CarlsJaz567:
How come Ondo State is not mentioned amongst the coastal states that the rail line would pass through? Could this be an erroneous omission while reporting the news, or Ondo State is actually left out of the beneficiary states by the FG?

Could someone knowledgeable in this area kindly enlighten us?

How do you reach Lagos from Delta/Edo state without passing through Ondo and Ogun states?

You can keep wailing ! Lol

celeiyke:
They are just approving. Funds will be released in 2022 and looted by Feb 2023. There the story ends

omohayek:

Unfortunately, although the sentiment in the bolded is a nice one, it just isn't true. Ask Sri Lanka, which had to give China a 99-year lease on its Hambantota port after failing to meet the payment terms of its Chinese loans: note that this 99-year term was also the exact length of the Chinese lease to Britain of the port of Hong-Kong, which makes it perfectly reasonable to call it debt-based imperialism. A similar scenario is also currently unfolding with other "beneficiaries" of Chinese loans, including Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and other African countries, while it was for fear of this "debt trap" that Malaysia's Mahathir forced down the cost of China's proposed "East Coast Rail Link" project by threatening to cancel it outright.

As for those who claim Nigeria shouldn't worry because China is also the USA's biggest debtor, these apologists either do not know or simply do not care about important differences, such as
(1) The USA still being the world's largest economy, whose domestic currency is treated as the de-facto international standard.
(2) The USA having by far the world's most powerful military, with more aircraft carriers than everyone else combined, and over 5,000 nuclear warheads.
(3) The USA's debt being denominated in its own currency, which it can devalue at will should it ever choose to, turning Chinese debt holdings into worthless paper.

None of the above comes close to holding true for Nigeria, whose Chinese loans are most likely in USD or Chinese Renminbi, and which probably couldn't defeat even a small country like Belgium in a military contest, let alone a rising superpower like China. If Nigeria defaults on these Chinese loans, nothing and nobody could stop the Chinese from forcing us into a serious surrender of sovereignty in some form or other. Unfortunately, the usual Nigerian mismanagement is already in evidence with the Kaduna-Abuja rail link, so the risks of an eventual default are far from negligible.

On point no. 3, If the US devalues its currency just to be rid of Chinese debt, would that not have a devastating effect on the US economy? How would Americans survive their currency turning into 'worthless paper'? How would other nations react, who trade in dollars? Would that not make them all abandon the dollar in favour of the yuan or something else? Meaning greater catastrophe for US economic hegemony? I don't think your point is valid here. It's like the US committing suicide just to rid itself of Chinese debt. And if point 3 does not apply, it implies that point 1 is also invalid, as a worthless currency cannot be ''the international standard''. Point 2 is also very shaky because a worthless currency cannot sustain the ''world's most powerful military''.