Amaechi And The Chinese Loans: Slavery or Patriotism At Work?

By Chuks Ekpeneru

Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, on Tuesday appealed that ongoing investigations of loans request by the Federal Government could have negative effect as the foreign partners could withdraw such loan facilities.

Specifically, he said the hearing could stop the loan facility the Federal Government ”is seeking for the completion of the Lagos-Ibadan and Kano rail projects”.

He made the observation at an investigative hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements in Abuja.

Amaechi’s take on the loans may ignite mixed feelings as some Nigerians have risen in objection to the loans being acquired by the present administration.

Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sometime ago berated the Senate for approving President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for a fresh $22.7 billion loan.

The party expressed fear that with this situation, the APC administration was practically driving the nation to the brinks while exposing Nigerians to the risk of modern-day slavery by mortgaging the country’s future to economic appropriation by foreign interests.

Also condemning the loan request, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) in a statement signed by the National Coordinator of HURIWA, Mr Emmanuel Onwubiko, cautioned that Nigeria must be careful not to dabble into such huge traps of being reclassified as a heavily indebted nation once more.

“I am sure even if this loan is collected for this purpose, the expenditures would be coordinated by consultants as usual.

“Those multilateral agencies who will drain a lot of the funds on servicing their consultants and not delivering the real dividends to the victims.’’

He said the war had not been successfully fought and won nor the masterminds prosecuted and punished for their monumental crimes against humanity, yet loans were needed to rebuild destroyed property.

Similarly, civil rights crusader and former lawmaker Senator Shehu Sani said that the administration had finally mortgaged the future of the nation and further plunged it into debts that cannot be repaid in half a century.

It is in this light that the question is now arising whether Amaechi’s plea is to cajole Nigerians into slavery or a show of his zeal to speed up the development of Nigeria’s infrastructure?

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