Lagos, Saturday: New figures released by the UN yesterday show that the wealthiest country in the world is now Nigeria. With a gross national product of $US72,000 per head, Nigeria has overtaken the former frontrunners, the United States and Japan.
Experts attribute Nigeria’s surging wealth to the exploitation of huge sums of money hidden away by former army leaders, politicians and civil servants, all of whom have since died in accidents or military coups. The last five years have seen an enormous increase in discoveries of this kind, largely through the aid and support of Westerners who are eager to promote Nigeria’s astonishing growth. “With our primitive financial tools we were unable to unlock these resources,” said a Nigerian economist. “But with the sophisticated economic technology provided by our investment partners, we are entering into a truly golden age.”
One of the Western partners is 58-year-old Wilma Green, who was approached two years ago to help salvage the bank account of her relative General Isiah Tutuola. Tutuola was one of three hundred Nigerian generals who died in a tragic helicopter crash in 1999. “At first I was sceptical.” said Wilma, who now lives in a gated community in Palm Springs. “They needed all my savings from the hamburger bar, and I didn’t even know I had cousins in Africa! But they showed me the documents and talked to me on the phone, and I realised they were on the level. They sent me a photo, and you know, he had same kind of upper lip as my Uncle Silas, so I knew it must be true.”
With Wilma’s aid, Tutuola’s extended family were able to recover $US18,000,000 in banknotes and gold, allowing them to move from a cardboard shack in the railway marshalling yards at Enugu to a thirty-room mansion overlooking Falufi Falls. They speak little English, but they have no trouble expressing their gratitude to their benefactor: “Wilma we all love.” says Martha Tutuola, the family head. She points to a full-size framed photograph of Wilma which is mounted above the marble mantelpiece in the family dining-room. “She a fine friend.” They show no resentment about paying Wilma’s 25% commission. “She earnt it,” says Joseph Balewa, the family lawyer, simply. “Opening bank accounts, signing papers – Nigerians just can’t manage that kind of stuff.”
The Nigerian government, which at first had reservations about the influx of new-found wealth, has embraced it wholeheartedly. President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday released a statement as follows: “I knew that damn money had to be somewhere. You can’t have fifty years of graft and corruption and end up with nothing at all to show for it. Keep up the good work, people. Now we’re top dog there’s going to be some changes round here, you bet.”
Other countries, impressed by Nigeria’s surge to wealth, are hurrying to follow suit. “They needn’t think they’re the only ones with dead officials,” the President of Sierra Leone, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, said yesterday: “We’ve got plenty of our own. At least, we’ve got plenty of officials.” At which he is reported to have gestured menacingly with a toothpick at an Under-Secretary of State.
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