The Nation Newspaper

Tag: china

  • How not to engange with China

    This week, President Muhammed Buhari jetted out again.  The latest visit to China undoubtedly raises the noise level of the President’s frequent global tours against the background of socio-economic challenges at home the most damning and unacceptable being the recent petrol supply. His Excellency, Gu Xiaojie, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria in some 1000 plus word counts published in some national dailies laid bare some thoughts about China-Nigeria relations in general and this trip in particular. I searched in vain for a similar articulated perspective from Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. True to character, an alarmist Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has added the predictable opposition hysteria; the visit according to him was for 2016 Budget defict financing of some $2 billion loan!

    The Chinese Ambassdor proudly discloses for those who care that the current visit “is at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping”.  Being China’s initiative, it is logical that Nigeria’s engangement is within the broad context of Chinese agenda. I bet that in fullest of time, there will be invitations from India, Brazil or Turkey. Pray how many bilateral invitations will our Presdident honour in a four-year term? The late Claude Ake, (a great African political economist of blessed memory) long warned African leaders about the pitfalls of crowded Development Agendas. What does Nigeria take to China? Or better put, true to our ever entrenched culture of depedency on handouts, what would Nigeria bring from Beijing this time around?

    0)          It is open knowledge that Chinese President Xi Jinping had met with President Buhari twice last year inclusive of the  celeberated Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg during which  ”issues of common concern” were discussed and “wide-ranging agreements” reached. What then is so urgent that the President resumes a week-long working duty in far away China not at home in Abuja? Nigeria parades policy studies centres such as the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS), Kuru Jos and National Defence College, Abuja. Hundreds of participants of these think tanks made up of executives of public and private institutions annually “study tour” China with sundry reports on how to engange with China. Must the president, ministers and governors cover so many additional kilometers when China indeed has been so much studied and known?

    The departure of the president with a large delegation of governors and ministers on Sunday raises the nolstalgia of familiar serial safari trips of Presidents Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. Why do African Presidents on assumption of office turned into instant global tourists with little to show for the time and scores of MOUs they uncritically signed on their continent?

    A belated statement by the Presidency says President Buhari “is traveling with a long list of needs in the Nigeria’s infrastructure sectors which included power, roads, railways, aviation, water supply and housing”. Sounds pretty farmiliar.  Why on earth do we believe that any country including China would meet our “..long list of needs”?

    In 2010, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua made a week long state visit to China with the optimism that the Chinese investors would “…explore all possible sources for additional power generation” to make electricity outages a thing of the past by the year 2011″. Yar Adua’s successor, Jonathan made similar trips with outlandish expectations from the rooftops of the Chinese Wall. Almost a decade after, Nigeria is still hunted by spectre of power outages. Please don’t get me wrong. Nigeria must engange with the world to fill its knowledge/resources gaps as much as it must also be willing to give support and solidarity for world peace and prosperity. And with China our relations should be more than a passing diplomatic fad. Development observers agree today that there are three global development challenges namely; China, China and China. It is therefore understandable if Nigeria comes to terms with China. No country has recorded remarkable rapid economic ascendancy in the past 25 years like China. With 1.5 billion population and consistent 12% growth rate in the past three decades, China has shown that huge quality human resource is indeed an asset and not a liability. China shows that development process is NOT a zero-sum game in which growth is traded off for jobs and in which few are well-having and many lack basic well being.

    Not endowed as such with oil and gas, extractive resources, China has gone far in beneficiations, value additions, diversification and manufacturing (China without oil has more functioning oil refineries than Nigeria!). It is perhaps the only country since the great Industrial Revolution that has combined consistent aggressive industrialisation drive with high growth rate side by side with full employment lifting as many as 250 million people (twice the population of Nigeria!) out of poverty. Is Buhari’s visit and indeed previous visits of his predecessors about learning from China’s dramatic transformation in the last few decades?

    I have repeatedly argued that we should not beg China for handouts but copy China for development! Nigeria has a lot in common with China and indeed we could be another China, just as China dared to be like developmentalist Nigeria of the 60s and 70s. We are the most populated country in Africa just as China is most populous country in Asia as well as in the world. In development parlance, we are talking of two largest markets in the world. But while China is one huge working and productive house, Nigeria is a container dumping economy. The Chinese ambassador enthusiastically declared that “Nigeria remains China’s No.1 engineering contract market, No.2 export market, No.3 trading partner, and major investment destination in Africa”.

    1)          The issue is not to be romantic with China with endless presidential visits, but to, be “strategic” with China just as China has been strategic in its dealings with Africa. Instead of China buying our crude oil, let’s partner to refine at home. By the way, what happened to the signed MOU with China on three refineries under  President Jonathan? President Buhari and his delegation are expected to “tour the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone to gain more useful insights and understanding of the policies that underpinned China’s astronomical economic growth in recent years”. They should also visit Bompai Industrial Estate in Kano, Kakuri/Nassarawa industrial estates in Kaduna, Ikeja/ Ilupeju industrial estates in Lagos on their return. Indeed Nigeria’s Free Trade Zone in Calabar was long envisioned well before Shanghai Free Trade Zone. Nigeria’s investment  charity should therefore start at home. The President, his men and women should visit the refineries and see if the TAMs are real, witness collapsed industries in all the abandoned industrial estates, visit power plants and generation/distribution companies,  travel on the moribund roads and rails with the aims of reviving them. They should visit the universities and see the conditions of learning first hand and see the sick in the hospitals. Nigeria like China should be a functioning economy not a debating society. It is when the presidency engages Nigerians that its engagement with China enhances its governance beyond presidential tourism.

     

    • Aremu mni, is Secretary General, Almuni Association of the National Institute, Kuru, Jos. 

  • Fed Govt’s Yuan’s pact with China ‘good for Nigeria’

    Federal Government’s pact with China allowing economic transactions to be conducted in the latter’s currency, is the right thing to do, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), and an Economist and Chief Executive Officer, Nextnomics Advisory, Dr. Temitope Oshikoya, have said.

    LCCI’s Director-General, Muda Yusuf, said the agreement would increase the Yuan component of Nigeria’s external reserves, as well as allow free flow of Yuan among various banks in Nigeria.

    Yusuf, in praising the pact which was signed between the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on April 12, in the course of President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to China, said: “It is good for our economy  because it will diversify our portfolio,” adding that the “Yuan is a strong and stable currency backed by a strong economy with which we do a lot of international transactions.”

    He pointed out that the Chinese economy is the second largest economy in the world, arguing that there is a relationship between the size of an economy and the strength or quality of its currency. He said  apart from the fact that China is the third major export destination in Africa, it is Nigeria’s largest source of imports and third major trade partner.

    In his words: “This move will greatly improve the fortunes of Nigeria’s economy in view of the rising profile of her trade relations with China.”

    Yusuf told the News Agency of Nigeria, that the diversification of the reserves to include the Yuan (Renminbi), would maintain the value of the country’s external reserves, while eliminating losses at a time of increased volatility in major world currencies.

    In the same vein, Oshikoya said under the new arrangement, there would be a reduction in transactional cost, for traders and businesses, since the usual exchange of currencies involving the US dollar would have been eliminated.

    On how the Yuan will benefit Nigeria, Oshikoya, said the Yuan has about five per cent in our foreign reserves. He said most of our traders go to Dubai and China with dollar. Hitherto, he said, they have to transfer their naira to dollar and then to Yuan, but now they can transfer directly from naira to Yuan. That will be beneficial for them. That will lead to lower transaction cost, he stated.

    He stressed the importance of the arrangement, saying, it is not a bad decision. As he put it: “Just as traders will be able to get Euro and Dollars, Yuan will also be made available for them. The essence of this is to reduce transaction cost for the traders and government.”

    He dismissed insinuations that the new agreement will lead to friction, or suspicion between Nigeria and her current trading partners, especially those from the West, including Europe and the US, saying the degree and level of trade between Nigeria and China, is already well known.

    He said:” If you look at it, most, or a significant amount of imports by Nigeria are coming from China. Our oil export to the U.S. has declined substantially because of the shale oil. I do not think the U.S. will over react,” adding, “we have been dealing with China in terms of infrastructure both at the state level and Federal level, the Chinese have been playing a major role. Not that the Western powers are not aware of this. They are fully aware of this. So long as it does not violate World Trade Organisation rule, I do not think there will be too much controversies.

    “In any case, China has swap with other countries, especially in Asia,” he stated.

     

  • Judge throws out China’s first same-sex marriage case

    Judge throws out China’s first same-sex marriage case

    China’s first case by a same-sex couple seeking the right to marry was dismissed by a Judge in the central province of Hunan on Wednesday.

     

    The couple was suing the local Civil Affairs Bureau in Changsha city for refusing to issue them a marriage registration certificate.

     

    “We are all dissatisfied with the result and I will appeal,” 27-year-old plaintiff, Sun Wenlin, told the newsmen after the court session.

     

    He added that his mother was in court to support him.

     

    His lawyer, Shi Fulong, said that he expected the outcome but was surprised that the judgment was announced so quickly.

     

    “The case opened and closed this morning, we lost, the reason given was that according to the Marriage Law, only a man and a woman can marry,” Fulong said.

     

    Wenlin said earlier that the wording of the law did not say man and woman, but husband and wife.

     

    “I personally believe that this term refers not only to heterosexual couples but also to same-sex couples,” he said.

     

    His lawyer said that the judgement would be ready between the next 10 days, saying “we will receive the written judgment within 10 days and we will appeal within 15 days after we get the paper,”Fulong said.

     

    Several hundred supporters were gathered outside the courthouse on Wednesday morning, mostly local Chinese but a few foreigners.

     

    “Today when we walked out of the court, people were boiling mad and they shouted go for it.

     

    “Some of my friends told me that my case has encouraged them, although they still don’t dare to come out,’’ Wenlin said.

     

    China’s lesbian and gay rights movement has been growing since the early 2000s, aided by internet forums allowing formerly isolated individuals to form a community.

     

    Homosexuality was a crime in China until 1997 and classified as a mental illness until 2001.

  • South Korea rejects return of 13 defectors to DPRK

    Seoul’s Unification Ministry on Wednesday said South Korea rejected the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)’s demand to return its 13 nationals, said to have defected to South Korea, back home.

     

    The ministry said in a statement that the group defection of DPRK nationals to South Korea was made in a sheer accordance with their free will.

     

    It, however, urged Pyongyang to stop unreasonable insistence and threats of provocations.

     

    It called for the DPRK to give up its nuclear and missile programmes that provided no benefit for DPRK people.

     

    The DPRK demanded that South Korea return 13 DPRK nationals who Seoul claimed were defectors to the South, saying that Seoul’s spy agency lured and abducted the 13 individuals who worked at a state-run restaurant in China.

     

    Seoul’s unification ministry said on Friday that the group defected to South Korea, marking the first time that a group of DPRK citizens working at the same overseas restaurant fled to South Korea.

     

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, confirmed on Monday that 13 DPRK nationals entered and left China legally with valid passports last week.

     

    He made the remarks at a briefing when asked to comment on a report.

  • China offers Nigeria $6b loan to fund projects

    China offers Nigeria $6b loan to fund projects

    •CBN, Zenith Bank
    back mining plant

    China has offered Nigeria a $6 billion loan to fund infrastructure projects, Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama told reporters on President Muhammadu Buhari’s delegation, according to Reuters.
    “It is a credit that is on the table as soon as we identify the projects,” Onyeama said, adding: “It won’t need an agreement to be signed; it is just to identify the projects and we access it.”
    Also yesterday, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) , the world’s biggest lender, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) signed an agreement on yuan transactions, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said.
    “It means that the renminbi (yuan) is free to flow among different banks in Nigeria and the renminbi has been included in the foreign exchange reserves of Nigeria,” Lin Songtian, director general of the Foreign ministry’s African Affairs department, told reporters.
    The agreement was reached following a meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
    The CBN and Zenith Bank yesterday backed the Memorandum of Understanding signed between a Nigerian company and a Chinese firm to establish a mining plant in Nigeria this year.

  • China gives $15m for 50 agric farms

    China gives $15m for 50 agric farms

    •Buhari raises technical panel for
    China/Nigeria joint projects

    The Chinese will make $15 million available for Nigeria to establish 50 farms  in a major boost to agriculture.

    This is one of the highlights of the agreements at the bilateral meeting in Beijing yesterday.

    President Muhammadu Buhari has directed immediate establishment of technical committees to finalise discussions on new joint Nigeria/China rail, power, manufacturing, agricultural and solid mineral projects.

    The President gave the directive after talks between his delegation and high-ranking Chinese government officials led by President Xi Jinping.

    The technical committees, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, are to conclude their assignments before the end of next month.

    President Buhari at the talks welcomed China’s readiness to assist Nigeria in her bid to rapidly industrialise and join the world’s major economies.

    President Jinping agreed that Nigeria’s chosen path of development through economic diversification is the best way to go.

    To help Nigeria to achieve this, China promised to fully support the country through infrastructural development and  capacity building.

    China also expressed an interest in setting up major projects in Nigeria such as refineries, power plants, mining companies, textile manufacturing and food processing industries as soon as the enabling environment is provided by the Federal Government.

    In response to President Buhari’s desire to make Nigeria self-sufficient in food production, President Jinping offered $15 million agricultural assistance to Nigeria for the establishment of 50 Agricultural Demonstration Farms across the country.

    China and Nigeria also agreed to strengthen military and civil service exchanges as part of a larger capacity-building engagement.

    In line with this, China offered to raise its scholarship awards to Nigerian students from about 100 to 700 annually. In addition, 1,000 other Nigerians are to be given vocational and technical training by China annually.

    President Jinping applauded the war against corruption being waged by President Buhari.

    The Chinese leader assured President Buhari that Nigeria will always have a special place in the affairs of the Peoples Republic of China.

    After the talks, President Buhari and President Jinping witnessed the signing of several agreements and memoranda of understanding by Nigeria and China.

    The agreements include a “Framework Agreement Between the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the National Development and Reform Commission of the Peoples Republic of China.”

    Others are: “Memorandum of Understanding on Aviation Cooperation between the Ministry of Transportation (Aviation) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Ministry of Commerce of the Peoples Republic of China” and a “Memorandum of Understanding Between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Government of the Peoples Republic of China on Scientific and Technological Cooperation”.

    A  “Mandate Letter Between the  Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Central Bank of Nigeria on Renminbi (RMB) Transactions was also signed.

  • Taipei protests Kenya’s deportation of Taiwanese

    Kenyan police have deported dozens of Taiwan nationals to China over charges of telecommunication fraud, in spite of protests from Taipei, officials said on Tuesday.

     

    Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Eleanor Wang on Tuesday said after news broke of the first eight Taiwan nationals who were deported on April 8.

     

    “The move was tantamount to kidnapping.

     

    “Kenya does not recognise Taiwan, but does have diplomatic relations with China, Beijing does not recognise the government of Taipei, and pressures other countries not to do so either,’’ Wang said.

     

    The eight deported on Monday were acquitted in a Kenyan court, before Kenyan police allowed Chinese public security officers to force them onto a China Southern Airlines.

     

    Wang added that they were deported in spite of an injunction by the Kenyan High Court and protests by Taipei diplomats in South Africa.

     

    Taiwan’s Justice Ministry said, citing Beijing officials that they were now detained in Beijing on further suspicion on telecommunications fraud.

     

    The Director-General of West Asian and African Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, Chen Chun-hsien said another 37 Taiwan nationals were deported this week.

     

    It was not clear what stage their cases were at in the Kenyan courts.

     

    “Our citizens have not been convicted of any crimes and, if suspected of offences, should be returned to Taiwan for handling by our judicial system,’’ he said.

     

    If this action becomes a precedent, it may create a domino effect that could be extended to abduct Taiwan citizens to China for alleged violations of China`s political as well as criminal laws.

     

    DPP Secretary-General Wu Jau-shieh called Beijing’s actions a grave violation of human rights that would only worsen the impression of China in Taiwan

  • Photo: Buhari in China

    Photo: Buhari in China

    image

  • Buhari in China

    Buhari in China

    By the time you are reading this, it will be Day 2 of President Muhammadu Buhari’s five-day visit to China. A major highlight of the visit is the signing of a $2 billion package to finance some critical infrastructure. Although still sketchy, the details, we are told, include a brand new railway from Lagos to Calabar and from Lagos – Kano, in addition to sundry projects ranging from agriculture, mining, electric power generation and road construction.  Call it the fruits of the earlier visit in February of Buhari’s Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun to Beijing, the projects are expected to give practical effect to the change agenda.

    We have certainly been there before. If anything, Nigerians must be wondering if there is some magic in China that makes it mandatory for successive Nigerian leaders to worship in the Far East country’s altar of “agreement”. Recall that in April 2005, President Olusegun Obasanjo was guest to Chinese President Hu Jintao. The 2005 visit, his third to the country, ended with signing of some cooperation documents. Both countries, we were told, had “agreed to establish a strategic partnership within the framework of South-South cooperation and to enhance political and economic cooperation”.

    What followed in October 2006 was the signing of an $8.3-billion contract for the construction of a railway line from Lagos to Kano. At the signing, President Obasanjo gleefully announced to Nigerians that the “new standard gauge track, north-south line was only the first phase of a modernisation programme that would cover two major longitudinal lines”. The second, he said, would link Port Harcourt with Jos and “five latitudinal lines that would also link all the 36 state capitals in Nigeria”. Under that first phase, about 1 315km of standard rail line was to have been constructed –to be financed by the $2.5-billion loan facility granted by the Chinese government.

    July 2013, it was the turn of President Goodluck Jonathan. In a visit that spanned four days, an accord to facilitate $1.1bn in low-interest loans for much-needed infrastructure was also signed. The loan, according to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Jonathan’s finance minister who also coordinated the economy at the time, was part of $3bn approved by China at interest rates of less than three percent.

    The foregoing is to show Nigerians are no strangers to the Chinese. They are, to put it in local parlance, our customers. Just as they are also no strangers to railway modernisation that successive administrations have continued to sell as dummy – or the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) – a company that has proven in time, as the undertaker of the Nigerian railway system. Didn’t the same CCECC undertake the Sani Abacha-era modernisation that did little to improve the railway system?

    And where are we today? Like the moribund power sector that continues to gulp billions and billions of taxpayers money with less and less electric power to distribute, the truth is that the billions of dollars sunk into the rail sector – a good chunk of which were borrowed funds – have neither transformed nor adequately serviced the Lugardian contraption bequeathed to us by the colonial authorities.

    The Obasanjo modernisation project, despite the noise, practically achieved nothing. In fact, no sooner than the late President Umaru Yar’Adua assumed office than he ordered what was later described as “scoping” of the project – a euphemism for scaling down. At issue was the opaqueness of the contract. Specifically, the contract was said to have been inflated from the original $5.billion to $8.3billion; it also reportedly fell short of due process.

    The Jonathan-era revitalisation of the Lagos-Jebba rail lines which reportedly cost the treasury over N12 billion was no different. Today, few Nigerians remember the incident of a coach careering off the tracks moments after commissioning.  Same for the rehabilitation of the 2,119 kilometres Eastern rail lines which reportedly cost N67 billion; it turned out be one of Jonathan’s re-election projects.

    Not even the flagship modernisation project, the Abuja-Kaduna fast train, funded with US$500 million dollars concessionary loan from China Exim Bank and SURE-P funds is without its fair share of controversy. The last time, the Project Manager of the constructing firm – the Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Company, Etim Abak, told the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory that “former President Olusegun Obasanjo awarded the Abuja Rail Project in 2007 without an engineering design or a Memorandum of Understanding”. He alleged that the Minister of FCT and current governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, “signed the $841.645,898m contract based on an uncalculated estimate”. Nigerians also heard that the contract, which covered 60.67-kilometres, was inflated by $10million per km and that the length was later reduced to 45km without refund of the cost for the 15.67 km that was hived off from the project!

    Today, Nigerians have stopped wondering where zillions of dollars contracted in their name under the guise modernisation went. As in all things public, it has simply gone with the wind.

    So what do we expect this time? Not much difference I guess. First, the Nigerian officialdom, the scourge of many an otherwise well-conceived projects, is alive and well. Although the usual culprit is the nation’s number pathology, Corruption Incorporated, there is however more in the benign pathology of bad faith, bungling ineptitude and the benumbing incompetence that makes the Nigerian public service the circus that it has become.

    Think of the controversies that have dogged Budget 2016 as only a symptom of a deeper, malignant affliction. It explains why the power sector is prostrate; why the highways have become hell-ways; it explains why our aeroplanes sometimes fall from the skies. It is called the Nigerian factor. Picture, at a time of grave emergency, something as ordinary as preparing a budget and its associated process of passage eventuating in virtual lockdown! And we are not talking of implementation time when the vultures would come swooning for their share of the N6 trillion pie!

    As President Buhari gets down to sign the dotted lines of his $2 billion package, he would do well to remember that the battle is on two fronts: the Nigerian daemon and our Chinese friends.

    Far from defeated, the Nigerians daemon is  only in the waiting mode. In the circumstance, the battle is not even half won. In contending with them, he will surely have his hand full.

    So also are our Chinese “friends”. The President will need to shine his eyes well well! In a world where rabid self-interest rules, there is no such thing as a friendly enemy; either a friend or a foe. As they say, half bread is better than none – only if the bread is not laced with poison! President Buhari would also do well to inform his Chinese hosts that dumping of fake and substandard goods is not only hurting our economy, it is  killing Nigerians in record numbers. Of course, we need help, the type that would lift our material conditions as opposed to those that would enslave.  Nigerians know what I am talking about!

    Once again, Mr. President, you will do well to shine your eyes. Have a safe trip, sir!

  • Buhari to meet Chinese leaders on infrastructural development

    President Muhammadu Buhari will leave Abuja on Sunday for a working visit to China aimed at securing greater support from Beijing for the development of Nigeria’s infrastructure, especially in the power, roads, railways, aviation, water supply and housing sectors.

    President Buhari’s talks with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples’ Congress, Zhang Dejiang will also focus on strengthening bilateral cooperation in line with the Federal Government’s agenda for the rapid diversification of the Nigerian economy, with emphasis on agriculture and solid minerals development.

    A statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said that several new agreements and memorandums of understanding to boost trade and economic relations between Nigeria and China will also be concluded and signed during the visit.

    The agreements include a Framework Agreement between the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the National Development and Reform Commission of the Peoples’ Republic of China to Boost Industrial Activities and Infrastructural Development in Nigeria.

    Others are a Framework Agreement between the Federal Ministry of Communications and the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and a Memorandum of Understanding between Nigeria and China on Scientific and Technological Cooperation.

    In line with his administration’s prioritization of economic diversification and industrialization to boost employment, President Buhari and his delegation will tour the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone to gain more useful insights and understanding of the policies that underpinned China’s astronomical economic growth in recent years.

    The President, whose entourage will include some state governors as well as the Ministers of Agriculture, Water Resources, Transport, Defence, Power, Works & Housing, Industry, Trade & Investment, Federal Capital Territory, Science & Technology and Foreign Affairs, will also open a China-Nigeria Business/Investment Forum in Beijing and meet with members of the Nigerian Community in China before returning to Abuja at the weekend.