China and Africa: The New Colonialism (Part 2)
Sylvanus Ekpo
China has continued to play very significant roles in our economy. They are into construction, manufacturing, minerals and power sectors due to our infrastructure deficit. This, in itself, is not a bad to thing as our revenue profile continues to drop in the face of Covid-19 and dwindling local oil revenue to tackle development challenges in the country.
As citizens and government, we must take a break and clamber out of this miasma of debt, a peonage that will sell our children yet unborn into Chinese slavery.
It is worrisome that African leaders, the African Union (AU) and other economic interests are not interfacing enough in this glaring gale that is approaching us. We still cannot understand why African leaders cannot devise local, homegrown solutions to tackle their socio-economic problems.
They have failed to utilise the abundant resources of Africa for Africans. Rather, they have pauperised their peoples, moving billions of stolen money and resources out of the continent into Europe and America and other exotic tax havens, thus creating unwittingly, a new class of people driven into poverty. Millions of destinies have been crushed.
It is a sad commentary on the quality of our leadership, men and women at the helm of affairs, who constantly go abegging for Chinese loans, than harness the latent resources of our country.
According to an analyst:
“In exchange for financing and building the infrastructure that poorer countries need, China often demands favourable access to their natural assets, from mineral resources to land and seaports.
Since the financing terms of the project are often optimistic about the commercial viability of the projects, once in operation, many projects are unable to finance loan service from their revenue, putting countries in a debt trap, often paving the way for China to take over national assets or sovereignty.”
Let’s examine a couple of countries that defaulted on China loans:
* In 2015, Sri-Lanka defaulted on its loans. The Hambantota port was handed over to China when loan repayments fell due and more than 15,000 square feet of areas around the port on a 99 year China lease, including a promise to shave off $1.1 billion of Sri-Lanka’s debt.
* The Meditarrean port of Piraeus was acquired from cash-strapped Greece by a Chinese firm for $436 million.
* Djibouti, trapped in debt, had no choice but to lease land to China for $20 million per year. China established its first military base in the country, a few kilometres from a US naval base.
* The port of Mombasa in Kenya, East Africa, is already cruising into another debt trap like Hambantota port.
*The Chinese seized some Zambia assets like ZESCO, a power utility company, made attempts to seize Kaunda International Airport.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned Nigeria to tread with caution in seeking for Chinese loans. According to Professor Isaac Francis, 80 per cent of Chinese bilateral lending goes to Nigeria and the country is now at risk with 90 per cent unpaid loans. With the current dire economic circumstances arising from Covid-19, hope of ever meeting up with the terms of loan repayment are a mirage.
The beast, Covid-19, has wiped off the little gains we made in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Nigeria and indeed, in Africa. Action towards 2030 has been completely wiped off with dwindling oil prices, revised national budgets, collapse of the real sector and healthcare systems, poverty, hunger, food insecurity, locust invasion, unemployment, corruption, etc.
Indeed, Covid-19 has been the world’s nemesis and the world may never be the same again.
It is, therefore, instructive that Nigeria examine the way it does it’s governance in light of current realities. Change is imminent. Corruption, the hydra-headed monster that eats up our national treasure, must be killed by a combination of transparency, accountability, integrity, patriotism, strong institutions, etc.
Africa must unite, rise up and be counted. It must face reality. The aweful Covid-19 pandemic is a stark reminder that we have nowhere else to turn to for help because these other countries are busy looking for help for themselves.
For Nigeria, President Buhari must stand up and be counted. He must bring his influence to bear. He must continue to rub the genie bottle to bring out the innate goodness in our people.
(Concluded)
