Word: nigerias
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...result, the country is in a shambles. Only about 100 doctors are left in a nation twice the size of France with a population of 6 million people. The economy of what had been the second richest nation in black Africa (after Nigeria) is in ruins. In 1974 Angola was the world's fourth largest coffee producer (earnings: $231 million) and fifth largest source of diamonds (nearly $100 million). Its iron ore mines brought in $38 million; and the vital east-west Benguela Railway, which carried most of Zambia's and Zaïre's copper...
...Nigeria last year earned $8 billion from oil revenues, prompting the government of former Head of State Yakubu Gowon to embark on a gargantuan program to develop and modernize Black Africa's most populous country. Unfortunately, no one stopped to figure what would happen when all the goodies arrived. One item in desperate need of modernization was the port of Apapa itself; the ordered machinery and parts are stuck in ships unable to dock...
More than half the waiting ships are loaded down with cement, 2.4 million tons of it. And that's only a part of the order. In all, Nigeria somehow managed to contract for 21 million tons of cement, about ten times the total amount that the lagoon port could handle in a year even without other cargo to unload. Because of the chemical makeup of the cement, much of it may not be usable for building after six months. Last week Brigadier Murtala Mohammed, who ousted Gowon in a coup last July, ordered an official inquiry to see whether...
...Nigeria's economy, as one official puts it, is "suddenly encased in a wave of cement." The country is paying a demurrage charge of $4,000 a day to many of the backed-up ships; total cost in the past six months: $18 million. Unscrupulous shipowners, the government believes, have added to the shambles by putting old tubs into line to collect demurrage, since it is more than they can make on the high seas. Paperwork is so fouled up that one shipper collected for demurrage and for cargo, even though he docked with nothing in his hold...
...Nigeria is not the only oil-rich country with cargo headaches. In Iran, ships wait up to three months to dock at Persian Gulf ports, trucks are backed up at border customs checkpoints and valuable military supplies are rusting away out on the sand or in warehouses while authorities try to process them. "It resembles a chaotic flea market," says one U.S. Pentagon officer. An aide to Defense Secretary James Schlesinger has been sent to Tehran to help unclog the backlog in order to make way for still more supplies, including the first of 80 F-14 Tomcats, that...