ABSTRACT
Nigeria is an important test case of the socio-political effects of debt in Sub-Saharan Africa for a variety of reasons. First, its level of indebtedness is greater than that of any other nation on the continent. Second, its oil wealth brought it a degree of influence in international relations, as evidenced by the leading role played by Nigeria in negotiating the first Lome Convention. It seems eminently possible that Nigeria may also have a leading influence in determining the reaction of other African states to the debt crisis. Third (and significantly in view of the latter point), Nigeria has taken what many regard as an independent line in dealing with its debt obligations, preferring to keep the IMF at arm's length. Fourth, it has helped to pioneer the use of techniques such as countertrade and conciliatory default in the management of its debt crisis. In the following pages we shall briefly survey the politics of Nigerian debt, with a view first to assessing what light it throws on the merits and demerits of the IMF medicine for indebtedness and, second, to determine whether or not it has produced any viable alternatives to this medicine. Initially, however, we shall examine the origins and proportions of Nigeria's debt in order to attain an understanding of the exact nature of the problem to be solved.
