By Owei Lakemfa
L-R: Nigeria’s finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, IMF boss, Christine Lagarde and CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director, Madam Christine Lagarde was on a four-day visit to Nigeria from January 4. She claimed it was a friendly visit: “I’m not in Nigeria to negotiate for IMF loans but to promote fiscal discipline and favourable monetary policies”.
Making the visit look like some holiday for herself, and husband, Monsieur Xavier Giocanti, she even visited the Mother Theresa Children Home, Abuja where on behalf of the IMF she donated a hefty sum of $7,500 to demonstrate that “We at the IMF, we care about the youths, poor and about those who are left at the side of the road.”
But those familiar with the IMF know that the expressed love for Nigeria, the youths, the poor and the orphaned, are side shows to make the visit look like some long lost aunt visiting her loved ones. The last time Hurricane Largarde made a landfall in Nigeria four years ago, it was so devastating that amongst other things, the whirlwind tossed petrol (PMS) price from N65 to N140 setting off serious social crises. The attempts to clear the hurricane debris took years, and the negative effects are still felt today. Some unique characteristics of IMF hurricanes are that their effects are not immediately visible and their after-effects are quite devastating. It is like cleaning up a nuclear accident site.
For example, the IMF in September 1986, lured the Babangida regime to adopt a nebulous Second-Tier Foreign Exchange Market (SFEM). By the time the IMF was through with us under that regime, the currency which was about 90 kobo to the dollar went up to N18.
Like a colonial headmistress visiting primary school pupils, she …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
