Chinese airports

If the recent substandard renovation of Benin Airport is anything to go by then we appear to just be graduating from sub-standard local constructions to sub-stan-dard foreign ones and the whole issue will just become another avenue for missed opportunities and corrupt enrichment. This isn’t to say that the Chinese are incapable of producing goods […]

If the recent substandard renovation of Benin Airport is anything to go by then we appear to just be graduating from sub-standard local constructions to sub-stan-dard foreign ones and the whole issue will just become another avenue for missed opportunities and corrupt enrichment. This isn’t to say that the Chinese are incapable of producing goods and constructing designs of the highest quality. Far from it, America and European countries are awash with Chinese goods of the highest quality.  It’s just unfortunate that for some reason in their dealings with Nigeria the Chinese are renowned for supplying the sub-standard.
Anyone plying the Asokoro-Zuba expressway in Abuja would marvel at the substandard finishing and poor design. The waving, curving uneven new road is worse than the old roads constructed by Julius Berger decades ago. Visionless short term policy has ensured that despite so many years of their operating in Nigeria there have been no spin off local contractors from Julius Berger who can handle major construction projects. In countries that plan for the future major projects are used to stimulate local industry and ensure transfer of tech-nology and knowledge. It’s so unfortunate that while local industries have closed down due to absence of an enabling environment and lack of infrastructure our markets are full of sub-standard imports from China.
Everything from “rechar-geable” torch-lights that don’t recharge, cigarette lighters that don’t light, electric irons that don’t get hot enough to iron, biros and pens that don’t write, buckets which can’t hold water without the handle falling off, electrical generators that forever need repairing and all sorts of appliances with instructions written in the poorest English that no one can understand is available in our markets all from China! Hopefully our new multi-million dol-lar airport terminals will not follow this trend. One thing we can be very sure of is that the terms of the “loan” agreement will ensure Nigeria will soon be flooded with middle grade Chinese technicians employed to do work which better qualified jobless Nigerians could do. The bulk of the “loan” money will in one way or another be repatriated to China.
Don’t blame the Chinese government after all they are there to help their citizens not Nigeria. In China itself they have zero tolerance for corruption or sub-standard work which is why they are advancing while we are retarding. With all due respect Chinese people aren’t more intelligent or cleverer than Nigerians they are simply more disciplined and less corrupt. It’s not difficult to agree with opposition opinion that the President’s delegation which comprised four Governors, thirteen Ministers, a corps of aides and media personnel as well as his wife and her retinue of hangers on, paints a picture of a country tragically without focus.
The size of the delegation reflects the manifest waste that has led us to seek a loan from China in the first place.  In 2012 the volume of trade between Nigeria and China was over ten billion dollars and skewed heavily to favour the Chinese who purchase less than two percent of the oil we export.  Also of concern is reversal of major contracts negotiated with the Chinese in the past. Yar’Adua’s government cancelled an eight billion dollar contract to modernize the Lagos Kano railway line. The job was awarded to the very same China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CECCC) which is constructing the new airport terminals. Before this time, Obasanjo’s administration cancelled a three billion dollar contract awarded to the Chinese to modernize the railways citing alleged corruption. Since the Chinese themselves are known to have zero tolerance for corruption, it’s evident that allegations could only have concerned the interests of Nigerian worked into the contract sum.
How can we be sure anything has changed? Far more worrisome than the way the Chinese behave towards the Nigerian market is government’s decision to borrow money to renovate airports in the first place. At this particular moment in our history the country is nearing a crossroads where correct decisions need to be taken to avert a catastrophe. This government appears either blissfully unaware, or callously indifferent towards the looming disaster. There is so much suffering in the land. Polytechnics and Universities closed down, an army of unemployed, dilapidated public schools, ill-equipped hospitals, inefficient com-muter services, epileptic power supply and a preca-rious security situation all of which we could have asked the Chinese to help us with. Somehow in the midst of all these problems the construction of new airport terminals has become a priority. These new terminals will not provide any new permanent jobs only temporary employment for labourers during construction.
Furthermore in order to recover their costs all charges at airports will increase thereby making air travel less attractive.  The question which must bother those who voted in our popularly elected President who clearly wants to enforce his right to be re-elected is “what went wrong?” After awakening all our hopes and aspirations for change the “breath of fresh air’ is becoming the same old stale smell of callous indifference to the plight of the poor, white elephant projects and unethical behaviour in high places. This administration increasingly appears to be miring us in debt with no real agenda to rescue the masses living below the poverty line. Despite some successes which must be acknowledged visionless short term policy is overriding long term interests.
Nigeria’s relationship with countries should be geared towards our interests, not theirs. Transfer of knowledge and technology of the highest level should be the basis of our relationship with the Chinese. Is it too much to ask that if they truly have our interests at heart they should strive towards making Nigeria less of a dumping ground and more of an advancing country like China?