Nigeria/China FX deal: Aid or bondage?

By Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye

In the words of Adetomiwa (2016), development is a culture and not a product. We can’t buy development no matter how much money we have or borrow. Today, some section of the country are jubilating that freedom has cometh. They are happy that God, through the republic of China, is about to deliver them from the formidable hegemony of US. They are happy and they want everybody to be happy.

However, let me as a citizen of Nigeria say that I have an objection. I don’t just jubilate because people are jubilating. I censors why people jubilates before I chose to jubilate or walk away. Therefore, on the China-Nigeria forex deal, I am of the opinion that the media handlers of President Buhari are just taking the ignorance of the large population of Nigerians for granted and some who are well lettered to know the truth are not talking; apparently, they don’t want to offend some certain interests.

Let me say equivocally that nothing goes to the developing nations from developed nations free of charge. Any President taking foreign loan is not helping his people. That is the rule in international political economy. The more we borrow, the more pauperized we become; the more we subject our citizens to slavery and economic bondage; the more we subject the independent and sovereignty of our country to foreign encroachment.

Simply put, according to the empirically analyzed and well-critiqued Marxist Perspective to the study of international political economy, a foreign loan or foreign aide is defined as an instrument which the Developed Nations have consistently been using institutionally, to colonize or neo-colonize the Developing Nations. That is Foreign loan is a tool being used by developed nations to colonize developing sovereign nations.

Consequently I am saying without any fear or favour that I refuse to be carried away by the current media conspiracy from the Nigerian presidency. China, like other western hegemonies, is not a Father Christmas. China wants to lend Nigerian government two billion dollars, but they want to give us in Yuan and not the dollar itself. How sensible is that?

More also, let it be on record that China is not handling cash to Nigeria. What they want to do is what is called “service exchange” in international market; meaning that if we want to buy stove, we buy it from Chinese company to be recommended by Chinese government and they pay the company on our behalf.

If we want to construct railway, they will construct it for us. All the equipment to be used are to be made in China. The contract must be executed by a Chinese firm. Chinese government is to pay the contractors. We are bound to award contracts to them. Non-Chinese firms can’t bid or compete to reduce the cost.

Also, as equally posited by a social commentator, Tomi Adetomiwa, Chinese government values the contract and determine the price. The implication of this is that they can sell something worth N300 for N300 and we don’t have a choice than to accept. The fact is that the $2billion loan is still in China. A dime will not leave their economy. The money remains with China. N1 will not enter Nigeria market from it.

Furthermore, the worst of it is that China want us to pay back the loan in dollars and not yuan. And we are to move part of our foreign reserve to Yuan, a currency that is manipulated openly by the Chinese government. Sometime ago, during the reign of Lamido Sanusi as CBN Governor, China sold us Yuan at 4 to a dollar, only to devalue their currency few weeks latter to 9 Yuan per 1 $.

Many Nigerians are presently jubilating not knowing that they are celebrating their oppressors. Many do not know that even Chinese companies don’t want yuan. They transact their businesses in dollar. The funniest part of this scenario is that Chinese foreign reserve is in dollars, not yuan, yet China want us to move part part of our foreign reserve to Yuan. What a contradiction! For the records, China, as at today, remain the largest holder of US bond in the international financial market. I stand corrected.

I also found out that China has more lobbyists in Washington DC, the capital of United States, than any other nation on the surface of earth, begging and pleading with Washington political gladiators to always make policy in their favour. Now, country people, how can such a country save us from the hegemony of American dollar? Why do we like to be pushed without questioning the oppressors that are masquerading as saviors?

The reality is that China can not do anything against the interest of America in Nigeria. America weigh too much political power over China. China will continue to inflate the contract price, refuse to complete the project and deceive us further. Isn’t funny that the country (China) whose foreign reserve is domicile in dollar want us to change part of our reserve to yuan?

Lastly, I don’t blame Chinese leaders for trying to encroach Nigeria, I blame our leaders for not being smart enough. I blame those interested in media propaganda than facing the reality. On this note, I posit that only Nigeria can help Nigerians. The solution to the economic quagmires militating against Nigeria is not foreign loan. The more foreign loan we take the more poorer we become. Nigerian government should implement true federalism system and make our market economy open and free in all ramifications. You cannot regulate and deregulate. I so submit.

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