One of Nigeria’s most prominent lawyers and legal rights activist, ‘Femi Fálànà, has registered his anger and dissatisfaction against the National Assembly members and a handful of politicians like Abubakar Atiku who are claiming that the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari has traded off the sovereignty of the country in their loan agreements with China. Fálànà says that the clause in question is the default condition in all loan agreements anywhere in the world, adding that it is not trading off one’s country, it is simply agreeing that the country as a nation will be sued to the International Court of Arbitration if it fails to honour the loan agreement. “It has nothing to do with trading off the sovereignty of the country.” (See video below)

The Federal House of Representatives has been in the news recently about the conditions attached to the Chinese loans. Some members of the opposition in House of Representatives, had alleged that the Minister of Transport, and others involved, had accepted to agree with the loan, despite therein a clause that takes away the sovereignty of the country Nigeria.

The accusation had triggered many and varied responses and indeed, Abubakar Atiku, the presidential election candidate for the People’s Democratic Party PDP in the 2019 polls, joined in the euphoria, saying that Buhari had traded the sovereignty of Nigeria in exchange for loan.

Fálànà wondered why they are fixated on the $3.1billion Chinese loans, and have not asked any questions about the other $76 billion from various other countries.