China has become Nigeria’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade exceeding $10 billion. China’s investments in Nigeria’s infrastructure, energy, and agriculture have boosted economic growth.
However, concerns arise about the country’s growing debt to China, which has raised questions about the sustainability of the partnership and the likely enforcement of the in-house cleansing at the creditor’s domestic economy.
Also, some stakeholders have called on Nigeria to be internationally compliant and competitive so as to be able to operate from the position of strength in her diplomatic engagements.
This is because, China’s massive loans to Nigeria have sparked concerns about debt trap diplomacy and neo-colonialism.
With Nigeria owing China over $3 billion, critics argue that China’s growing economic influence could undermine Nigeria’s sovereignty.
Particularly, the country’s long term development and independence could be negatively affected considering the growing China’s economic footprint.
Consequently, the analysts say, the major challenges, such as, hunger, poverty, insecurity, corruption as well as trust deficit bedeviling the country should be urgently tackled to encourage local and international investors.
To them, it is when government walks its talk in the areas of reduction in cost of governance, impunity by appointed and elected officials and prosecuting or punishing high profile offenders that would instil confidence and reduce the growing gap between the government and the governed.
For instance , Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said Wednesday, the latest official to fall in a sweeping crackdown on graft in the country’s military.
Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper The Financial Times said the investigation into Dong was part of that broader probe into military corruption.
If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defence minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption.
Asked about the report at a regular briefing on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said it was just “chasing shadows” and did not offer further information.
A former navy commander, he was appointed defence minister in December following the surprise removal of predecessor Li Shangfu just seven months into the job.
Li was later expelled from the ruling Communist Party for offences including suspected bribery, state media said. He has not been seen in public since.
His predecessor, Wei Fenghe, was also kicked out of the party and passed on to prosecutors over alleged corruption.
“It’s certainly a blow… because one would imagine they will be super careful to have someone very clean in this role,” Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told AFP.
“Graft probes are very commonly targeted at the military because of the long historical ties between the business world and the PLA,” he said, referring to the Chinese military by its official acronym.
– Deepening Crackdown –
Beijing has deepened a crackdown on alleged graft in the armed forces over the past year, with President Xi Jinping this month ordering the military to stamp out corruption and strengthen its “war-preparedness”.
The intensity of the anti-graft drive in the army has been partially driven by fears that it may affect China’s ability to wage a future war, Bloomberg reported citing US officials this year.
“If the corruption probe into Dong Jun is true, then it is normal that people will question if it will erode morale and if it will affect the PLA’s warfighting capabilities,” Nanyang University’s Loh said.
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The country’s secretive Rocket Force — which oversees China’s vast arsenal of strategic missiles, both conventional and nuclear — has come under particularly intense scrutiny.
In July, a top Chinese official in the Rocket Force, Sun Jinming, was placed under investigation for corruption.
Sun was kicked out of the ruling Communist Party and placed under investigation for “grave violations of party discipline and laws”, state news agency Xinhua said at the time, using a common euphemism for graft.
At least two other high-ranking officers connected to the Rocket Force, a relatively new unit of the Chinese military, have also been removed for graft.
Victor Shih, an expert on China’s elite politics, told AFP that Dong “likely had authority over tens of billions in procurement per year” during his time in the navy.
“The problem is that competition for top positions is so fierce that there might be some mutual recriminations between officers, which would lead to endless cycles of arrests, new appointments and recriminations,” he said. AFP
The analysts say Nigerians are watching and waiting with bated breadth on the handling of investigations into serving and retired civil servants.
The outcome of the ongoing trials of some former political leaders as well as indicted those retired ones have put the leadership under scrutiny.
