Former President Muhammadu Buhari has described the action of the Process & Industrial Development (P&ID) in dragging Nigeria to court over a contract not implemented as an attempted heist of historic proportions.
Buhari, whose administration resisted the judgment obtained by the firm for the payment of $6 billion awarded to it in 2017, said in a statement personally issued at the weekend that paying the money which rose to $15 billion with interest, would have crippled government activities in the country.
The former president narrated how he dealt with the matter, pressing members of his administration to do all that was necessary to prevent the money from being paid.
According to him, this came as a former British cabinet minister, Priti Patel, insisted that Nigeria should pay up or become a pariah nation.
While noting that Nigerians should understand the impact of the October 23 judgement by Justice Robin Knowles, he said that had the case gone against Nigeria, the country would have been unable to provide basic needs for the people.
President Buhari pointed out the need for sterner sanctions for Nigerian public officials who connive with foreign criminals to defraud the country.
The statement titled, “A matter of principle,” reads: “Rarely in modern times can so few have tried to take so much from so many. If Nigeria had lost its arbitration dispute with Process & Industrial Development in a London court on 23 October, it would have cost our people close to USD 15 billion.
“We won, and all decent people can sleep easier as a result. Justice Robin Knowles said Nigeria had been the victim of a monstrous fraud.
“But it was a close-run thing. As the judge said: ‘I end the case acutely conscious of how readily the outcome could have been different, and of the enormous resources ultimately required from Nigeria as the successful party to make good its challenge.
“But ordinary Nigerians never took the decisions that ended up before Justice Knowles. Had Nigeria lost, it would have required schools not to be built, nurses not to be trained and roads not to be repaired, on an epic scale, to pay a handful of contractors, lawyers and their allies – for a project that never broke ground.
“How did it get to this point? How did Nigeria prevail? Was this a one-off, or par for a shabby and distasteful course? What are the lessons for the future?
“The ‘P&ID Affair’ was already firmly set by the time I came into office in 2015. A company registered in the British Virgin Islands that no one had heard of, with hardly any staff or assets, had won a contract to build a gas processing plant in Cross Rivers.
“The company was owned by Irish intermediaries who knew Nigeria well and had done business in everything from healthcare to fixing tanks.
The previous government could not supply the gas. The plant was never built. Construction was not started. P&ID did not even buy the land for the facility.
“But the contract, incredibly, was clear: P&ID could sue Nigeria, and claim all the profits it might have made over 20 years as if everything had been completed.
“Nigeria was in court in London, trying to talk down liability and costs. Back at home, fixers were looking to work out a quiet settlement. This is often the way. A lot of contracts end up in dispute.
“P&ID won a settlement in 2017 of USD6 billion, with compound interest. People, including out-of-work ex-British Cabinet Minister Priti Patel, were queuing up to insist we paid, or risk Nigeria becoming an untrustworthy trade pariah.
“It was clear that far from the whole story had been told. I tasked Abba Kyari, my chief-of-staff and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, with finding a way, even at that late stage and despite so much conflicting advice, to get us a fair hearing.
“Working with a number of different agencies and senior officials of government, we began to find a huge amount of evidence, not all of which Justice Knowles was to accept. But he agreed that P&ID had paid bribes.
“He agreed that one of P&ID’s founders had committed perjury. And he agreed that P&ID had somehow found in its possession a steady supply of Nigeria’s privileged internal legal documents, outlining our plans, strategies and problems.
“My own view is that this whole, sorry affair shows how important it is to follow the legal process in resolving a dispute. It shows that given time and opportunity for each side to present their case, the temple of justice can satisfactorily resolve all disputes without resorting to extrajudicial measures.
“It was definitely worth the struggle: this was an attempted heist of historic proportions, an attempt to steal from the treasury a third of Nigeria’s foreign reserves.
“But even at this moment, we should note what the English judge cautioned. The arbitration process in London ‘was a shell that got nowhere near the truth.
“We need better contracts, in the public and private sectors. And we need greater transparency: the reality is that had P&ID not conjured up quite such an outlandish ransom, they may have found themselves in the same place as the myriad other invisible contractors who all too often quietly take Nigeria for many millions in out-of-court settlements.
“Sterner sanctions are indicated for Nigerian public officials who have been proven to connive with foreign criminals to defraud our country.
“Nigeria has won this battle with corruption, but the war is far from over. As Justice Knowles concluded: This case has also, sadly, brought together a combination of examples of what some individuals will do for money.
“Driven by greed and prepared to use corruption; giving no thought to what their enrichment would mean in terms of harm for others. Others in the present case include the people of Nigeria, already let down in so many ways over the history of this matter by a number of individuals in politics and administration whose duty it was to serve them and protect them. Well said.”
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Petrol pump price hits N630/litre as more filling stations shut down
Amid the ongoing crisis regarding the availability of fuel across the country, the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) now stands at approximately N625 to N630 per litre…….
Despite over N200bn expenditure, FG silent on conduct of population census
Despite over N200 billion spent on preparations for the Population and Housing Census since 2014, the Federal Government has kept mute on the conduct of the postponed exercise...…..
FULL LIST: Rema, Davido, Asake, Yemi Alade win at Trace Live Awards 2023
Nigerian Afrobeat acts Rema, Davido, Asake, Yemi Alade, and Burna Boy have each won different categories of nominations at the 2023 Trace Live Awards....….…
Davido, Chioma step out with newborn twins
Nigerian singer Davido and his wife, Chioma, have stepped out for the first time with their twins in the United States. A video of Chioma smiling while carrying the babies has surfaced online....…
NOTES FROM ATLANTA: Neither Tinubu nor Atiku forged credentials with INEC
THE storm over the legitimacy of the credential President Bola Tinubu submitted to INEC has managed to rope in former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who instigated it in the first place. But available facts show that neither of them presented forged documents to INEC.....…
Ondo Assembly suspends impeachment of deputy gov Aiyedatiwa
The Ondo State House of Assembly has suspended the impeachment proceedings against Deputy Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa following the refusal of the Chief Judge of the state, Olusegun Odusola, to set up a panel for the exercise...…
EDITORIAL: The NDLEA/police clash over marijuana in Kogi
INTER-AGENCY squabbles at official and unofficial levels among the security operatives in the country are a common phenomenon. They signpost gross indiscipline on the part of the supposedly regimented entities which are ironically saddled with the responsibility of law enforcement……
