Olu Allen
There is a difference between development… and outsourcing your development.
And if we are not careful, we will clap for the latter while paying the interest on it for the next 25 years.
Let’s slow this UK–Nigeria port deal down. Don’t let the noise and the validation seekers drown out the math.
£746 million is coming in as a loan to fix our ports.
On the surface, it sounds like progress.
But look closer.
This is not a grant. It is not aid. It is structured finance with strings so thick you can tie a ship to them.
A chunk of that money never really “enters” Nigeria’s economy. It is a pass-through—landing in Lagos briefly, only to be wired back to the point of origin.
At least £236 million goes directly to British companies.
£70 million is tied to British steel.
And buried in the fine print is a procurement clause mandating that a significant portion of the contracts must be sourced from the UK.
So ask yourself:
Are we rebuilding Nigerian ports…
or are we taking out a high-interest loan to finance British industry and calling it development?
This is where the conversation should become uncomfortable.
Because the UK is doing exactly what every serious country does: protecting its own economy first. No apologies to them.
They are playing chess while we are struggling to recognize the board.
The real question is:
Who is protecting Nigeria?
If we must borrow, and it seems we must, why aren’t we tying these deals to:
· Local steel production (to restart Ajaokuta by force of demand)?
· Indigenous contractors (instead of acting as a landing pad for foreign firms)?
· Technology transfer (so that after five years, we can maintain what was built)?
· Capacity building that outlives the loan (so we aren’t flying in expats for basic repairs)?
Because infrastructure is not just about what is built.
It is about who gains power, who gains employment, and who gains leverage after it is built.
Yes, the ports may improve. There might be new cranes and smoother clearance times.
But if, at the end of the day:
· The debt sits with Nigeria (and our unborn children),
· The jobs sit abroad (assembled elsewhere),
· The expertise remains imported (with no knowledge transfer clause),
…then we must ask ourselves a harder question:
Did we build ports… or did we build dependency?
Development is not just about movement.
It is about direction.
A nation that keeps borrowing to empower others, while its own steel rots and its own engineers sit unemployed, must one day confront who it is really working for.
Shame on the crowd who are dying for validation, spinning a loan into an investment.
We are not investors. We are customers paying interest.
Let that sink in before you clap.
Allen writes from Kano,he writes on public affairs and promote good governance.
