CNPP Cautions Jonathan on Chinese Neo-colonialism
The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP has warned President Goodluck Jonathan to beware of “Chinese quest for neo-colonialism in Africa” as the president pushes Nigeria into stronger economic relations with the Asian nation.
The group said the history of colonialism remains unchanged and that every colonial master, whether British, American or Chinese, will always attach strings to aids given to smaller nations, to fuel their domestic economic growth.
The group said President Jonathan should be “cautious, less hasty or desperate” in his dealings with the Chinese; “especially now that President Barak Obama seems to have not extended olive branch to his regime”.
The call came after President Jonathan paid a state visit to China Wednesday, in a move seen as an attempt to refocus Nigeria’s drive for foreign assistance.
CNPP advised the Jonathan administration to tailor the country’s foreign policy objective to achieve long term objectives.
“…our foreign policy objective should be structured for the long term and not short term goals, while we remain introspective in the utilization of our natural resources,” the group said in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Osita Okechukwu.
“For the avoidance of doubt, some are celebrating the tremendous rise of China-Nigeria bilateral trade relations from $2 billion in 2002 to $13 billion in 2012; forgetting that Chinese cheap and fake products not only dominate the trade but stifle our local industries,” the statement said.
While on a state visit to China on Wednesday said, President Jonathan had said “Beyond trade, China has been instrumental to supporting Nigeria with financing arrangements and investment in strategic infrastructural projects like rail, road and free trade zones, among others’.
CNPP said a cursory review of few Chinese investment in Nigeria’s strategic infrastructure shows that the Chinese have been less than transparent.
The group recalled that in 2006, Olusegun Obasanjo, then president awarded the narrow gauge 1,315km Kano-Lagos Rail Track to China Civil Engineering Corporation, CCEC at a whopping cost of $8.3 billion, while the Chinese awarded 4,000km
Beijing-Lhasa modern gauge to the Canadians and Germans at $4.2 billion.
It also said that in March 2006, Abuja Fast Rail was awarded to Guandong Xinguang International Group at $2.5 billion, adding that, ZTE was awarded in 2007, $750 million CCTV Project for major cities in the country to curb insecurity.
CNPP added that “NigComSat awarded to the Chinese was blown away by the wind”.
It therefore said, “in dealing with the Chinese neo-colonialism, we must look before we leap for not only were the projects awarded at prohibitive cost, but none has been completed,” it said.
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