By Liborous Oshomah
i Hau, Wu han ta wu chin, chin wu ta han wuuu, mai ta kum, du ala du ala. you see I am already perfecting my skills in Mandarin, also called “Putonghua” because if care is not taken, we are soon going:
BACK TO COLONIZATION.
That Nigeria, ditto Africa has turned to China for infrastructural loans is no longer news.
That China is gradually taking over the assets of loan defaulting countries is also not news, as they have not only recently taken over the International Airport in Lusaka, Zambia but some other priced assets in the country like ZESCO the power company, for defaulting in her $8 billion loan from China.
This happened barely after the Zambian state owned media TV and radio channel ZNBC were taken over by the Chinese as they control 60% of the shares therein.
Most of these Chinese loans, even though cheap in terms of interest rates are usually very difficult to pay back, as the borrowed funds always finds it way back to China as capital flight, since most of the projects are executed by the Chinese to the extent of supplying even the labourers.
That we have also waived our collective freedom (sovereignty) to the Chinese over a $5.3 billion infrastructural loan as admitted by the Minister for Transportation (Chibuike Amaechi) is more frightening. Even though he claimed not to know the existence of such a waiver clause in the agreement. But he signed and hopefully didn’t read through. Yet he want us to take the loan. Thunder, thunder, hope you are doing push-ups?
That, even the rail to be built and the train to be supplied are refurbished locomotive the entire world, including China is discarding while embracing Eurostar kind of train, is even more outrageous. Who curse us with these kind leaders?
How many other contract agreements have soverignty waivers?
Only God knows how many of such “sovereignty waiver” clause are inserted into most of the other agreements with China.
If there are such clauses, then we should be prepared and ready as a people, in the event of any default on our part, to forfeit some of our supposed national infrastructures to the Chinese government. Some of these assets include, but not limited to the following;
Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt Airport Terminals being constructed by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) with a borrowed loan of 3.4 billion jointly borrowed by Buhari and Goodluck administrations from China Exim Bank for the rehabilitation of the airports.
Abuja Urban Rail System which is being constructed with a $500 million loan sought from China
180km Abuja-Kaduna Rail System
which was also funded from the $1 billion Chinese loan from Jonathan and Buhari administration borrowed by both administrations at $500 million apiece.
Lagos-Ibadan Rail Line being funded by a $1.6 billion loan secured from the China Exim Bank.
Lagos-Kano Rail Line which ordinarily is an extension of Lagos-Ibadan line, and will be constructed with the sum of $6.1 billion loan from China.
Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Project under construction by China Electric Engineering Company (CEEC) with a loan of
$1.2 billion, also from China.
Fibre Cables for Internet Infrastructure constructed with a loan of $328 million from the Export-Import Bank of China.
Various newly constructed rail lines, road rehabilitation cum water supply projects constructed with a $1 billion loan from China.
Loan repayment possibility
Even though the government has promised to pay back the loans as at when due, can these loans be repaid from the N1000 train ticket on those trains or from the sale of crude oil from the rich Niger Delta, a region that is not a beneficiary of any of these loans? That will be one of the wonders of the world. Well time will tell.
I will therefore advocate that the National Assembly should not just review the clauses in most of these loans, but should cancel majority of the loans in their entirety, as recently done by the Sierra Leonea President Julius Mada Bio who had to cancel a $400 million dollars Chinese contract signed by his predecessor Ernest Bai Koroma on the ground that some clauses in the agreement were not favorable to Sierra Leone.
For if we plug the leakages in government, reduce the allowances of our public office holders and properly utilize recovered loot, we would not need to mortgage the future of our country, youths and generations unborn all in the name of borrowing to fund infrastructure.
Otherwise, you better start learning how to speak mandarin as we might soon be having Chow Xing Pi as Central Bank Governor and Wong Zu Chan as FCT Minister.
A word said in half goes into the wise and becomes a whole.
Xie xie
Abai yoo.
@Liborous Oshoma Esq.
Liborous Oshomah is a legal practitioner
