An NGO, the Amaka Chiwuike-Uba Foundation (ACUF) , has urged the National Assembly (NASS) to apologise to Nigerians for failure to perform its statutory functions from the onset over the controversial Chinese loans.
The Board Chairman of ACUF, Dr Chiwuike Uba, said in a statement on Wednesday in Enugu that Nigerians demand accountability from NASS as regards the public outcry against the loan obtained by the Federal Government from China.
Uba faulted the culpability of the NASS that seems to be also in a haste to approve loans, without exercising its proper oversight functions of questioning the terms of the agreement.
He demanded that the NASS must tender an unreserved apology to Nigerians for misleading them and failing to live up to their responsibilities.
According to him, going forward, the legislature must sit up in order not to plunge the country into more debt and grief.
“Unfortunately, while these agreements are usually not made public, our leaders rarely take time to study them before signing”.
It acknowledges that these stringent conditions are usually added due to African leaders’ weaknesses, lack of credibility to pay back the loans, and the craving to siphon or loot the loans for private purposes.
“Agreed that the Chinese government may be averse to corrupt practices, as we have witnessed in the way they treat her citizens found to be corrupt, they treat their loans strictly as business and political instrument for control,” the statement adds.
Uba, who is a development economist, said that it had been proven that most of the Chinese loans lack transparency and are difficult to be captured and measured as part of international capital inflows into countries.
He noted that not all Chinese loans are completely infrastructure finance-based, as bandied by the government.
The chairman said: “The interest rates on Chinese loans are based on market terms, very close to private capital market rates, and these loans are also backed by collaterals.
“In most cases, the loans are not only secured on the national assets, but on natural resources and revenues.
“In this case, Nigeria, as part of the repayment terms, may be bound to be repaying the loans from concessional loans from the World Bank and the IMF.
“It is erroneous for Nigerians to assume that the executive is accumulating debts without carrying the legislature along. The national government and sub-national government cannot contract any loan without the approval of the legislature.
“Nevertheless, it does appear that it is either the NASS lacks the capacity to scrutinize the loan approval request, or they are uninterested in the short, medium, and long term implications of their decisions.
“It is disheartening to see the legislature approve external loans running into billions of dollars in a day.
“It raises the question of credibility, capacity, transparency, responsiveness, and accountability.
“Were such requests properly studied, the right questions asked and independent cost-benefit analysis carried out to determine the costs and benefits of the loan approved?”, he querried.
