Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, a foremost expert in Political Science and former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), has advised the President Bola Tinubu administration to exercise caution when engaging in deals with China.
Prof. Akinyemi shared his insights during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme.
“Of course, we should be careful but don’t isolate the debt to China. There are also debts we owe the United States, there are also debts we owe even some of the medium-power countries,” he said.
“What we need to do is to be careful about two things: one, we shouldn’t default on that debt. A month before this African-Chinese Summit, Nigerian Sovereign Goods were being impounded all around the world at the instigation of a Chinese company.
“So, China is not going to serve us anything on global butter; we have to be careful that we fulfil our part of the bargain, not only to China but with all the other countries that we may be doing deals, it will impede on our status, our pride, our sovereign goods to be seized because we are defaulting from fulfilling our part of the agreements.”
He said there is competition between China and the United States for global economic dominance and admonished that Nigeria needs the discipline to refund borrowed monies as and when due.
President Bola Tinubu was in China last week on a state visit where he held talks with President Xi Jinping. Some bilateral agreements were sealed between the two countries on the sidelines of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in China.
His visit to China occurred just weeks after a French court ruled in favour of a Chinese firm, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, and granted the seizure of presidential jets belonging to the Nigerian government.
In the dispute involving an arbitration award, the court in Paris ruled in favour of the Chinese firm, allowing it to seize three presidential jets on routine maintenance in France as “security” for claims in a decades-long judicial matter between the foreign company and the Ogun State government.
Prof Akinyemi warned against deals between state governments and sovereign entities.
The octogenarian said, “Nigeria as a sovereign country should keep an eye on the types and contents of agreements being signed by sub-nationals. States are not entities in global systems, they are not; Nigeria is the sovereign entity.
“Therefore, it is Nigeria that would be held responsible if states default in fulfilling agreements signed.”
He said state governors entering such deals and cancelling them needed to be cautioned.
“The emperor in Nigeria is not the President in Abuja. The emperors in the political system in Nigeria are the governors because there is nobody who controls them. They have the (state) assemblies in their pockets, they have the judges in their pockets and yet internationally, it is Nigeria that they get into problems,” Prof Akinyemi stated.
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