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General News of Wednesday, 5 August 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Nigeria to take another loan from China - Amaechi

Rotimi Amaechi Rotimi Amaechi

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has said that Nigeria is applying for another loan from China.

A previous loan of $500 million is currently generating controversy over the clause it contains.

In clauses in Article 8 (1) of the Commercial Loan Agreement signed between Nigeria and China bank, Nigeria risks losing its sovereignty if it fails to pay the loan.

Part of the agreement said that: “The borrower hereby irrevocably provides waives any immunity on the grounds of sovereign or otherwise for itself or its property in connection with any arbitration pursuit to Article 85 thereof with the enforcement of any arbitral award pursuit thereto except for the military asset and diplomatic asset.”

Speaking on Channels Television's Politics Today, Amaechi told the National Assembly to stop probing the loan.

According to him, this will affect Nigeria's chance of getting a $3 billion loan from China.

The Minister said that the loan will help with the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri railway line.

“The reason why I said that is because we have already applied for $5.3billion to execute the rail from Ibadan to Kano. We are about applying for about $3billion to execute the rail from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri", he said.

He also wondered why lawmakers who approved the loan are now questioning it.

“Don’t forget the National Assembly approved that loan. It is unconstitutional and impeachable if you take a loan without the approval of the National Assembly. So the same National Assembly that approved the loan is now questioning the same loan and the terms of the loan having looked at it before.

“If I am the lender, I will be worried. If they get worried, they will say ‘No, we will not approve the remaining loans you have applied for,” he said.