In its editorial titled “Jonathan and the Chinese bear hug” on July 25, 2013, The Punch newspaper analyzed the recent loan agreement sealed between the Presidency and the Chinese government. Securing a loan in itself is not a problem, but it has to be realistically examined with the dire conditions presently obtainable in the country. The first sentence of that editorial set the tone for the rest of the piece: “For a President who regards securing foreign loan agreements as a sterling achievement, Goodluck Jonathan is understandably rather pleased with himself.”

he Nigerian government in 2005 secured a debt forgiveness pact to the tune of $18 billion where they subsequently paid $12 billion to clear off the remainder. Since then, it has been one tale of woe after another on why we have failed to make the most of a debt forgiveness we did not even qualify for in the first place. According to a study by A. S. Bakare on the debt relief, it did not achieve the intended purpose, claiming that “Governments of the creditor countries must have granted debt relief to Nigeria rather because of political than of economic reasoning.” This indeed seems to paint the real picture.

Presently, according to figures released by the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria is indebted to the tune of $50.91 billion with external debt accounting for $6.92 billion ($10 billion if you trust the CIA better) while the domestic debt stands at $43.99 billion. On June 4, 2013, the DMO announced that by 2015, our debt profile would have risen to $55.4 billion. That means we would have acquired more than $4 billion in outstanding in just two years and if we have to go by the DMO’s projection of our external debt in three years, we would have something like: 2013 at $12.165.10 billion, rising to $14.585 billion in 2014 and $16,765 billion in 2015. The Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, has reiterated that we will keep borrowing till kingdom come.

While it is good to commend the President for trying to make our infrastructures work, it is important to revisit the success of similar partnerships with China in the past. He secured a $1.1 billion loan agreement, in which “$500 million will go into building airport terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano and $600 million for the completion of the Abuja light rail project.” These constructions, under the agreement, will be done by Chinese companies.

First, the railway rehabilitation project given to the Chinese in 1994/5 has yielded no positive result. The refurbishment of the Lagos-Kano rail line and the Lagos-Ibadan-Ilorin-Jebba line awarded to them also has shown that our government is only bothered by courting donors and creditors while the main aim of securing such loans remains a smokescreen.

If we also take into account the salaries being drawn by our political office holders and the much ridiculed $7.9 billion borrowing plan approved by the Senate in 2012, coupled with the fact that no major or reasonable achievements have been recorded in spite of these loan deals; we can safely assume that the government has a found a new way of fleecing our generations unborn. The minister of Finance has made it known that these loans are payable in 15 – 20 years and this is where my grouse lies.

What exactly is the purpose of loans acquired, payable in 20 years, but will add no value whatsoever to the present or future drive to move the nation forward? How do we know that these loans are actually up to the announced values, bearing in mind that there is no grey area for most Chinese companies when it comes to contract issues?

Isn’t it funny that our government deems it fit to borrow from the Chinese, because we lack the required funds to sustain our developments but they have done absolutely nothing to address the constitutionalized looting approved as salaries for our public officials? Isn’t it ironic that the Presidency dispatched a jet from its Presidential fleet in June 2013 to convey the Malawian President, Joyce Banda, to Abuja? The irony is lost on them, that Banda sold her presidential fleet to save cost while Jonathan has increased his fleet to Ten (10) in Three (3) years. How can we keep borrowing when we have that much?

It is actually obvious that the blokes at the Presidency are very slow. Considering that Banda sold her Presidential plane, 35 Mercedes Benz limousines and also cut her salary by 30% to lead by example, the Nigerian government chose the wrong person to extend such generosity. One would have expected a Goodluck Jonathan to sit with President Banda and make enquiries on how such measures has fared, with an attempt to walk a path similar to that, for public good.

According to The Punch, “Over N9 billion is believed to be spent on the maintenance of the presidential fleet each year, while the PAF required 47 Nigerian Air Force officers, 173 airmen/airwomen and 96 civilian employees on full time call in 2012.” This paints the picture of a government not in grasp with the times –borrowing heavily and spending senselessly. This is further seen in the government’s attempt to obtain loans to build power plants when that sector is in the process of privatization.

What next for the Presidency?

I believe it will not be totally ridiculous to posit that the presidency will be on a mission to contract out the running of Aso Rock on Chinese dimes soon. Like majority of Chinese products specifically made for Nigeria, the Presidency is substandard and lacks any iota of shame, even when cornered with proofs. As the present drive embarked on by the President to further sink the nation into debt moves up a notch, it is important to ask ourselves if we desire more of the same in years to come.

The answer to that question –which is personal-, will reveal if we are going for Uhuru or sinking faster than the Titanic, while they hang the Chinese debt noose around our necks. If the noose of this senseless debt is tightened further, we might never get close to addressing the problem of poverty –a disease that has afflicted more than 60% of our population and we are still counting.

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Debo Adejugbe is a trained Telecommunications/Electronics Engineer and a certified IT professional living in Lagos. Dad to amazing Hailey and an advocate against intimate and Domestic Abuses. Debo has political sympathy for the Labour Party. He tweets from @deboadejugbe

I am waiting for the usual suspects to accuse the writer of this fine piece of partisanship and how the suspicious SW are rubbishing the president's great strides.

Lol I don't know how they (their supporters) think to be honest. It defies every logic u can think up.

This has always been my beef with President Jonathan. He commences on projects to fix the economy without fixing the leaking basket of the Nation.

He practically ignores oil theft, high level of corruption and the over bloated, over paid and ineffective Government cabinet which we run in this country.

This is the foundation of our problems in this country.

ba7man: This has always been my beef with President Jonathan. He commences on projects to fix the economy without fixing the leaking basket of the Nation.

He practically ignores oil theft, high level of corruption and the over bloated, over paid and ineffective Government cabinet which we run in this country.

This is the foundation of our problems in this country.

Duh, because he's a super crook himself.

I wonder how long it takes for a giraffe to barf, certainly must be equal to the length of time GEJ apologists are here to spew their usual balderdash.

Pataki: I wonder how long it takes for a giraffe to barf, certainly must be equal to the length of time GEJ apologists are here to spew their usual balderdash.

Theyll show up when normal people are at their jobs... that's when they resume work.

At: op please what is your solution to this.

Broken TV: At: op please what is your solution to this.

what do I look like, your President? Don't you know how to contact him? What is ur own solution to all this?

Isn’t it ironic that the Presidency dispatched a jet from its Presidential fleet in June 2013 to convey the Malawian President, Joyce Banda, to Abuja? The irony is lost on them, that Banda sold her presidential fleet to save cost while Jonathan has increased his fleet to Ten (10) in Three (3) years. How can we keep borrowing when we have that much?

Very ironic

Broken TV: At: op please what is your solution to this.

To keep exposing them and making the public aware of the nonsense that is called Nigerian Politics. If we expose them and hold them accountable we can make them change as long as we continue to be ignorant nothing will change. How can we change what they don't know.

kingoflag: Theyll show up when normal people are at their jobs... that's when they resume work.

If you can change the heading that clearly states that the Loans are all sophisticated 419 schems adding the presidents name this will bring more traffic I would have passed it up if I would not have read your post about being ban. Just a suggestion!

Nigeria!you really need deliverance;who then fits into the shoe of delivering you? the future shall tell.

Beautiful piece!

Unequivocal one at that

Let's see what Jonathan goons have to serve.

Between I won't be surprised if the recent loan is to put in work for/fund 2015 elections.

Some people will collect cash and keep praising these people..that's what makes me mad!

Some chose triblism in lieu Of efficacy, and this baffles me!

I tell u..

Give us BUHARI and u will be surprised..

Just as Tunde Bakare rightly said: this man is out to fleece this country! Who are they leaving the loans for to pay? They are clearly sabotaging the future of this country. Next president will end up inheriting a huge loan, just like OBJ inherited.
This is sad, so sad!

@OP, you would have chosen a better topic. This is frontpage material. Just ask the Mods to edit the topic.

The title is confusing @OP

mod pls help change the topic....this write up is a front page material

biafranqueen: If you can change the heading that clearly states that the Loans are all sophisticated 419 schems adding the presidents name this will bring more traffic I would have passed it up if I would not have read your post about being ban. Just a suggestion!

Ok, I'll do that ASAP. Lets see if the Mods will make this front page material as others have said it deservedly needs to be.

Yet some miscreants from certain portion of the country will try to shove the presidents "unblemished reputation" down out throats! And for what? Cos he's "their pikin!". Sadly, his actions affect not only them but the entire nation. No one has ever put the unity, sovereignty, security and economy of this nation in jeopardy as much as Jonathan has! He and his big egocentric wife go about the affairs of this country like they were superintending over some private family estate.

His actions and inactions bespeak someone who hasn't the faintest grasp how to go about solving the deluge of problems confronting this once great nation.

Just the other day, some of his kinsmen came out in droves to celebrate one of their own doing time in the UK for stealing them blind!!! Sounds fictional but as true as it comes! Then I ask myself, on what moral grounds do they stand when demanding parasitic multinational oil companies pay restitution for ravaving their environment?

The sooner we chase these conglomerate rogues from all parts of the country resident on Aso Villa, Fed secretariat, Wadata plaza, Ship house, Luis Edet House, Three Arms Zone, and the National Assembly, back to where they came from, the better for us!



We shall overcome!
God bless Nigeria and no place else.

ujchief: Just as Tunde Bakare rightly said: this man is out to fleece this country! Who are they leaving the loans for to pay? They are clearly sabotaging the future of this country. Next president will end up inheriting a huge loan, just like OBJ inherited.
This is sad, so sad!

@OP, you would have chosen a better topic. This is frontpage material. Just ask the Mods to edit the topic.

That is where the problem lies. When you borrow money to execute projects and not just projects that would bring in money for the country, where the loan taken can be returned, but for unproductive once. I really pity the future generation of this country. But I think Obasanjo cleared the whole of Nigeria's debt before leaving.

ba7man: This has always been my beef with President Jonathan. He commences on projects to fix the economy without fixing the leaking basket of the Nation.

He practically ignores oil theft, high level of corruption and the over bloated, over paid and ineffective Government cabinet which we run in this country.

This is the foundation of our problems in this country.

^^^


You are 100% correct on this, the above is not solving the problems that would get other things fixed by itself.



.

GeJ is a part of the corrupt govt. He's not there to change anything.

Debo Adejugbe is a trained Telecommunications/Electronics Engineer and a certified IT professional living in Lagos. Dad to amazing Hailey and an advocate against intimate and Domestic Abuses. Debo has political sympathy for the Labour Party.

Hahaha! Note the tribe where the so called writer of this baseless article is from. Even the OP is a deranged battyman .

[size=16pt]FRESH AIR 2015. God bless GEJ [/size]

This is further seen in the government’s attempt to obtain loans to build power plants when that sector is in the process of privatization.

I really need someone to explain this part to me.

The fiscal situation and that debt is going to explode soon and take NIGETIA right back to Shagari times ,you remember 1983 .

oily Yoruba: Hahaha! Note the tribe where the so called writer of this baseless article is from. Even the OP is a deranged battyman .

[size=16pt]FRESH AIR 2015. God bless GEJ [/size]

What has the author's tribe got to do with anything?