It been a week of face-saving for the Muhammadu Buhari administration. First the finance minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun who declared that Nigeria didn’t need an IMF loan because “the country is not sick”. But, this denial comes after President Muhammadu Buhari had written to the global organisation requesting for a $3.5 billion loan and was denied.
Buhari left Nigeria for China with a lot of media fanfare. Top on the President’s agenda was the request for a $2 billion loan to fund part of his N3 trillion budget deficit.
Well, it looks like China has denied Buhari his loan request, instead opting to fund infrastructure projects that would be overseen by the Chinese government directly. To save face, yet again, the Nigerian Presidency has gone into full blown spin. A presidential spokesman has said that Buhari did not obtain a loan from China.
Last Tuesday, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, said China had offered Nigeria a loan worth $2 billion to fund infrastructure projects in the country.
Onyeama made the announcement when both countries signed a currency swap deal to boost trade between the two nations.
According to Onyeama, who spoke with journalists during Buhari’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, “it is a credit that will be on the table as soon as we identify the projects for which it will be applied. It is just to identify the projects and we access the funds.”
But in response to inquiries, Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, said the President did not sign any loan deal with China nor did the President take any loan during his visit to China.
According to him, the clarification was in response to enquiries as to whether it was $2 billion or $6 billion loan that Buhari took from China.
Buhari’s hunt for a loan from China created a media storm this week when Ekiti Governor, Ayo Fayose wrote to the Chinese government telling them not to approve the loan for Buhari due to the federal government’s’ fiscal indiscipline, inability to pay back the loan, and Buhari’s autocratic rule.
