitution;
and whatever you consider relevant to existing or new legislation, I put the
Report before you for your necessary consideration and action. Policy issues in
the Report will be considered at the Executive level and appropriate action
taken.
May I kindly request that you give this Report the urgent attention that it
deserves. It is now my honour and pleasure to deliver the Report of the National
Political Conference that sat in Abuja between February and July 2005 to the
National Assembly.
Permit me to now move to the next item on which I wish to brief this august
National Assembly. That is the issue of debt relief.
I am very pleased at this opportunity to brief you today on issues relating to
our nation’s debt profile, the contours and struggle for debt relief, the terms
of the relief we were granted by the Paris Club, and the opportunities that this
opens up for our dear country Nigeria. Let me start by thanking you, members of
the National Assembly for your understanding, encouragement and support during
the struggle for debt relief. It is the courage and vision that you exhibited in
standing firm with the Executive that made it possible for us to carry out the
arduous negotiations that resulted in this unprecedented relief for Nigeria. Let
me say at this point that this pattern of cooperation and collaboration should
not end here. We have more national and international challenges before us and
only cooperation, commitment, mutual support and mutual respect can ensure
victory for our ideas, initiatives and actions.
In this brief, in respect of debt relief, I will speak on the inherited debt
overhang, the impact it had on our effort to grow and develop the economy, the
struggle for debt relief, the results of this struggle, the benefits to our
country and people, and the future. Of course, not all Nigerians know the truth,
the importance or impact of debt relief, and the opportunities that it provides
for our country.
But how did we get into the debt trap and what are the specifics? Let me refresh
your minds as to the exponential explosion of our debt profile which was a mere
US$0.57 billion in 1970. In fact, in 1979 when I voluntarily left office as
military Head of State our total debt stock was US$3.2 billion with over US$5
billion in foreign reserve. The debt stock rose to US$18.5 billion in 1985 and
to US$34.1 billion in 1995. It came down to US$30.99 billion in 2002 and today,
it stands at about US$39.9 billion due largely to interest, surcharges and
penalties rather than increased borrowing. For instance, between 1992 and 2000
principal arrears on our national debt was US$10.31 billion; interest arrears
was US$4.45 billion; and late interest was US$5.18 billion. By the end of 2003,
new arrears of US$ 3.78 billion was included in addition to principal arrears of
US$1.22 billion, interest arrears of US$2.4 billion and late interest of US$.2
billion. It is obvious that even if we managed to pay the interest and charges
alone, there was no way in which we could ever hope to pay the principal. This
is why it is called the “debt trap.”
Of the total debt stock, the Federal Government owes 75% and the States owe 25%.
Also, of this total, we owe 83.16% to the Paris Club, while the balance is made
up of multilateral and commercial debts.
I have always said that an individual or group could bring down a country easily
but to rebuild could be an arduous task. This has been our experience. Those
that ran up the huge national debt are indeed a minority but they had power and
opportunity. They signed all sorts of agreements at outrageous interest rates;
squandered loans obtained in the name of development; drew down on foreign loans
without executing any jobs; and in other cases, stole or wasted such loans. To
make matters worse for Nigeria, there was not one identifiable agency
responsible for managing the debt, there was inadequate debt data recording
system; poor information flow across agencies and levels of government, loan
records were poorly kept; and not only did past governments pay little or no
attention to debt management but the country also lacked a clearly defined debt
strategy.
In addition, we must add political rascality, bad governance, bad leadership,
abuse of office and power, criminal corruption, mismanagement and waste,
misplaced priorities, fiscal indiscipline, weak control, monitoring and
evaluation mechanisms, and a community that was openly tolerant of corruption
and other underhand and extra legal methods of primitive accumulation.
Such criminal behaviour by the custodians of state power simply mortgaged the
fortunes and future of our people and country. Unfortunately, today, we are all
paying very dearly for the mistakes of the past and I believe that our current
God-given opportunities and responsibilities enjoin us to ensure that it is not
repeated. This is the only way to ensure that posterity and history will be kind
to us. The distortions, decay and disarticulations that have undermined
opportunities for stability, security, peace, growth, development and democracy
in contemporary Nigeria are precipitates of past indiscipline, arrogance of
power and misgovernance. Unfortunately, tendencies along these lines remain with
us today and it is a challenge that we must all confront together. We must
remain very alert and vigilant.
It is for the reasons of concerns, challenges and dangers posed by a huge debt
profile that, after my success in the election of February 1999 and pending
formal inauguration, I took the opportunity to travel to some important
countries of the world to meet with their leaders in preparation for assumption
of office. My main goals having been in prison for over three years were to
re-establish contact with old friends, make new acquaintances, see first hand
the state of development in the world, and get some commitments of support for
Nigeria. I also wanted to send an early signal to the international community
that Nigeria was now a different country with an in-coming government that was
fully committed to the values of good governance, tolerance, inclusion,
transparency, popular mobilization and participation, and democratic
consolidation. As early as that time, I was already asking world leaders for
debt relief for Nigeria in addition to wooing investors. The Executive made the
argument, at that time, that some form of relief or forgiveness was necessary to
enable us generate and deploy resources to developmental programmes.
We received some sympathy, cynicism, rejection, discouragement, tacit support,
and in some quarters, at best a listening ear. In all honesty, the general
response was enough to discourage anyone. The reasons for the mixed bag of
generally negative responses were the recent past of Nigeria that was
characterised by wanton human rights abuses, bad leadership and mis-governance,
corruption, the appropriation of the state and its use to perpetrate violence,
and almost general ostracization in the global community. But we were not
daunted. We adopted two strategies. The first was to make contact with the
global community and educate them as to the emergence of a new leadership, our
return to democracy, commitment to democratic practice, and the relationship
between debt relief, sustainance of democracy, and local political
effectiveness. Our second strategy was to carry out far-reaching and
result-oriented reform programmes in Nigeria to support our global claims
anchored on a vigorous and unrelenting campaign for relief.
In the course of speaking and meeting with world leaders and multilateral
organizations, we left them in no doubt as to our resoluteness and commitment to
obtaining debt relief. We were not defensive about the past and did not try to
rationalise the mistakes of past leaders.
We concentrated on our policies and programmes while making a case for the
relationship between debt relief, peace, security, stability, growth, democracy
and prosperity in a highly populated nation of an estimated 150 million people
like Nigeria. In fact, we drew attention to our numerous Pan-African and
international responsibilities on behalf of humanity at our own expense that
needed to be acknowledged or rewarded. We made a case for our commitment to
peace and security in the Niger Delta, the Gulf of Guinea through the
Nigeria-driven Gulf of Guinea Commission, and in West Africa in particular which
until recently remains the most unstable sub-region in Africa.
Our strategy was to be calm, confident, and through research and logic show the
negative and unwholesome impact of debt and debt servicing obligations on
quality of life, stability, peace, capability of government to deliver on public
services, and democratic consolidation. We were able to demonstrate that debt
repayments and debt servicing obligations take away funds from development and
deepen the vulnerability of government. Relying on comparative data, we showed
that no African nation can fully service, much less repay its debt. The
consequence of such a development would be that the debt overhang negates
opportunities for growth, development, harmony, and democratic sustainance. The
consequent instability, violence, alienation from the state, insecurity, and
backwardness could precipitate conditions that would cost the creditors much
more than the debts in the future.
We also drew attention to support provided by the international community for
other states with lesser than impressive reform programmes and political and
security commitments like Nigeria.
Our Team made sure that we explained in clear terms that our oil wealth not
withstanding, on a per capita basis, it comes to less that 50 cents per Nigerian
per day which makes us a poor country indeed.
Finally, we showed in very clear terms that monies saved from debt relief would
at the federal level go to pro-people and pro-community development areas such
as education, health care delivery, agriculture and food security and
infrastructure such as roads, electricity, water supply and transportation. With
our improved credit worthiness and image, there will be more private investment
in Nigeria to provide employment for Nigerians, create wealth and reduce
poverty. This would reduce crime, corruption, social decay and community
dislocation. We gave commitment on fighting corruption and instituting a regime
of transparency, accountability, openness and probity.
In the course of this campaign, we attended scores of meetings, workshops and
conferences making a case for Africa and Nigeria. In the past two years, the
Minister of Finance took every opportunity to campaign for debt relief with her
colleagues, the 15 members of the Paris Club to whom we owe most of our debts
and to other stakeholders. We equally took advantage of opportunities with the
G8, the World Bank, IMF, and other bi-and multilateral organizations to make the
case for debt relief for our country.
I personally took this campaign to all possible fora and never minced words in
making a good case for debt relief. At the conferences of the World Food
Programme (WFP), FAO, International Labour Organization (ILO), South Summit,
Africa-Asia Summit, World Economic Forum, as well as at meetings with leaders of
the United Kingdom, United States, France, Japan, India, China, Indonesia,
Sweden, Norway, Finland, and The Netherlands all in our effort to get a better
deal on the debt issue.
I must confess that at some point it looked like we were fighting a lost battle.
I know how many times my Honourable Minister of Finance wept for Nigeria. I
recall the visit of a senior IMF official where we were told point blank that
debt relief for Nigeria was more or less a pipe dream. In December 2000, Nigeria
signed the Agreed Minute with the Paris Club thus paving the way for the signing
of Bilateral Debt Rescheduling Agreement with each creditor country. With 15
members in the Paris Club you can imagine how strenuous this exercise was. It
was completed in December 2004. At some point we were offered only 30% which we
considered to be rather too small and too inadequate.
We had done our research and found that as far back as 1954, the London
Conference had reduced Germany’s debt stock by 50%. In more recent times, Iraq
was offered close to 80% after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Poland’s debt was cut
in half and all interest written off; Yugoslavia was given a 66% debt reduction
without conditionality; Russia was given a 50% debt reduction without
conditionality; Kyrgyzstan got 50% reduction, and Pakistan, Afghanistan, and
others in Eastern Europe received various percentages of debt relief without
conditionality. Of course we knew that our case was different, our location and
role in the global divisions of labour and power was different; our continent or
sub-region was different, and our issues and place in the perceptions and
calculations of strategic global players were also different.
We were confident that with hard work, consistency, and effective policy at
home, we would change the minds of our creditors and
obtain debt relief. Even when the House of Representatives came up with a
resolution calling on Government to stop servicing the debts and to declare a
unilateral default, we were cautious. We knew that while the Motion might have
served some purpose, the international community was unimpressed and told us so.
The international community also drew our attention to the fact that such a line
of action would have be detrimental to the cause we had been pursuing. They
reminded us of similar action by Argentina and the consequences. Hence, we stuck
to appeals, meetings, dialogue, and demonstration of what we were achieving with
our reform programme. This strategy began to yield results slowly.
In fact, a delegation of the National Assembly that visited some key countries
found that opinion had started to shift in favour of consideration of debt
relief for Nigeria. We appreciate their efforts.
At a point in time, we were offered 70% off our debt servicing rather than the
debt stock and we rejected this because it would not significantly affect the
debt level. But we also knew that with our reform programme that assisted us in
obtaining IDA-only status from the World Bank as well as the completion of the
Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) of Nigeria, the door would be open for us.
The DSA, completed with the support of the IMF and World Bank, was to show in
clear terms how Nigeria could never get out of the debt trap unless substantial
debt relief was granted.
In addition to this, the study showed that the Millennium Development Goals,
designed to cut poverty in half by 2015 could never be achieved in Africa’s most
populous nation without debt relief.
Our home-grown reform programme, encapsulated in the National Economic
Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), was monitored on a quarterly basis
by the IMF, at the invitation of the government, in order to provide the global
community with objective assessments and reports on how well we were doing and
our positive ratings must have helped with the positive disposition of our
creditors. Our commitment to good governance as well as our anti-corruption war
showed positive results to the world, our creditors in particular.
Negotiation with the G8 was the factor that finally opened the way. This was not
an easy negotiation as the rules of the Paris Club operated in a way that
required CONSENSUS among the 15 member-nations before debt relief could be
granted. Given the traditional position of the Club that Nigeria was not a
candidate for debt relief by any yardstick, we knew this was a gargantuan
challenge that had to be overcome. That we are an oil producing country did not
help matters especially in the context of rising oil prices and substantial
improvements in our foreign reserve. But we were not deterred because we were
convinced that a lot of policies and programmes were dependent on our obtaining
debt relief. We also know that the debt issue is a political issue rather than
an economic issue.
The negotiations went on for months and, at times, at odd periods of the day and
night including hundreds of phone calls and direct meetings. The understanding
and support of our largest creditor, the United Kingdom, for our campaign for
debt relief, in particular the strong and determined support of Prime Minister
Tony Blair and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown went a long way to
enrolling the support of other creditors. In my recent trip to Europe, one of
the Ministers we met did not hide her hostility to the idea of debt relief for
Nigeria, based unfortunately, on old perceptions and stereotypes. But we had our
arguments and at the end of the day, we succeeded in convincing the G8 that
Nigeria deserved debt relief.
But the meeting of G8 Finance Ministers in early June of 2005 represented the
breakthrough when in acknowledgement of the fundamental changes taking place in
Nigeria, in support of our political and social reforms, in recognition of the
courage with which we have fought corruption and economic indiscipline, and our
commitment to fiscal prudence, they agreed to support a sustainable debt
treatment for Nigeria within the framework of the Paris Club. The formal
announcement of the decision to grant debt relief to Nigeria was made at the
Paris Club meeting of June 29, 2005.
As I stated in my address to the nation on June 30, 2005, what we have now been
given assurance to expect by the Paris Club is that Nigeria will clear its
arrears of $6 billion of the $30 billion owed, following which there will be a
stock reduction on Naples Terms while we will have to buy back the remainder.
This will represent, for the first time, a total exit, if you like, total
freedom from Paris Club debt.
The package in final terms that we are to expect would yield debt relief of
about 60 percent on our current Paris Club debt. We shall pay off the 40 percent
balance through a buy back operation. The total write off is about $18 billion
which compares very favourably with the recent $40 billion write off of debts
for the 18 highly indebted and poor countries of the world by the developed
nations. This, debt relief offered to us, I am pleased and proud to say, is the
direct product of our relentless and persistent endeavour over the past six
years. We are taking advantage of a window of opportunity which the Paris Club
of nations offered us.
Let me state, once more, for those who say we did not get any relief or that the
terms were ambiguous, the debt relief for Nigeria is REAL! In fact, such amount
of write off by the Paris Club in terms of procedure and sequence is
unprecedented for a country that is not in chaos or that is not being rewarded
for offering strategic military support. And even then, the IMF would insist on
its own supervised programme to be put in place, consisting of the usual
stabilisation and structural adjustment programmes with implementation certified
by the Fund before any debt relief deal could be contracted. This was waived in
favour of a Policy Support Instrument (PSI) as the NEEDS programme was
considered good enough to manage our efforts at repositioning our political
economy for sustainable growth.
What are the benefits of this debt relief? Let me reiterate the points as I made
them before. First, it represents a direct saving on debt service repayment,
interest, surcharges and other fees; second, it improves our credit worthiness
in the global community and builds credible financial confidence for our
transactions; third, it means that we will stop all debt rescheduling
arrangements with the attendant costs once we clear our exit payments to be paid
in two stages; fourth, the well over US$1 billion currently spent on debt
servicing obligations annually will now be available for investment in
pro-people and pre-development issues especially health, education, water,
roads, and food security; fifth, investors and investments will come to Nigeria
knowing we are no more classified as a “bad and doubtful debt” country; sixth,
new investments will create jobs and new wealth and this would translate into
improved living standards; and seventh, foreign export credit guarantee agencies
that had withdrawn insurance covers for goods and services because of the debt
burden can now be expected to confidently review their positions thus
eliminating the 100% cash cover currently required for imports into Nigeria. But
more importantly, there is nothing like freedom- freedom from debt and the image
that the debt relief and exit from Paris Club debt give to Nigeria.
To get out of the debt trap and lay a new foundation for growth, development and
democracy, we must join hands and resolve to break with the bad past; identify
new voices and new leaders; reject business as usual; vote for new values of
accountability, transparency, fair competition, social justice, and the
upliftment of the living standards of Nigerians. We must revamp, reconstruct and
reposition our institutions and put in place the sort of leadership that can
consolidate the gains of reform, sustain confidence in our economy from within
and without, redirect attitudes away from the decadent past, and condition our
people for hard work, efficiency, effectiveness, good governance, social
justice, and collectively driven prosperity.
The economic reform agenda that is designed to reposition Nigeria for all round
prosperity has now unleashed a new sense of mission and a patriotic sense of
nation among our people. But these new energies can only be deployed for
purposeful development if, and only if, we resolve to work together, eschew
opportunism, discourage political grandstanding, protect our current gains, and
plan for a solid future. It is to the credit of the Economic Management Team,
the cabinet and all members of Government as well as all Nigerians that the
world has accepted our reform agenda as a good model to be replicated elsewhere
and this has played a major role in our obtaining debt relief.
Let me point out here that the recent 100 percent relief granted to 18 low
income and heavily indebted countries in the developing world which included 14
African nations is in large measure a precipitate of our campaign efforts. As a
leading African nation, with the Chairmanship of the African Union (AU) as part
of our continental responsibilities, we never shied away from pushing the case
for Africa. And we shall continue to do so. We have already made the case that
while thankful for the relief, these countries will still require substantial
assistance to get out of the abyss of poverty, underdevelopment, marginalisation,
and crisis. We have also made a case for other highly indebted countries that
were excluded from the current package.
Distinguished and Honourable Members of the National Assembly, it has been a
tough and rough struggle but we thank Almighty God that today we can look back
and feel proud that we did not get discouraged, diverted, intimidated, or forced
to lose sight of our goals. Our commitment to Nigeria and Nigerians was always
strong and on the four areas of resource flow identified by this Administration
at the beginning- trade, investments, ODA and debt relief, we have virtually
settled the issue of debt relief. We continue to do well on attracting
investments and the record shows that so far, we are on an upward scale compared
to the past. But we want to do much more.
On the trade we are doing much better than when we came in and things are
looking much brighter. Only recently, we exported cassava products to China and
this is just one example of new opportunities for trade that we are opening up.
I can assure you that this Government is fully committed to consolidating the
gains of reform and empowering Nigerians to attain the highest points of their
productive and creative abilities.
I can only say for those that doubted that we would ever get debt relief or
those that felt that we were merely junketing around the world doing nothing,
history and events have vindicated us. We are challenged and strengthened in our
conviction by their position. But we urge them all to abandon their cynical and
backward looking attitudes and begin to see the Nigerian cup as half full rather
than half-empty. They should become part of the vanguard of hope for all.
This is the only way to encourage our people to resist the agents of reaction,
conservatism, negativism, backwardness, opportunism, violence, corruption, and
socio-political rascality. Let us all join hands to build a new, secure,
peaceful, productive, and democratic society.
Distinguished and Honourable Members of the National Assembly, how do we
guarantee or ensure the future? This is the question that all Nigerians are
asking today? We must protect our citizens from the scavengers and kleptocrats
of the past and from their off springs and associates who continue to detest due
diligence, accountability, responsibility, fair competition, transparency, due
process, and social justice. We must learn from the past because those that fail
to do so often repeat the mistakes of their forebears. We must collectively
decide to ensure and assure the future of our children, the stability of our
country, the solidity of our economy, and the progress of our society. We must
work hard to contain those tendencies, individuals, and interest groups that
wish to mortgage our future, undermine our foundations, contaminate our souls,
squander our present, and compromise our happiness as a people.
The Ministry of Finance is setting up a Virtual Poverty Fund to monitor and
track Millennium Development Goals (MDG) expenditures related to the budget and
in 2006 this mechanism will be fully used to track budgetary expenditures
arising from the debt treatment. A Bill on Public Sector Borrowing has been
completed and will be sent to you shortly for consideration.
For the National Assembly, I urge you not to relent in your efforts at ensuring
stability and peace in the nation. One way of doing this is to ensure quick
passage of Bills that are before you or that are coming to you for consideration
and enactment into law. The Fiscal Responsibility Bill, the Procurement Bill,
Tax Reform Bill and other Bills associated with the reform agenda need to be in
place to ensure that we move rapidly away from the past. We are reviewing the
balance of the debts with a view to finding ways of settling them based on
special repayment terms. We are also working on a Bill that would regulate the
process of obtaining foreign loans by all levels of government. This will
include pegging the interest on such loans to ensure concession.
We must all join hands in the fight against political rascality, fiscal
indiscipline, arrogance of power, and bad leadership. Our war against corruption
must be deepened and widened until we sanitise the entire society. We must
publicly and privately never condone any form of corruption anywhere or try to
accommodate or rationalize failures, weaknesses, disloyalty and ineffective
leadership. This is one way to prevent a return to the past. Let me assure you
all that the struggle to rid Nigeria of eratic power supply and the fight
against corruption and the evil trio deadly diseases of HIV/AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis will continue to be waged relentlessly.
Distinguished and Honourable Members, this is our story, our struggle, our
successes, our hopes and our best wishes for Nigeria today, tomorrow and
forever. After six years of solid hard work, sometimes with encouraging and
sometimes with discouraging signs from within and without, God has granted us
success in a near miraculous way. It is success for Nigeria and Nigerians who
want to claim to be part of the success story. Of course we know that failure is
an orphan. Let us all savour the sweet taste of the success but knowing fully
well that the determination and singleness of purpose that has brought success
will continue to be required to take us through the reform agenda. I will not be
found wanting.
May God continue to bless Nigeria. Thank you very much.
