15 hours Ago By Rapheal
The loss of power by President Goodluck Jonathan to Mohammed Buhari in 2015 came with a lot of buzz. The central point of public commentary following the election was that Buhari would probe Jonathan. Probing Jonathan would mean probing his ministers.
Somehow, the Buhari persona as a stoic military officer spread fear of the probe and got into many of Jonathan’s ministers. At a valedictory dinner with his ministers, Jonathan addressed his team and encouraged them to face the future with courage. During his address, he commented that he would like Buhari to institute a class probe dating back to 1999.
I recall Jonathan saying that he would like the probe to be detailed into the past because he too would like to know why Nigeria has a huge outstanding judgement debt. Buhari’s failure to institute the probe meant that the lid on the huge judgement debt Jonathan talked about remained firmly fixed. However, arbitration in Paris, between Nigeria and a private energy company, Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, is a pointer to the sort of exhumations that could have come up had Buhari made good his threat to probe his predecessors.
The Paris arbitration involves a private energy firm, Sunrise Power operated by Mr. Leno Adesanya, which dragged Nigeria before the International Arbitration Court claiming $2.3b in compensation for the termination of a contract, worth $6 billion, to build a power plant at Mambila, in Taraba state on “build, operate and transfer” basis.
The contract was said to have been awarded under the Olusegun Obasanjo regime while Mr Olu Agunloye was Minister of Power. According to available information, the contract was allegedly signed and awarded by Agunloye a few hours after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had rejected it. Agunloye was in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for issues relating to the award of the contract and had been on remand at Kuje Correctional Center.
He is currently on bail following a court order. He had claimed that Obasanjo approved the award of the contract to Sunrise Power. Both Obasanjo and Buhari have appeared before the court to testify.
While Obasanjo insisted that at no time did he approve the award of the contract, Buhari claimed he could not approve a purported settlement agreement of $200m, entered into by his Power Minister, Mamman Saleh and his Water Resources counterpart with owners of Sunrise Power, because he was “convinced that there was no basis for Sunrise’s claim.” Saleh, who manned the Power Ministry from 2019 to 2023, is now standing trial for fraud amounting to N33.8 billion in relation to the power project.
Obasanjo, who had said that the approval limit of ministers under his government was N25m, also said he volunteered to testify before the court after he had severally challenged Agunloye to show proof of where he derived the power to award the contract of $6b since he (Obasanjo), as president, declined a request to approve it. He said: “I volunteered myself to testify in this case. Nobody sent me to do so.
President (Bola Ahmed) Tinubu did not ask me to do so as speculated. I didn’t speak to anybody about my intention to testify. I decided to testify because of the statement made on the matter by Olu Agunloye.
I considered his claims atrocious and thought it necessary to set the records straight...
my directive as stated above cannot by any stretch of imagination reasonably be extended to mean that issuing “a letter of comfort” translates to an award of contract. It is therefore clear that at no time was any contract awarded to Sunrise Power by anyone in my administration.” Agunloye disagreed with Obasanjo.
He said: “The government seeks to use me as a scapegoat to portray systemic corruption to the arbitration panel and undermine Sunrise’s claims. Challenges stem from personal conflicts between President Obasanjo and two of his associates: former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Leno Adesanya, owner of Sunrise Power Company. Obasanjo feigned ignorance of the BOT contract during his presidency and later distorted the facts in public and judicial settings.
“The arbitration in France arose from actions taken by successive administrations, particularly under President Buhari. In 2017, then-Minister of Power Babatunde Fashola bypassed a 2012 agreement signed under President Goodluck Jonathan with Sunrise and awarded the contract to another company. Despite advice from the Chinese government to resolve the dispute amicably, the FGN failed to honour two settlement agreements, leading Sunrise to return to arbitration.
The government is spreading misinformation and using me as a pawn to divert attention from the actions of its officials and four former presidents who handled the project over two decades.” On his part, Buhari commenting on why he declined to approve the purported out-of-court settlement agreement said: “While I understood that my ministers of Justice, Power and Water Resources were approached by Sunrise and were engaging with various stakeholders that were involved in the project to resolve the issues blocking the project’s implementation, at no time did I specifically instruct them to enter into and conclude any settlement agreement with Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited. Indeed, when the proposed settlement agreement and addendum were presented to me for my consideration and approval on 20th April 2020, I refused to approve the settlement deal because I was convinced that there was no basis for Sunrise’s claim.
” This column is not the court of arbitration. Just a ‘homily’ to state that the ongoing arbitration process in Paris sheds some light on a form of official corruption which is perpetrated by members of the executive arm of the government against the country. It makes one think, or feel, that if all contracts awarded by government ministers, for which payments are disputed, are thoroughly reviewed, there is no impossibility that many contracts which were awarded without due process (approval by FEC), or ones similar to that which has landed Sunrise and Nigeria in Paris, will be unearthed.
Perhaps, that was why Jonathan, at his valedictory, questioned the huge judgment debt hanging on Nigeria’s neck. Like him, many Nigerians would like to know too. It also could be suggestion that some ministers abuse the powers of their offices by drawing on their supposed closeness to the President to award contracts that are beyond their approval limits fully aware that the termination would lead to a legal dispute that may be settled out-of-court in favour of the contractor and which judgement debt would be drawn from government coffers for sharing among principal actors in the deal.
Principal actors in such deals are usually ministers, the contractor(s), officials of the ministry and a chain of others who would insist that the government pays the debt. There is no other way to explain the deal. It had always been a racketeering trap through which some government appointees enrich themselves for life.
The case of P&ID follows the same pattern. Come to think of it, Obasanjo had said the approval limit of ministers under his government was N25m. Now, imagine how Agunloye allegedly breached this and got away with it until the Tinubu government started asking questions.
If the Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari administrations failed to show courage in seeking solutions to knotty issues, the Tinubu administration is not relenting. The courage that Tinubu has shown in this matter is significant..
