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Sunday Ani
South East, South South Professionals of Nigeria (SESSPN) has warned the federal and state governments on foreign loans, especially from China, saying it amounts to mortgaging the future and sovereignty of Nigeria.
The group said due to stringent conditions attached to loans by the western world, as a result of massive corruption, human right abuses and bad governance sweeping across the African continent, Nigeria has beamed its searchlight on China; a development SESSPN said amounts to handing Nigeria’s sovereignty to China in the long run.
Raising the alarm at its maiden press conference last week, the SESPN President, Hannibal Egbe Uwaifo, lamented that most of the loans, which are packaged and collected without proper scrutiny either from the National Assembly or the Houses of Assembly, are either embezzled or partially spent on white Elephant projects to deceive the public.
Uwaifo noted that SESPIN is not against borrowing to finance well thought out infrastructural projects that benefit the populace like the railway project, expressed fears over the terms and conditions for repayment, which have been largely unknown.
It believes China has ulterior motive, insisting that if China is genuinely interested in helping Nigeria develop with the loans couched as repayable aids, it could have done due diligence with regards to the cash flows arising from the purported projects.
