A House of Representatives panel says some clauses in the documents of the loan gotten from China “wills the sovereignty of Nigeria”.
The said clause is contained in article 8(1) of the commercial loan agreement between Nigeria and the Export-Import Bank of China.
Nigeria obtained a $400m for Galaxy Backbone, federal government’s information and communication technology (ICT) agency, in 2018.
The loan agreement came to light at an investigative hearing conducted by the house committee on treaties and agreements chaired by Nicholas Ossai, a lawmaker from Delta state, when Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, appeared before the panel.
“The borrower (Nigeria) hereby irrevocably waives any immunity on the grounds of sovereign or otherwise for itself or its property in connection with any arbitration proceeding pursuant to Article 8(5), thereof with the enforcement of any arbitral award pursuant thereto, except for the military assets and diplomatic assets,” the clause as reported by Tribune read.
The chairman of the committee also said there are agreements signed by the ministry of communications and digital economy where the country’s sovereignty will be breached if it defaults in the agreements.
“When the national assembly reacts in this manner, to question some level of agreements being entered into by any ministry of this country with any other nation, we have every right to question that because anything that is going to happen will happen to our generations unborn. Whether we get it from China or not is immaterial,” Ossai said.
“The most important thing is that we must save and protect our people as regards agreements, because most of the agreements that have been signed, the national assembly has no knowledge.
“Even the details embedded in those agreements are not forwarded to you when demanding counterpart funding.
