Desperate For Cash, Nigeria Cuts Ties With Taiwan To Get Chinese Loan
The Nigerian government hamstrung by foreign exchange and to get the Chinese government to grant it loan of about $20 billion has cut ties with Taiwan, and ordered the closure of its consulate.
In April, 2016, Nigeria and the Chinese government signed a number of agreements which include $20b loan from the China EXIMbank.
President Muhammadu Buhari had led the Nigerian delegation which met with the Chinese Premier Xi Jinping.
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The lobby for the loan was followed up with Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, attending the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in South Africa.
Foreign sources told The Whistler that the Chinese government had put pressure on the Nigerian government to cut ties with Taiwan as part of the conditions which was off the table.
The President-elect of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump, had frayed the Chinese nerves with his invitation to the Taiwan government to his inauguration, a move China considers “damaging to its One-China Policy.”
“Nigeria did not just wake up to take this decision. Chine certainly has flexed its muscle and with the uncertainty with Washington and given the dire forex crisis and need for the APC to demonstrate that it can deliver to the Nigerian people, that is why this decision have been taken,” a foreign affairs source told this newspaper.
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Nigeria is looking to borrow $30 billion for infrastructural projects but seems not to have made any inroads in that regard.
