Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has said that the selfishness of some lawmakers has put the country into jeopardy following a probe of the 2018 Chinese loan agreement.
Amaechi who described the probe as a "waste" in
an interview on Channels Television, said it has pushed other countries into
asking for immunity clause in their own agreements.
He said;
“That’s where we are. The loan for Ibadan to Kano, up
till now we haven’t gotten approval. And at the point that happened, we were
just on the verge of getting approval. They withdrew. They’re asking more
questions.
“The two things I said at that meeting; they’re happening
now. There are other countries we have loan agreements with, that we entered
into agreement to borrow money from. They don’t usually ask for immunity
clause, because they trust you, so they expect that you’ll pay back. The moment
you brought this to the public, it was ‘ah! you’re giving China immunity
clause, so you must give us.’
“The selfishness of those members, who I don’t know what
they’re pursuing, has put the country into jeopardy. Now, other countries are
asking for immunity clause in their own agreements.
“The other aspect I said was that the Chinese may likely
withdraw. That’s where we are; we’re talking to them. They’ve promised to give
us the loan, but at least it’s held us back since June till now. We’ve done
seven months. If they had give us money since June, we’ll have gone far. We
would have started clearing by now. But imagine seven months wasted because one
or some few members of the house of reps went to the public.”
Explaining what the immunity clause meant, Amaechi said;
“I’ve explained over and over that what the immunity
clause simply does is to say ‘look, in case you’re not able to pay back, I want
to be given the opportunity to take you to court or to arbitration as it is in
the clause.
“What the immunity clause does for us as Nigeria is that you can go for everything in case the court awards you anything, but you can’t go for our diplomatic assets, military assets, oil assets. So, what’s remaining? Airport, railway… those are things you can go for in case the court awards you.”
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