THE President of a Non-Governmental Organisation, National Movement for Positive Change (NMPC) in Nigeria and Diaspora, Niyi Aborisade, has called on the Nigerian Government to have a re-think on business deals with Chinese government, as signals from current deals signal that Nigeria is not getting the best deal from Chinese businesses in the country.
Aborisade said that Nigeria’s relationship with China is bending the country towards another colonial experience which he said could spell doom for Nigeria in the nearest future.
He disclosed this in a statement titled “The State of the Nation: Enter the Dragon’, released at the weekend
The Statement reads:
The Chinese are always synonymous with the Dragon and called themselves the descendants of the Dragon hence, Bruce Lee used the title in his Film in 1973 when he was sent on a mission to infiltrate the enemy who murdered his sister .The chinese recently celebrated the year of the Dragon. Apparently, the Dragon is taking over Africa. We have been infiltrated
The Chinese have occupied and taken over major contracts in Nigeria to the extent that you will see them in the remote village of Nigeria. They build our rails, they build our satellites and roads, even Chinese restaurants are taking supremacy over our own . Everywhere you go, you see the presence of the Dragon in this unilateral arrangement.
In the modern world, businesses or arrangement are supposed to be bilateral and this unequal arrangement forced President Trump of America to start trade war with China by imposing heavy tax on Chinese goods. The Dragon promised to retaliate having been caught in their own game.
In Nigeria, it is not so, our government with cap in hands as beggars begging for loans from the Chinese Government and always ready to agree to anything that is proposed to them without thinking about the consequence even if it is not in the best interest of our country. The Dragon is far sighted but we are short sighted.
Indirectly, another colonial master is subtly taking over our country. Unlike the democratic western world who believe in equality and human rights, The western world always succumb to pressure because of their democratic settings and that was why we were able to gain independence from them without firing a bullet. However, the Chinese are not so and they are about all Africa with open cheques and pretends that nothing is attached to their generosity only you allowed their people unfettered access to your country. We should realise that nothing goes for free, the unintended consequence of this unequal friendship with the Dragon is that one day the Dragon will swallow our country and our citizens will become victims when the Chinese Culture takes over our culture and Mandarin replaces Yoruba language , Ibo Language and Hausa language just to mention few.
We have signed agreement of currency swap with them recently with promises of getting cheap things even at the expense of our own. Comrades, nothing has changed since and I tell you that Yuan will become expensive and scarce as dollars. Our industries are dying everyday as Chinese products littered our markets. Our external debts to China is unprecedented.
We need a strong and viable Economic planner to ‘re strategise and concentrate more on productivity and how to reform what appears to be unilateral arrangement to bilateral arrangement that will bolster our downtrodden economy.
Many Nigerians are also languishing in Chinese prisons for minor offences. Our government are not using their position to negotiate their release. The Chinese human rights record is appalling. Whereas we treat their citizens as kings in Nigeria but our kind gesture is not reciprocated in their country. It is time for Positive change.
Our arrangement with any country in the world must be centred on the best interest of Nigerians and nothing less. Our government needs to do a lot more in diplomatic arrangement with other emerging economies and training of our technocrats, technologists and scientists should be part of the arrangement.
We should dispense with our total dependence on foreign goods and our over reliance on foreign aids.
If we want to befriend the Dragon let us learn how to cage the Dragon.
Niyi Aborisade, is the President of a Non-Governmental organisation, National Movement for Positive Change (NMPC) in Nigeria and Diaspora.
