Nigeria's leaders have stolen or wasted $380 billion since independence

[LordChaverly]

This doesn't surprise me in the least. Nigeria is undoubtedly one of the most corrupt places on earth and the problem is endemic, affecting the highest and lowliest in the land. Perhaps we ought to send Sir Bob and Bono out there to chastise them.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6069230.stm

[El-Mariachi]

This doesn't surprise me in the least. Nigeria is undoubtedly one of the most corrupt places on earth and the problem is endemic, affecting the highest and lowliest in the land. Perhaps we ought to send Sir Bob and Bono out there to chastise them.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6069230.stm

 

The problem is that in Nigeria (and other countries such as Pakistan) democracy has made no difference to the problem of corruption. Its simply a change of guards.

 

So the dictators are corrupt and the politicians are corrupt, what does that leave in options ?

[happyhippy]

Or maybe we should all e-mail the Nigerian Government saying that each one of us has $380,000,000,000 (380 BILLION US DOLLARS) which belongs to our sadly missed assassinated Head of Military Operations, and is currently in a safe deposit box in the Lloyds on Church Street, SHEFFIELD, UK, but the money can't be used in the UK so it needs to go to a reputable country like yours, NIGERIA, kind sir.

 

If they could send just $5,000 (FIVE THOUSAND US DOLLARS) by Western Mail (not trusting the Royal Mail with this one), and their bank details, they could have 75% (SEVENTY FIVE PERCENT) of the proceeds.

 

etc, etc, etc, .....

[KJ_VENOM]

has no one ever heard the phrase everyman has his price given enough incentive i.e. money, power all men are corruptable

[Fareast]

Or maybe our Minister for Overseas Development could pass a strong resolution?

 

It's amazing, to me, living in China, how China, for all its faults, has managed, very largely, to pull itself up by its own bootlaces.Modern China was created after 8 years[ at least ] of brutal occupation and 4 years of civil war. For many years they were in political and economic isolation.They have a huge area to administer and have since the year dot had the largest population on earth.

 

In addition they have extremes of climate and have been regularly bombarded by natural disasters, including failed crops leading to famine, floods, droughts and typhoons.

 

It seems to me that if the political will is there and there is some discipline in everyday life, huge problems can be overcome. Conversly, it seems, particularly in the case of Nigeria, many African countries won't even try to seriously tackle their problems as long as they can fill their begging bowls with Western Aid. Instead of listening to buffoons like Bob Geldoff, the planners of Africa would be better off studying how the Chinese did it------had to do it, in fact!

[LordChaverly]

I remember the first time I went to Lagos, I asked a policeman the way somewhere and he offered to tell me providing I gave him some dash. It was like that everywhere I went.

[angle20]

$380bn is an awful lot of money.

 

It does seem that even when they are blessed with natural resources most African countries have difficulty in making a go of things. We definitely shouldn't go on any Geldofian guilt trips.

[Longcol]

$380bn is an awful lot of money.

 

Yes but it's taken them 46 years to do it - the USA wasted more on the Vietnam War in 10.

[LordChaverly]

Yes but it's taken them 46 years to do it - the USA wasted more on the Vietnam War in 10.

 

They could afford it. Morever, spending on the War boosted the US economy in various ways. The US was richer by the end of the War than they were when it started.