INTRO: It is no longer news, the legal battle between the Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) Limited, and Nigeria. The case is rooted in the 2010 20-year long agreement between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the P&ID in which the latter (a UK firm) agreed to process natural gas in Cross River State for Nigeria’s electric power supply free of charge while the company would be allowed to sell the by-products (propane, butane, ethane) from the gas processing for profits. Nigeria on their side agreed to provide the necessary pipelining and supply of the natural gas to the processing company. The two parties are now in courts in the UK and USA.
The reason why P&ID is in courts with Nigeria was that Nigeria failed to do her side of the bargain, causing the company to lose a sum of 20 years of profit from the sale of gas by-products.
In the words of the co-founder of P&ID, Brendan Cahill, “P&ID was eager to deliver this promising project in the hope of bringing electricity to millions and helping Nigeria reach its full potential. Unfortunately, the government did not uphold its side of the contract, so the project failed. Having been unable to find a willing partner in government to resolve the matter forced us to seek remediation for the repudiation of our contract, which has resulted in an arbitration award against Nigeria.”
Yes, since 2012, the parties to the contract were in courts, and in 2017, the London tribunal unanimously agreed that Nigeria repudiated its role in the contract and awarded a sum of $6.6 billion damages to P&ID against Nigeria. That is not all, there would be a daily interest rate of $1.2 million which is now about $2.8 billion. As a matter of fact, the total package of the debt is now $8.9 billion.
It is quite tear-jerking the mess the politicians are making Nigeria. I don’t need a soothsayer to tell that the sabotage of this beautiful agreement that would have delivered some more 2000MW to the national electric grid, and even the initial award of the contract to the seemingly obscure P&ID was due to gains accruable to a person or group of persons in Nigeria. I read in the news where some of the government officials were celebrating the stay of execution of the award in the UK court, which I believe will be short-lived. Yes, Nigeria is trying to defend the indefensible! The corrupt politicians have even failed to realize that delay is dangerous as the interest figures are swiftly increasing, and greater legal service costs being incurred. For instance, some $2 million legal fee was reported to have been paid to the ex-Commissioner of Justice of Lagos Olasupo Shasore (SAN), even as the legal luminary was accused of working against Nigeria for his personal benefits in the case. Who did this to Nigeria? Please God, come to Nigeria.
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