Nigerian Govt Signing Loan Documents Written In Chinese, Without Scrutiny – Lawmaker Says

A member of the House of Representatives, Mr Ben Rollands Ibakpa has claimed that some Nigerian officials signed loan documents from China written in the Chinese language.

Mr Ibakpa said this on Thursday, May 14, when he appeared on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, claiming that the National Assembly is not carried along when the country takes these loans from China. 

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He revealed that some Nigerian officials do not critically scrutinize what is written in the loan documents before signing, adding that, “Some of these documents come in the Chinese language”.

According to Ibakpa who represents Ethiope Federal Constituency, the National Assembly has been kept in the dark before now concerning the Chinese loans. 

Here's what he said; 

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“The national assembly is kept in the dark in all these loans. The National Assembly is not part of it. Even the Bureau for Public Procurement is not aware of these loans.

“These loans are collected via the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC). They bring a bill, the Federal executive approves the bill. 

“The present administration having campaigned with an anti-corruption mantra should do better in checking these loans as corruption is fueled by awarding of contracts,” Ibakpa said. 

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He agreed that the National Assembly might not have done the right thing over the years, but added that whatever incorrect thing that has been done in the past, needs to be corrected.

On the 2020 budget, the lawmaker said little is known about how the money is used and that needs to be looked into.

“We are talking about over N2 trillion appropriated for debt servicing. We appropriate and we don’t know how this money is being spent. That is we need to look into what has been happening since 2002,” he concluded.