The history of Nigeria’s indebtedness to Chinese business entities, is as complex and convoluted as the borrowers, guarantors and projects for which the loans were taken. Today, the nation’s sovereign assets are at serious risk from shylock Chinese companies who have done, and are doing businesses in Nigeria. Most are into infrastructure development across the country, with massive ongoing projects, either for the Federal or State Governments.
But, with hurriedly-baked contracts, often less than transparent agreements, allegedly mostly not properly scrutinised and vetted by Nigeria, the nation has suddenly found out that her national and sovereign assets are coming under the Chinese hammer, with court orders authorising seizures across the globe, from Nigeria’s presidential jets in France and guest houses in Ireland, and others about to be axed in Canada and the United States. Apparently, it does appear that Nigeria didn’t see the warning signs, or pretended to be ignorant of what the Chinese had done to other African countries over debts owed to Chinese companies. In this Discourse, Daniel Philips Kip, Francis Gozie Moneke and Ed Malik analyse the unfolding embarrassing incidents of seizures of Nigerian assets by Chinese company, Zhongshan Fulcheng Industrial Investment Co Ltd on court orders following an Arbitration Award for breach of contract, and suggest ways out of the conundrum Chinese Company’s Seizure of Nigeria’s Presidential Jets: A National Embarrassme.