Even though scholars from around the world have debunked the charge and there’s no evidence to support it, the Chinese debt trap meme is alive and well in some of Nigeria’s leading newspapers. The ongoing Chinese loan controversy in Nigeria has brought the issue to the front page, where a sizeable number of journalists and editorial boards are seemingly convinced that China has seized strategic assets in various countries who’ve failed to repay their loans.

The Guardian newspaper posted a tweet today promoting its Tuesday editorial that included references to six countries (interestingly they didn’t include Zambia on the list which they did mention in their editorial) that have purportedly suffered the consequences of Chinese predatory lending (which, of course, is not accurate).