Be careful with Chinese Loans, Bolaji Akinyemi warns Tinubu

Bolaji Akinyemi, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, has cautioned the President Bola Tinubu administration to be careful with Chinese loans.

Akinyemi, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, warned that Tinubu could not afford to repeat the mistakes of successive administrations in the country.

The octogenarian said: “Of course, we should be careful but don’t isolate the debt to China. There are also debts we owe the United States, there are also debts we owe even some of the medium-power countries.

“What we need to do is to be careful about two things: one, we shouldn’t default on that debt. A month before this African-Chinese Summit, Nigerian Sovereign Goods were being impounded all around the world at the instigation of a Chinese company.

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“So, China is not going to serve us anything on global butter; we have to be careful that we fulfill our part of the bargain, not only to China but with all the other countries that we may be doing deals, it will impede on our status, our pride, our sovereign goods to be seized because we are defaulting from fulfilling our part of the agreements.”

This comes days after President Tinubu and Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Beijing, China, exchanged ideas on ways of strengthening bilateral ties for the benefit of the citizens.

Nigeria is indebted to five global powers: China, France, Japan, India, and Germany.

China is Nigeria’s largest creditor, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO).

The country owes China about 84 per cent of the entire $5b debt, which amounts to over $4b.

Nigeria’s debt to China is primarily for infrastructure projects such as railways, highways, and power plants.

While these projects are essential for Nigeria’s development, analysts say the debt burden poses challenges, especially in Nigeria’s volatile oil-dependent economy.