THE GREEK BAILOUT FUND, A GREEK GIFT?

Icheoku says what an irony of fate that the Greeks who are customarily used to giving others questionable gifts with hidden trip-wires inside them, the proverbial Greek Trojan Gift, are the ones now at the receiving end of such spiked gift? Talk about paying someone in his very own coin as the European creditors just did that with the release of conditionalities-laden Greek's bailout funds of $94billion; which probably will do the opposite and instead of bailing the Greeks out will sink them deeper into irrecoverable economic quagmire. Icheoku says by providing this additional bailout, the third one in a row, it appears those European creditors have only succeeded in postponing the Greek day of reckoning just for one more last time? 

The Greeks did not account for what they were previously given and there is no guarantee this time that they will make judicious use of this tranche by using it to turn around their economy and quit being an Oliver Twist with hands always stretched out in a beggarly fashion. Icheoku is not a seer but makes a projection that it will surely come back full circle when the present tranche is up and due for repayment and the Europeans will still find an insolvent Greece which rather than pay what it owes, will still be begging for another bailout. Before that time comes, the acute austerity terms of the latest bailout package would have forced the Greeks through the haranguing gates of hell, from which many of them might not return again leaving a Greece that cannot be self sustaining any longer, never again, ever. So what will happen when this day comes  and things come to a head with a Greece still unable to repay what it borrowed and still asking for some more borrowing? Will Europe still accommodate them or show tough love and let Greece fail or fall out of European Union? Icheoku does not know the answer but time will tell. 

Icheoku's says like the Greeks, there is palpable fear that Nigeria is also headed the bailout highway to hell. A fear made more eerie because the bitter potion these creditors will particularly brew for Nigeria will make that of the Greeks taste like a rose champagne. If Nigerians think that Ibrahim Babangida's SAP's conditionalities were harsh, they should wait until President Muhammadu Buhari goes cap in hand to these Western creditors for money. Then he will appreciate what it means to make someone really horn-mad and then want the raving mad person to help him out with some funds? When this time comes, a person like IMF Christine Laggard for example, will have the opportunity to really tell him how bitter she is that she cannot bring her partner on trips to Nigeria for fear of prosecution? Needless to add that gay heavy weights like Apple CEO Tim Cook and Elton John might bring their influence to bear on denying a gay-hating country Nigeria any financial bailout unless they reverse their anti-gay marriage law? 

That so many other financial institutions that would be called upon to contribute to whatever bailout Nigeria might need is in the firm control of LGBT or their protected interest will not bode well for a Nigeria in need of cash life line. Most likely, they will seize the opportunity to remind President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigeria's anti-gay marriage law is still on their books as the law of their land. Icheoku is certain that any conditionality the West will give Nigeria will most definitely include reversing the anti-gay marriage law. So if Nigeria does not want to reverse this law, they should find a way to stay out of seeking financial bailout from these international lenders particularly those in Western gay-friendly countries; because they will be made to either swallow their vomit or take a hike. If these Western countries could be this harsh to fellow Europeans, the Greeks, with vaulted gay acceptance, imagine what they will do to black anti-gay country Nigeria? But until then, Icheoku asks the Greeks, what has become of you that you cannot manage your economy and turn it around? Please remember that he who goes a-borrowing always goes a-sorrowing and that a beggar  usually has no choice. Therefore, you need to do the needful and quickly get back on your feet and save your face, otherwise the humiliation will only get worse.