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It’s amazing what partisan reporting can do to a nation in distress. Reports that came out of the presidency’s request to the Senate for loans of $ 4.9 billion chose to make headlines with the railway project in Maradi (Republic of Niger) but ignored all other larger projects in the bouquet or lot.
This can probably be to make Nigerians oppose the loan knowing that Nigerians wake up angry every time they hear about loans or the railroad or the Republic of Niger.
The astonishing aspect is that the hated rail project to Maradi is only $ 190 million (0.19 billion) of the $ 4.9 billion. Even the Lagos-Ibadan modernization project of the lot costs $ 200 million, but it was not chosen to make the headlines of history. They said the project President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking $ 4.9 billion for is a rail line to the Republic of Niger, and a few others. By professional handling, this means that this is the signature project in the lot. It is totally unethical to choose a small article to make the front page of a huge amount while larger amounts are staring at you. The tradition is to choose the project with the highest cost, if you want to proceed by cost, or to name the main elements (grouping) as major projects for a loan. Choosing a project that is not the highest amount and that is not the only one in the group of the same projects smacks of evil and an agenda driven story.
Journalists and their editors didn’t bother to mention other projects in the headline. They did not let their readers know in the headline that the projects in the bouquet are in all geopolitical areas. They hid facts so sensitive in the body of the story, knowing their readers too well, that they didn’t bother to click any further let alone read the long story.
They did not want to reveal that the Kano-Niger Republic Rail line had been approved under the administration of Goodluck Jonathan, and that the funding was then stipulated as a loan from China. Whenever the current administration tries to remove them, the media deliberately or ignorantly announce it as a new project with a new loan from Buhari who wants to Islamize Nigeria by a road to Fulani lands. The original railway project devised by the Jonathan administration was to go to Niamey, the capital of the Republic of Niger, but the Buhari administration is working to bring it just across the border to Maradi, presumably for qu Another regime continues to the original destination. If one is not careful, it could be a president from the south who could conclude what a southerner started. Then writers wouldn’t remember where the story began.
The railway line is expected to create a trade route between West Africa (with Nigeria as the center) to North Africa via the Republic of Niger and central Africa. This follows dreams of the African Continents Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) era when Nigeria would seek to move goods through Africa, north and south. It is not strange to think that North Africa wants closer trade links with West Africa, to the point that Morocco is seeking observer status within ECOWAS. They now have a joint fertilizer project with Nigeria.
It is sad to be blind critics, but when political, religious and regional biases add up, it becomes a disease. For journalists, joining this legion becomes a disaster. And it’s!
The biggest reporting error is every reporter calling it a new loan and attacking the Senate for considering the loan. None of them, let alone their editors, cared to know and add to the report that loans are already a law that was part of the 2021 law of the National Assembly during the budget already signed.
The 2021 budget created a deficit of over 5.6 billion naira and offered to finance the deficit with loans. The right time to oppose it was when the proposal was before both chambers of the National Assembly in October 2020. Opposition and critics in recent days should have rejected the loan suggestion, come up with better ways to fund the loan. deficit, or suggest how to balance the budget without loans, or which projects and salaries to cut so as not to have a budget deficit. They fell silent and the budget was approved and enacted, which meant that the loan allowance was sacrosanct. The same critics join the agitators for more wages, more allowances, strikes and calls for more weapons of war to fight terrorism, more funding for education, health and more projects in all the states.
Now, whenever the presidency asks for the approval of the upper house as required by law (that the loan you approved in principle is about to be taken), the ignorant crowd suddenly remembers that they are patriots who want to save unborn Nigerians from all responsibility. Sad!
It is important to note that projects which rely on loans are still being implemented and the FG can only pull in installments. When a new installment needs to be drawn, they call it fresh loan. Even though this project is new but was budgeted for, asking for it is no longer new.
Journalists should please get these basics right so that they can get some respect, as outsiders and partners read these reports as well. Sure, a critic can attack the president, but build your foundation well, fill in the gaps, and then launch the attack. Do not do it in the most ignominious way and draw insults to an intellectual profession.
Nigeria now has three eminent citizens as global actors (Amina Mohammed at the UN, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the WTO and Akinwunmi Adesina at the AfDB). They have international colleagues and assistants who read and can prick their ribs saying, see what your brothers are writing.
-Oby Ndukwe
President, Citizens in Search of Truth Initiative
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