“Routes To Pits Or Traps Are Usually Smooth”: Shehu Sani Cautions Nigeria On Chinese Loans

The Senator Representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Shehu Sani has cautioned Nigeria and African countries to be wary of Chinese loans.

Sani in a series of tweets on Sunday said easy access to loans from China meant traps and pitfalls ahead which African countries must avoid.

Tweeting from his official handle, @ShehuSani,the Senator said from his experience as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Debt,it’s only the Chinese are willing to give loans to Nigeria to finance infrastructures like Railways.

He wrote:

Sani’s advice came on the heel of a recent statement from the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi that Nigeria needs $40bn to connect all the state’s with rail.

The Minister disclosed this during an inspection of the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan project by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC)expressway three days ago.

He said, “The directive of the President, Muhammadu Buhari is to the do everything possible to get the connectivity of the entire country and I tell Nigerians that, everybody have to be patient and we need to about 36 to 40 billion dollars to do that interconnectivity. And when we had the money, what did we do with it.”