Beware of China Loans, Lawyers Warn Buhari

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?

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.