Nigeria’s Minister of Transport, Chibuike Amaechi, has dismissed allegations that the country offered its sovereignty as collateral when signing a $400m (£300m) loan with China.
The loan agreement – signed in 2014 with China’s Export-Import Bank – contained a clause about Nigeria waiving its immunity on sovereignty if it defaults on repayment.
Lawmakers had questioned the intent of the clause and many in the country speculated that it had conceded the country’s sovereignty to China, but Mr Amacehi has told the BBC that is not the case.
“The [Chinese] are saying that if we are unable to pay then we should go to court according to the agreement,” he said.
He accused the country’s main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), of misinterpreting the clause to mean that the Chinese would appoint administrators to govern Nigeria if the country was unable to repay the loan.
