Nigerians will trek from Lagos to Ibadan if my regime didn’t borrow Chinese loans— Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday justified his regime’s several borrowings from China, stating that Nigerians may have to walk from Lagos to Ibadan if the loans were not taken.

Speaking during an exclusive interview on Channels TV, Mr Buhari reasoned that it was impossible for his regime to reject Chinese loans without alternative sources of funds.

“We got the Chinese to help us in the rail and the roads. How can we turn that down? If we had turned that down, maybe between Lagos to Ibadan, you will have to walk,” the president argued.

Mr Buhari’s regime has come under severe criticisms for repeatedly borrowing to finance some projects in the country, particularly the railway projects.

As of March 2021, Nigeria’s debt profile from China had risen to $3.40 billion, according to data from the Debt Management Office.

A report by the Nigerian Domestic and Foreign Debt Report, published last year by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), estimated that the country’s total public debt as of September 2020 was N32.2 trillion ($84.57 billion)