China is gradually gnawing its way into the economic fabric of Nigeria with its well implemented economic diplomacy machinery through developmental loans, grants and cooperation on many grounds. Given the result of similar Chinese handouts in some countries with which they worm their way into strategic economic infrastructure, it may be expedient to neutralise their thirst by feeding them mephitis where they expect ambrosia. There is no way this can be done unless there is a counter strategy in the form of a China strategy.
How lazy can a country be? I mean, it would appear to be a given to have an elaborate political and economic policy to deal with the world’s second largest economy with serious and deliberate inroads into the continent with Nigeria being the main focus. Sadly, there is nothing on ground to suggest this. All we know is that the countries have bi-lateral trade relationship and cooperation. China on the other hand has a massive plan it calls the one belt, one road policy on how to deal with the rest of the developing world.
The strategy is centred on a network of roads, railways, oil pipelines, power grids, ports and other infrastructural projects meant to connect China to the world. Forged in 2013, the policy has the objective of rejuvenating the ancient trade routes connecting Asia to Europe. (Known as the Silk Road or the Silk Route).It has two parts namely:
One is the belt which refers to the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt‘which is land based. It will connect China with Central Asia, Eastern and Western Europe; and two is the ‘road’ which refers to the ‘21st Century Maritime Silk Road’ which is sea based. It will connect China to South-East Asia; Africa and Central Asia. The objectives for the policy are to develop an international clout for China, boost its GDP, Channelizing excess capacity to other countries, and to boost Yuan usage among other countries.
Not having a plan leaves us with anything goes, according to the whims of the leadership at the time. Today’s leadership are sadly piling up China loans, now N13 trillion according to Daily Trust Newspaper. Curiously, most of the loans are targeted towards ports, railroads and oil infrastructure. This is on point for the Chinese given that, as we have noted earlier, that the strategy targets roads, railways, oil pipelines, power grids and ports. We only need to look at the results of such borrowings in countries like Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Djibouti to discern what the Chinese are after.
In Sri Lanka, the Chinese forced a 70 percent ownership of the Hambantota port over the country’s inability to liquidate a $1 billion debt. Hambantota sits on one of the world’s busiest marine routes, with much east-west trade passing through the Indian Ocean’s sea lanes. So despite now having controlling stakes, the Chinese rolled out wide-ranging tax concessions for the port and a 32-year tax break for the Chinese firms.
Tanzania and Djibouti suffered fates similar to Sri Lanka’s and now the world is waking up to the Chinese debt trap. They have begun to see that “Once countries become ensnared in China’s debt traps, they can end up being forced into even worse deals to compensate their creditor for lack of repayment”, according to a Project Syndicate article. It further reveals that, countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Hungary, and Tanzania have also cancelled or scaled back BRI projects. Myanmar, hoping to secure needed infrastructure without becoming caught up in a Chinese debt trap, has used the threat of cancellation to negotiate a reduction in the cost of its planned Kyaukpyu port from $7.3 billion to $1.3 billion”.
It is now clear that the Chinese are targeting Nigeria’s ports with our oil and gas. Would it not be wise to develop counter strategy at this point to deal with the Chinese threat? To do otherwise can only be gifting the Asian Mercantilist Behemoth the commonwealth of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This translates to mortgaging the future of the country to a known enemy. In times of war or at any other time for that matter, it would be regarded as treason. A traitor is one who commits treason; treason is to betray ones country. Our leaders are traitors.
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