A house of representatives panel
has raised the alarm over clauses conceding Nigeria’s sovereignty to China in a
loan agreement.
The clause described as “lethal”
by the panel is in article 8(1) of the commercial loan agreement between
Nigeria and Export-Import Bank of China.
The $400 million loan was
obtained for Galaxy Backbone, federal government’s information and
communication technology (ICT) agency, in 2018.
The loan agreement came to light
at an investigative hearing conducted by the house committee on treaties and
agreements chaired by Nicholas Ossai, a lawmaker from Delta state, when Rotimi
Amaechi, minister of transportation, appeared before the panel.
“The borrower (Nigeria) hereby
irrevocably waives any immunity on the grounds of sovereign or otherwise for
itself or its property in connection with any arbitration proceeding pursuant
to Article 8(5), thereof with the enforcement of any arbitral award pursuant
thereto, except for the military assets and diplomatic assets,” the clause as
reported by Tribune read.
The chairman of the committee
also said there are agreements signed by the ministry of communications and
digital economy where the country’s sovereignty will be breached if it defaults
in the agreements.
“When the national assembly
reacts in this manner, to question some level of agreements being entered into
by any ministry of this country with any other nation, we have every right to
question that because anything that is going to happen will happen to our
generations unborn. Whether we get it from China or not is immaterial,” Ossai
said.
“The most important thing is that
we must save and protect our people as regards agreements, because most of the
agreements that have been signed, the national assembly has no knowledge.
“Even the details embedded in
those agreements are not forwarded to you when demanding counterpart funding.
“You don’t have the details,
clause by clause, in line with the Act that established DMO. We need to know
those details even before going to sign such agreements. But those details are
not provided to the parliament.
“So, we have the right to
question them.”
The house treaties committee
summoned Isa Pantami, communications minister; Zainab Ahmed, finance minister,
and Patience Oniha, director-general of the Debt Management Office (DMO), to
appear before it on August 17.
Nigeria is currently taking legal
steps to escape a $9 billion judgment debt awarded against the country by a UK
court over the Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) deal.
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