By Max Amuchie
China wants to lend Nigeria $2bn, but they want to give us in Yuan and not the dollar itself.
They are not handling us cash, but service exchange; meaning if we want to buy iron rod, we buy it from Chinese company and they pay the company on our behalf. If we want to construct railway, they will construct it for us and take the money out of the loan. In the end, we are bound to award contracts to them, cutting out competition from others and fair play to others (non-Chinese company can’t bid or compete to reduce the cost.) They get to value the contract and determine the price, meaning they can sell something worth 200 Naira for N2000 and we don’t have a choice ‘cos it is on credit.
The worst of it is that China want us to pay back in dollars, that is not all, we are moving our foreign reserve to fake currency(Yuan) a currency that is manipulated openly by the Chinese government. Did anyone ask Lamido Sanusi what happened to some of our reserve he moved to Yuan few years ago? They sold us Yuan at 4 to a dollar, only to devalue their currency few weeks later to 9 Yuan per $.
Many Nigerians don’t know that even Chinese company don’t want yuan, nobody want it, Chinese foreign reserve is in dollars, China is the largest holder of US bond, they want dollars by all means.
Also, China have more lobbyists in Washington DC than any other nations on earth, begging Washington politicians to always make policy in their favour, how can such country save us from USD?
Has anyone asked why China hasn’t built any refinery in Nigeria?? They have the money, they want the profit, but never did it.
If China does anything against Washington interest in Nigeria, USA have too much political power over China, they will just tell them not to do it. China will continue to inflate the contract price, refuse to complete the project and deceive us further.
I don’t blame Chinese leaders for trying to scam us, I blame our leaders for not being smart enough. What do you expect when you have political hacks negotiating on behalf of Nigeria against smart professionals from China? I was thinking Nigeria political leaders will do research about Chinese lobbyists in Washington and understand the interest they are protecting before believing in Chinese version of Trojan horse.
We are the only one that can help ourselves, let’s implement true federalism system and free market. Development is a culture and not a product, we can’t buy it no matter how much money we have or borrow.