Nigerian Government Broke, Now Targets Pension Savings

The Nigerian government is financially broke and barely able to pay
its bills, an investigation by SaharaReporters has revealed.
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The portrait of the Nigerian government's dismal financial situation
is in sharp contrast to recent propaganda by Nigeria's Finance
Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Central Bank governor, Sanusi
Lamido Sanusi. Both officials have sought to depict the Nigerian
economy as vibrant and robust.
Several sources in Abuja, including a legislator, a senior bureaucrat
and an insider in the Presidency, told SaharaReporters that the
government in recent weeks had failed to release budgetary allocations
to various ministries to meet their obligations.
The sources also disclosed that the Federal Government has also
borrowed massively from local and foreign banks to pay its recurrent
expenditures. They added that President Goodluck Jonathan's
administration was now eyeing the N3.4 trillion pension funds to
enable it to finance its deficits.
The Presidency source also revealed that Nigeria's net oil export has
been cut by half as elements close to Mr. Jonathan have engaged in
massive oil theft with the connivance of the Nigerian Navy as well as
members of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta region.
Since her second tour as a prominent minister in Nigeria, Ms.
Okonjo-Iweala has constantly told the public that the Nigerian economy
was buoyant. But in private she has told close associates, officials
of international finance bodiesas European and North American nations
that Nigeria's economic outlook was getting worse especially with
decreased oil sales.
With her blessing, Nigeria has also resorted to massive borrowing from
China and several other non-traditional loan sources to plug financial
deficits.
An economic analyst in Abuja told SaharaReporters, "By the end of Mr.
Jonathan's tenure, Ms. Iweala would have borrowed Nigeria back to the
Stone Age," referring to the period Nigeria racked up loans from the
IMF aswell as Paris and London Clubs essentially to finance the
grasping needs of Nigeria's corrupt elite.
Another source, a legislator, stated that he was disturbed by the dire
economic portrait. He described Mr. Jonathan as "overseeing the
biggest era of corruption in Nigeria's history."
At the heart of the latest plot to loot Nigeria's resources is the
plan to plant one of President Jonathan's trusted allies at the helm
of the country's pension fund to facilitate the diversionof funds
meant for retirees for political and other goals.
The Presidency source said Mr. Jonathan's inner circle was anxious to
keep news of Nigeria's poor economic outlook and financial rating from
public view. "As you know, Nigeria has been downgraded in recent weeks
by international financial rating organizations, but the government
wants to maintain that everything is rosy."
The lawmaker, who belongs to the same Peoples Democratic Party that is
the ruling party, said he was sad that President Jonathan and his
closest associates are engaged in mindless looting of the treasury for
the purpose of buying victory in the 2015 general elections.