The moment I saw the headline that the Ugandan airport, which is the country’s only international Airport has been seized because of a $207 Million loan, I shook my head and wondered. If the Ugandan Airport can be seized because the country owes China that amount what will be the faith of Nigeria that owes China over $3 Billion.
Ugandan took a loan from China 6 years ago in 2015, the Chinese loan comes with a 2 per cent interest rate per annum and the time period for the repayment is usually 20 years which also comes with a 7 years grace period. But guess what, African leaders have no clue what to do with this money but enrich theirselves and impoverish their citizens. They are all the same. The country signed a deal that will expose the country’s only international airport to seizure if they don’t meet the payment. The government tried renegotiating the deal but unfortunately the Chinese lenders didn’t agree to their new deal. It’s really sad that the country’s airport is at risk of being seized after being one of the country’s greatest infrastructure.
While being sad for the country I can’t help but to think of my own country. There has been jokes and funny meme on the internet going round that if Nigeria can’t pay China’s debt, they might come and take over the country, and from the look of things, I see that to be possible. I don’t know what deal the Nigerian government has done with the Chinese upon what was used as collateral. $3 Billion is a lot of money, and most of the projects the country claimed they were going to use the loan to execute are non existent. We don’t need to ask where the money went to because we obviously know where it did, their pocket.
These loans were collected based on projects, they are called project tied loans, to build roads, rail ways and infrastructures that will improve the Nigerian economy so Nigeria can pay back the loan. I have only seen few railways built in Nigeria, rail way transport is not mainstream enough yet to generate income that Nigeria can confidently repay the loan.
I hope we don’t wake up one day and hear things like we have lost our freedom as citizens of Nigeria because the Nigerian government signed the citizens freedom as collateral for the loan. This would be one of the weirdest thing the world would ever see.
I’m just kidding, I don’t really know how possible it is for a government to use its citizens freedom as collateral.
But imagine the Chinese taking over lots of Nigerian infrastructures because of loan non payment. That would be wild, and once again, the citizens will be left helpless because the government has always used different ways to oppress the citizens.
Debt, corruption and embezzlement are the only things African government can execute so well, because the countries in Africa have a lot of resources enough to never allow them owe this much or take loans. But unfortunately when the nations were being blessed with rich ressources, the leaders were blessed with selfish and unaccountable brains to utilize these resources into making these countries better.
It’s possible that when China wants to collect their debt, they will go for something that will hit us more and that’s the oil industry in Nigeria. Crude oil is one of Nigerian’s greatest export, and NNPC is an organization that helps regulate the Nigerian petroleum industry. The full meaning of NNPC is Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. This is where the Chinese might hit, they might take over the corporation for a while to make enough money and settle the debt.
If the government wants to take the International Airport, Nigeria has quite a few number of international airports they can seize. There are 8 international airports, but I don’t think it will be enough to cover a $3 Billion debt.
The ironic part of this is that, all the people in power, from the president down to the local government chairman worth more than the $3 Billion because they are the ones responsible and accountable for the money. But they rather use the money to flee theirselves and family out of the country and watch the citizens suffer than be accountable and pay the debt.