China, foreign loans draining Nigeria’s blood –Duke

The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP)), Donald Duke, has expressed worry over Nigeria’s growing debt to China and other foreign countries.

He said the nation is hemorrhaging under foreign loans.

Duke, who is a former Cross River State governor, disclosed this while briefing newsmen at the party’s headquarters on Monday in Abuja.

According to him, the Federal Government was leveraging low interest rate in foreign loans, noting that it was important to regulate bank rates in the country to make credit cheaper and affordable for entrepreneurs to grow the economy.

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The SDP presidential candidate decried the 30 percent interest being charged on loans, saying it made it difficult for businesses to grow and create in the country.

“Indebtedness to any nation is worrisome, not just China. The concept of independence is being able to stand on your own; you are not independent if you are indebted to other nations. We need to strengthen our own local trade and when you trade, there should be a balance.

“You cannot always import without exporting; you cannot always breathe in without breathing out, that’s the law of nature; there must be harmony. If you keep on importing and you are not exporting to have a balance of trade, then your country will haemorrhage; we are haemorrhaging.

“All the things that we import, can’t we make them in Nigeria? Each time you import, you are sustaining a job overseas. Our government goes to countries like China to borrow because it is cheaper there.

“But you can also do the same thing here; you can regulate interest rates here and ensure that credit is affordable; we need to indigenise this economy built by Nigerians for Nigerians,” he stated.

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