Ethiopia joins the d-club, defaulting on its debt payments: “Ethiopia joins the ranks of a mounting list of developing countries grappling with defaults on Eurobonds, following in the footsteps of nations like Zambia, Ghana, and Sri Lanka.” Things happen because these debts are usually not at home, causing more pains.
In an Igbo novel (Uwadiegwu), the man dropped a great hint: when you borrow, go to your kinsman so that if the debt goes bad, he may lock you up but at the same time he would be expected to take care of your family since he is your kinsman! That is how debts work: pains are lesser when the debt is home. America borrows dollars and they’re responsible for printing dollars. No other country enjoys that combo.
So, if you check the countries with the largest foreign reserves, the United States may not make the top list. Why? America is the reserve. Hahaha. And what that means is clear: it holds the ace with the special printers to print the reserves. Indeed, when others have to earn US dollars, only America can manufacture them via special printers. That means its debts may not be consequential provided everything happens around US dollars.
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Where am I going? All our African debts will and must be paid one day – and when you do not have a strategy on how to pay them, many bad things happen. Remember: the best strategy to get out of debts is to pay your bills! And if that is the case, how to pay bills becomes the order of governments and as that happens, you lose the capacity to focus on what matters. For example, instead of having an agro policy for what the citizens need to eat, you are fixated on crops for exports because you want to earn US dollars, to service debts.
Ladies and Gentlemen: I am speaking to Nigeria as we continue to pile those debts. Ghana is down. Zambia is down. Ethiopia has joined. We hope it stops there. But I doubt!
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We tried to see if how we see and run government could change, but then – some of us and their acolytes insisted on having their way. Whatever happens, there will be explanations and excuses as to why it couldn’t have been any other way. There you have it.
Wonderful. But unfortunately alamajiris don’t understand this.
Their aim is borrow and steal it let the public suffer.
It wouldn’t work that way