USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Nigeria, A country so corrupt it would be better to burn our aid money

That corruption at very high levels of government is endemic in Nigeria is not news. So why are foreign donor countries still extending aid to corruption prone countries like Nigeria? Certainly not because they wish to promote development in such countries. After all, it is a trite notion that no nation has ever left the space of underdevelopment by receiving aid. In fact, there is consistent evidence that foreign aid tends to further impoverish the developing countries that receive them because of the unpublicized conditions that are associated with such grants. Therefore, one reason that may accounts for the continued donation of aid to countries like Nigeria by developed countries like the UK could be that it is in the best interest of the donor country. So when this writer claims that it is better to burn the aid money rather than award it to Nigeria, he overlooks the fact that the aid grants is a strategy by which the UK government supports local manufacturers and organisations, because part of the associated clause of such grants is that Nigeria would continue to patronise UK manufacturers. It is not an accident that most foreign grants for education are directed towards funding Nigerians studying in UK universities, rather than to strengthening research capacity of the local universities. Then the donors will then turn around and report that donation is not reaching the 'ordinary Nigerians'.