Bill, borrow and embezzle

摘要

Sounding only faintly embarrassed, President Olusegun Obasanjo claims that his government has no choice but to build the grand new stadium going up near the capital, Abuja. After all, it inherited the decision to hold the 2003 All-Africa Games in Nigeria from the military regime that came before it. But some spoilsports still wonder why a country that recently had to reschedule $23 billion of foreign debt is building a stadium due to cost at least 38 billion naira (around $347m at the official exchange rate). That is roughly the amount the government has budgeted for recurrent spending on education this year, and twice what it plans to spend on health.