The United States of America rose to the defence of Nigeria early last week. That, it can be said, is what friends are for. The circumstances of the action spoke volumes about Nigeria, what it has become and where it presently is as a sovereign state.
Following the arraignment of two Chinese nationals, Zhang Hong Lin and Zhao Pei Hai, at a Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos on June 10 2025, an indignant USA, through its embassy in Nigeria, emphatically condemned China for the criminal conduct of its nationals in Nigeria which brought them before the law. The two Chinese were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for illegal mining operations involving “mica products, copper-bearing and lithium-bearing mineral resources”, according to reports.
The two Chinese nationals, Hong Lee and Pei Hai, may have been apprehended and arraigned, but they are, certainly, not the only Chinese nationals presently engaged in the act for which they are being tried. Nor is China the only country whose nationals are busy on daily basis stripping Nigeria of its natural resources.
Having borrowed excessively from China, over the recent years, for purposes both purposeful and questionable, Nigeria found itself carting home from Beijing, not only billions of Yen, but also an unspecified and ever-expanding number of Chinese nationals, who seem to be following their money, literally.
There is virtually no part of the country at the moment where scores of Chinese elements are not at home, engaged in sundry businesses. Many of them, it must be said, are engaged in legal, productive enterprises. Quite a number of them, from indications, know the physical geography of Nigeria far better than many natives. If they are not comparatively as many in the South East, it is simply because there are not many Federal Government infrastructural or extractive projects in that zone, for that often is their entry platform.
Is there anything wrong with Chinese nationals following their money to Nigeria and engaging in diverse business activities in the country? The answer is no, under normal circumstances. As it turns out however, a good and steadily increasing number of the Chinese nationals, fanned out across Nigeria, are being accused regularly of, or apprehended for engaging in illegal businesses, with rather insouciant effrontery. The only cogent explanation than can be advanced for the level of impudent boldness increasingly associated with many Chinese nationals in Nigeria is located in their knowledge that Nigeria is beholden to their country.
Aside the serious issue of debt, many Chinese nationals in Nigeria, as is the case with virtually all other foreigners, also know few vital facts about their host country. For one, they know that the government and its prime officers are disdainful of the ordinary citizens. Foreigners quickly learn that Nigerian citizens can so easily be humiliated and short-changed in their country without consequences. Two, foreigners in Nigeria quickly realize that the country is unbelievably endowed. On top of that, the country is the nearest thing to what is called no man’s land.
What any foreigner with guts cannot do in Nigeria is what he does not want to do. Here, laws are made to be broken and every infraction, no matter how grievous, can be negotiated away. With the resources at his disposal, derived, of course, from the bounties Nigeria offers, a foreigner, say a Chinese national can, not only get local policemen and law enforcement officers to be saluting him, at will, he can also procure local security personnel to provide him with round-the-clock security for all manner of illegal activities. For many foreign nationals in Nigeria, including the Chinese, this is the place to be.
Back in their homeland, where the Chinese for instance, came from, discipline is part of life and the law is stringent and unsparing. No one, whether a citizen, or a foreigner, dares to short-change the state or covet the resources of the state. The price for infraction along this line could be, and is often death.
It does not take long for a foreigner in Nigeria, including the Chinese, to realize that Nigeria is different from where he was coming from. This is the ultimate free world. The law is largely negotiable. What belongs to the state belongs to no one. Indeed, common assets exist for the pleasure of those in government, alongside their posse. In Nigeria, with some arrangement, a foreigner can easily become a unique asset for those in authority, a conduit through whom the resources of the state can be exploited, extracted and exported, for the benefit of the parties involved. How many foreigners will reject taking advantage of such a setting?
If, therefore, as obtains at the moment, Chinese nationals and various other foreign entities are ransacking Nigeria, exploiting mineral resources with impunity, the explanation can be found in the acquiescence and connivance of Nigerians in authority. The second explanation can be located in weak institutional instruments for combating abuse of both human and material resources in the country. The combination of the two factors accounts for the audacious conduct of many foreign nationals who have not only transformed into veritable carpetbaggers, but are now lords over hapless ordinary Nigerians. It is no joke that the Chinese are doing in Nigeria, in the 21st century what the British did, with remarkable viciousness and characteristic cant, over two centuries.
As at the time Hong Lee and Pei Hai were being arraigned at the Federal High court in Ikoyi for illegal mining of valuable minerals, another Chinese national was arrested and taken into custody by security officers, somewhere in the North East, for being found within the precinct of military formations. His mission was still being determined.
It was the act of illegal mining of Nigeria’s highly valued copper and lithium resources however, that got the United States incensed. Why, queried the super power, is China this greedy? Speaking through its Embassy, the US rebuked China, not exactly for stripping a helpless Nigeria of its resources, but for exploiting the resources in Nigeria in such a way that there will not enough left for USA to take.
In the words of the US Embassy, “illegal mining threatens Nigeria’s economic future and fuels transnational corruption…. Accountability in the extractive sector is essential to protecting Nigeria’s sovereignty and ensuring a secure and transparent global supply chain, which is core to U.S. strategic interest”. Put in Nigerian langue, what U.S. is saying is that China is ‘spoiling market’ for it. Nigeria is not the concern there. It is an incidental factor.
The sad reality is that there is, perhaps, not a more pathetic country on the face of the earth at the moment than Nigeria; so richly endowed, yet so poor and lagging far behind in all reckonings in the human development index. It is no longer enough that the country is identified with wayward leadership and debased institutions of state, now Nigeria cannot even defend itself. America is now chastising China to desist from unbridled, illegal exploition of Nigerian resources, so that other exploiters will also have something to take.
While Nigeria’s solid minerals are being illegally exploited without let by the Chinese and some Europeans, the country’s farmlands, agricultural resources and hinterlands are steadily being devastated by invaders said to be foreign Fulani and Tuaregs from across the Sahel and Fouta Djallon belt. In all the existential problem fronts, the government has no known pathway to solution or clear strategy of defence.
Forty eight hours ago, or thereabout, Benue State came under attack again by the same terrorist invaders that have killed, retreated, returned and killed again. This time over 50 innocent citizens were reportedly slaughtered. Instructively, these consuming woes of the country hardly feature in the agenda of the political leadership, presently absorbed in schemes to control power. To what purpose?