By Ayodele Johnson

Throughout the Muhammadu Buhari presidency laid a burden that Nigerians would not be able to bear. It tied in with an $11 billion payment that Process & Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) was expecting from their country over its claim of contract breach that amounted to a $6.6 billion arbitration award being granted to it in a 2017 verdict.

But on Monday, 23 October, 2023, a Business and Property Court in London in the United Kingdom overturned the debt judgment after the presider Sir Robin Knowles CBE ruled that an earlier gas supply agreement with P&ID had the element of fraud all around it.

In the verdict given today lies the yield resulting from all the fervent efforts that the Federal Government of Nigeria over six years had invested in making sure that the debt was cancelled. The government believed the contract to be a scam as the British Virgin Islands-registered P&ID had no intention of playing its role as stated in the contract that was reportedly breached.

Giving his notes at the judgment, Sir Robin Knowles CBE said that he has “not accepted all of Nigeria’s allegations”; he however feels that “the arbitration awards were obtained by fraud and the awards were, and the way in which they were procured was, contrary to public policy”.

P&ID, in a 20-year gas supply and processing agreement that was entered in 2010 was to receive natural gas (wet gas) from Nigeria and then convert up to 85% of the supply to lean gas which will be returned to the country for its energy needs although that did not happen.

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The company, just as soon as President Muhammadu Buhari was settling in to tackle the enormous tasks confronting his administration, had come forward with the claim but had no proof that it had deployed resources which it needed to be compensated for.

Having successfully appealed the initial verdict, the Federal Government through a spokesperson has sounded out a warning to other companies like P&ID who would want to take advantage of clumsiness created by corrupt officials within the scene.

“This is a historic victory for Nigeria. The brazen fraud perpetrated by P&ID has finally been revealed for all to see despite their consistent attempts to frustrate the passage of justice. Let this be a lesson to any party that would seek to defraud the Nigerian people for their own benefit.

“This victory will serve as a cornerstone of Nigeria’s continuing efforts to challenge and stamp out corruption wherever it might be found.

“Over US$11 billion of our people’s money was at stake. The FRN is confident that this judgment will draw a line in the sand, ensuring that any parties who think African nations are an easy target for exploitation are forced to think again.”

Four Presidential Lifecycles

It looks like justice has been served. Four serving Nigerian Presidents lived through the lifecycle of the preposterous scam. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was struggling to overcome illness during his presidency when the agreement was entered on 11 January 2010. Then Goodluck Jonathan took over by the mid-year and stayed on for up to five years without questions being asked.

Sadly, it was Muhammadu Buhari assuming office in May 2015 who had to answer for it all – the past sloppiness in detecting flaws by officials, as well as enabling graft. President Bola Tinubu, five months since entering office, has now declared victory for Nigeria. It was reaping the credits that the Buhari presidency should be getting when it challenged P&ID’s claims in court, although government is a continuity.

Mr Tinubu giving a remark through a press release after the Monday judgment said: “This landmark judgment proves conclusively that nation states will no longer be held hostage by economic conspiracies between private firms and solitarily corrupt officials who conspire to extort and indebt the very nations they swear to defend and protect.

“Today’s victory is not for Nigeria alone. It is a victory for our long exploited continent and for the developing world at large, which has for too long been on the receiving end of unjust economic malpractice and overt exploitation.

“Nigeria is appreciative of the tremendous efforts of the defense team and acknowledges the role of the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Office of the Attorney-General in the process of defending Nigeria’s interest in this case.”