Due to their lack of monetary sovereignty, the CEMAC states could not follow the example of Nigeria, another oil-producing country, which managed to avoid ending up in the IMF's clutches. From the outset of the crisis, Nigeria excluded any recourse to IMF loans and adjustment programmes as a solution to its economic and financial problems. Instead, it preferred to seek the financial support of the AfDB to implement a programme of reform. The first tranche of the loan was disbursed without problems. But Westerners used their influence within the AfDB to condition the payment of the second tranche to a preliminary assessment of the country's reform programme. Rather than bowing to this diktat, the Nigerian authorities preferred to turn to China. Beijing agreed to lend the country a much higher sum than the one promised by the AfDB.

Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa's Last Colonial Curr…, loc. 240