The clause in the
agreement signed by the Federal Ministry of Finance on behalf of Nigeria and
Chinese Bank on September 5, 2018 has generated a lot of controversies in the
country in recent days.
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.”
However, the Minister
told Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, that he asked the
lawmakers not to go ahead with the probe in order not to scare the lender.
Amaechi further
explained that the country was about to apply for about $3billion loan from
China to execute the rail from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.
“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.
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, he said.
He wondered why the
same lawmakers who approved the loan were 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.
