The U. S Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson has revealed that the United States President Donald Trump is developing alternatives to Chinese loans that will make it easier for African countries to access funds for infrastructural development.
Tillerson, speaking on his final leg of his African tour at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, explained that although the United States was not against taking loans from China, America is more concerned with the aftermath of the loans as experience has shown that such countries ended up forfeiting their sovereignty.
“You have to be in charge of your local infrastructures. We have seen a situation where some countries lost such control due to the loans,” Tillerson said.
Africa attracted more Chinese state lending for energy infrastructure than any other region last year, highlighting Beijing’s view of the continent’s growing economic and strategic importance.
A study by Boston University academics shows that nearly one-third, or $6.8bn, of the $25.6bn that China’s state-owned development banks lent last year to energy projects worldwide went to African countries. This was ahead of south Asia, with $5.84bn.
Geographically, the lending has been concentrated into six countries, with Angola, Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, South Africa and Sudan getting $23.8bn of the total $34.8bn since 2000.
The Boston University data tracks loans from the China Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China, the world’s two largest development banks.
Tillerson however noted that U.S President Donald Trump has set up a committee to look at structuring financial strategy similar to what the Chinese government is offering with fewer risks
“There are alternatives, including great potentials for public private collaborations,” he said.
Speaking on the abducted Dapchi school girls, the American Secretary of State expressed his hope that the girls would be released peacefully through safe negotiation.
He assured that the United States government has offered to assist Nigeria in ensuring speedy rescue of the girls by providing materials, intelligence training, among others. He affirmed that Boko Haram remains a threat not just to Nigeria but the sub region.
Tillerson commended President Buhari for leading the sub region in the fight against terrorism as well as his fight against corruption which he noted had earned the president recognition at the African Union.
Meanwhile President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed surprise that the Inspector- General of Police, Ibrahim Idris disobeyed his order to relocate to Benue and end killings in the State after the January 1 attacks on some communities in Guma and Logo Local Government Areas.
Buhari stated this Monday during a meeting with major Benue stakeholders at the Benue Peoples House Makurdi when Governor Samuel Ortom informed him that the IGP did not relocate to Benue but came to the state just for a day. Buhari who reaffirmed his earlier call on Benue people to apply more restraint and learn how to live with other people said, there is no way he will deliberately over look the security challenges that Benue is having because he has come a long way with indigenes of the state.
“I want to appeal to the representatives of various constituencies to appeal to their people to apply restraint because even after government, these farmers and herders can still live together, we as a government, we are doing our best to ensure that economic, security and the fight for corruption improve” He promised to support farmers to particularly ensure the increased cultivation of Rice so as to reduce rice importation to 90 percent in the next farming season in the face of herders farmers crisis. In an address, Governor Samuel Ortom called for the upgrading of the Military operation in the state as it will help in stemming the excesses of herdsmen to pave way for farmers to go back to their homes now that the farming season is nearer. Ortom who described the president as a man of integrity who always stands for justice reiterated his call for the arrest of the Miyetti Allah leaders who have persistently threatened the Benue people and successfully executed their plans without any arrest. Also speaking, the Tor Tiv, Ochivirigh James Ayatse called on the re- designing of security architecture in the country such that will involve state and traditional rulers who are more closer to the people. Tor Tiv expressed dismay over responses of some service chiefs in the country on security issues, saying, people in such positions should be restrained in making statements that can trigger crises especially as it relates to security.
On her part, the representative of the civil society organisation Josephine Haba said she is not only disappointed by the visit of the president but also confused.
“How can a president come to a state where scores of people were killed without consoling the people or condemning the attack ,this is a slap to our faces, look at the okpokwu massacre victims yet to buried, no consolation words from the president, it is a shame,” Haba maintained.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described President Muhammadu Buhari’s Monday’s visit to Benue State, several months after the massacre of Nigerians, as needless and serves only as a large billboard of his administration’s gross insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians.
The PDP said the President’s visits to troubled states serve no sincere purpose since they did not come from the heart but orchestrated for political reasons.
The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Monday said it is appalling and highly disheartening that a President can only visit his distressed citizens after a widespread outcry over his aloofness and not out of any genuine concern for their wellbeing.
“What is the purpose of condolence visit when it does not come from the heart but orchestrated to deceive and beguile the people ahead of the 2019 general elections?
“Indeed, we agree no less with Nigerians that this cosmetic and politically motivated visit is nothing but a direct mockery of the dead and a heavy slap on the faces of the bereaved.
“This is the same president, who at the wake of the massacre, summoned the leaders and the bereaved to Abuja, rather than complying with the age-long tradition of Africans by immediately visiting the bereaved.
“Months after their tears have dried and they are painfully gathering their broken pieces, the Presidency is now trying to use them for a political posturing by staging a cosmetic condolence visit just to score a political point.
“More off-putting is the fact that following the public criticisms that trailed the President’s glaring aloofness and failure to visit the direct victims during his whistle stops in Taraba and Plateau states, his handlers has now arranged a put-on visit to some Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Benue, which is nothing but a posturing stunt to further deceive the people.
“If the Buhari administration is genuinely concerned about the wellbeing of the people of Benue and other trouble states, what decisive step has been taken to apprehend those behind the carnage and bring them to book?”
TONY AILEMEN, Abuja
