You know what? 70 - 75% of these loans were coated with the honey of infrastructural development and "legally" approved by the countries' parliaments or the military council without understanding clause by clause meaning and implications.
Baba Seriki Integrity should have caned Amaechi for saying that he was just knowing about a liquidation clause in the Chinese train loan. But Baba may not be aware.
I only sympathise with some naive Nigerians and of course unrepentant Abobakus of any government for pretending to be more nationalistic than others.
For those of us, who were involved in Jubilee 2000 global research and campaigns against terrible loans hooked on African and Asian countries with the campaign theme: Cancel the Debt Now!, we knew that over 55% of many loans were either fictitious, overpriced, with deadly interest, 90% executed by the giver and unpayable for life.
You know what? 70 - 75% of these loans were coated with the honey of infrastructural development and "legally" approved by the countries' parliaments or the military council without understanding clause by clause meaning and implications.
African leaders don't read clauses but the total amount involved, interest, and "Kilo bade" because they are always eager to steal and share from it. Let the nation and the next generation go to hell. Daga Tollar, a socialist revolutionary, who was also involved in the Jubilee 2000 campaign, was provoked to enter the studio and released a reggae masterpiece track: "Cancel the debt, we can't pay, we won't pay..."
‘Oyinbo’ capitalist lenders and their institutions like the World Bank and IMF know that most African leaders and their negotiators don't hear or understand properly their language/diction and they are too mentally lazy to read documents and interpret it correctly. Don't be deceived when you see your leaders nodding their heads like Agama lizard during loan negotiation and signing of agreement, smiling, clapping and shaking hands with the recolonial hangmen.
They are only doing that for the TV cameras, they don't really understand the details before they sign documents. It's always at the point of implementation that it will occur to them that their nations are in perpetual bondage having signed off their countries' sovereignty. Many African leaders have fallen through military coups and mass revolt because of loan trap and debt burden with little or no development to show for it. Fela Kuti summarized this in one his best but unreleased tracks, SAP - Suck African People; Suck Them Dry.
Jomo Kenyata, Leopold Senghor, Julius Nyerere and others were African leaders with good intentions for their countries but were ultimately loan trapped and they regretted it. Some were honest enough to advise younger African leaders from taking noxious loans but the advice fell on deaf hears.
Take for instance, the Federal Government of Nigeria including the Buhari regime had signed many written and signed agreements before with ASUU to resolve trade disputes but only to deny the agreement later when ASUU demanded for clause by clause implementation. At times, they denied out of foolishness because FG didn’t really understand what they signed. And when the strike continues, some untrained vacuous urban idiots would be blaming ASUU. I always pity them for blaming the victims and praising the culprits.
Buhari, before he became President, had also severally condemned incessant loan taking and alluded to the danger of such loans by previous regimes. He has repeated the dangerous game now. In the loans and debts Olympic now, Buhari is a gold medallist and his Abobakus who condemned the former executive rascals in Aso Villa saw nothing wrong in Baba Agba's unconditional love for loans. By the end of the Buhari regime, he would have taken more loans than tuwo in eight years despite multi-billion Abacha loot and other loot recovered. Infrastructural development? Bullshit! Please entertain yourself with the sing-song and any village idiot around you.
All loans can always be defended by any government of the day and their supporters including Babangida's $120m IMF loan then. When they were defending that IMF loan and other loans with deadly conditionalities that time, you would think Nigeria will become an Eldorado the next day. All na wash. Now we know the details and we are all victims till now.
Tony Iyare, a reputable editor with special interest on international policies and governance, recently released a comparative cost analysis of train contracts by the same Chinese in other countries. Nigeria has the highest cost - distance rate. These are things that Amaechi and his boss must explain at least to clear any doubt. We should not allow any government to use Integrity Bread to finish the nation's remaining soup like their former colleagues.
Please read Tony Iyare’s piece below: Na wah for cost of contracts in Nigeria I'm confused, please can someone help?
“Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, says the 721-kilometer Ibadan-Kano standard gauge railway will cost $5.3bn.
But check what it has taken the same Chinese company to deliver these projects elsewhere: 759-kilometer Addis-Djibouti standard gauge railway $4.5bn, 609-kilometer Nairobi-Mombasa standard gauge railway $3.6bn.
Just wondering what the cost of the 2000-kilometer Port Harcourt-Maiduguri and the 1,400-kilometer Lagos-Calabar standard gauge will be.
You can imagine how long the delivery time will be. If it took us 33 years to complete the 276-kilometer Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri, you can be sure that both the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri and the Lagos-Calabar lines may not be finished in the lifetime of babies born at the commencement of the projects.