Christopher Oji

Association of Lawyers, Radical Agenda Movement in the Nigerian Bar Association (RAMINBA) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to use legal and political means to cancel the  commercial loan agreement signed between Nigeria and Export -Import Bank of China. 

In a press conference at their office in Lagos, its Chairman, Mr Adesina Ogunlana, said the clause in the loan was outright slavery and mortgaging  the future of children yet unborn .

Ogunlana, who quoted  the Minister of Transportation , Mr Rotimi Amaechi as telling   the House of Representatives that there  is a clause in the loan agreement ; like the loan for the construction of Ibadan to Kano rails is $5.3 billion , said the implication is that if we can’t pay  the money, whatever they need to take from us they would take , without us talking about our sovereignty . Most time what the Chinese does is to go after the assets that has been constructed and then use it to recover their money. So what’s wrong about that?

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Ogunlana said: “How does the Federal Government want to refrain from talking about sovereignty when the Chinese loan givers come asking for what they have constructed ? Under what condition  does the Nigerian government wants to obtain $5.3 billion loan from China for the construction of Ibadan-Kano railway line ? What clauses are embedded in the $5.3 billion loan agreement and how do they affect Nigeria’s sovereignty?

“According to statistics , Nigeria has obtained 17 different Chinese  loans to fund different categories of capital projects, and Nigeria will be servicing the China  loan till around 2038, which is the maturity date for the last loan obtained in 2018. It is interesting to know that it is not only African countries like Nigeria that are trapped in China debt bondage . While Zambia owes China $7.4 billion out of $8.7 billion foreign debt, the country was in talk with China that may result in the total surrender of the state electricity company, ZESCO,s as a form of repayment since the country defaulted.

Also , Kenya may soon lose its largest and most lucrative Port , Port of Mombasa to its creditor, China after it defaulted. Many other countries are suffering from China loan. India, Bangladesh, Malasia etc. “China may take over our Nigeria Police , Nigeria Immigration  service and our  sea ports ; imagine what will happen when China  takes over our internal security.