General News
By Kadiri Abdulrahman
RECENTLEY, a French court seized three jets owned by the Nigerian government amid a long-standing dispute with a Chinese company.
The dispute is connected with a 2007 contract between a Chinese firm, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment, and a Nigerian sub-national entity, Ogun State.
The Ogun State government under, the leadership of the then governor, Gbenga Daniel, entered into a joint venture agreement with the Chinese firm to create the Ogun Guangdong Free Trade Zone Company in 2007.
The agreement followed a bilateral investment treaty signed by the Nigerian and Chinese governments in 2001.
According to reports, the Ogun Guangdong Free Trade Zone Company established a contract with the Zhongshan’s parent company with the aim to develop an industrial park in the free-trade zone and possibly build factories in the park.
The idea was to develop a massive industrial park to attract investors.
A free-trade zone is an area where goods can be moved in and out of a country at reduced or no taxes or fees.
There are other such zones in Nigeria, like the one in Lagos where the Dangote Petroleum Refinery was built.
According to Zhongshan, the Ogun Free Trade Zone was featured as a significant international investment by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
The agreement was terminated in 2016, leading to a lawsuit by the Zhongshan company by the succeeding government headed Sen. Ibikunle Amosu.
The injunction of the French court is to seize the Nigerian assets, including a Dassault Falcon 7X in Paris, a Boeing 737, and an Airbus A330 valued at over 100 million dollars.
Two of the jets are said to be undergoing maintenance in Switzerland.
The Chinese firm had also concluded plans to seize more Nigerian assets in six other countries, including the United States, Belgium, Canada, France, Singapore and the British Virgin Islands.
The firm had reportedly filed lawsuits in Nigerian courts seeking reinstatement of its contractual rights, but the legal proceedings were discontinued.
In March 2021, an arbitration tribunal – chaired by the president of the UK Supreme Court – awarded 74.5m dollars in compensation to the Chinese firm, but Ogun State refused to pay.
Some Nigerian-owned buildings in the UK were also seized by a UK court in relation to the same dispute.
Again, a United States Court of Appeal recently ruled that Zhongshan could proceed with its efforts to confiscate Nigeria’s assets abroad.
The court also rejected Nigeria’s defence of sovereign immunity.
However, the Nigerian authorities accused Zhongshan of misrepresenting facts to courts in the UK, the US and France.
The Federal Government said that none of Nigeria’s assets will be abandoned to Chinese investors.
Mr Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, said the Federal Government is fully aware of efforts being made by the Ogun government to reach an amicable resolution on the matter.
Onanuga said that at the time the Ogun State contract was revoked, Zhongshan had only erected a perimeter fence on the land earmarked for the free-trade zone.
According to him, this arm-twisting tactic by the Chinese company is the latest in a long list of failed moves to attach Nigerian government-owned assets in foreign jurisdictions.
“The material facts in the transaction between the Ogun State government and Zhongshan point to another P&ID case.
“Unscrupulous and questionable individuals falsely present themselves as investors with the sole objective of undercutting and scamming governments in Africa,” he said.
He said that Zhongshan withheld vital information and misled the Judicial Court in Paris into attaching the Nigerian government’s presidential jets, which were on routine maintenance in France.
He said that the use and nature of the presidential jets as assets of a sovereign entity whose assets are protected by diplomatic immunity forbid any foreign court from issuing an order against them.
Mohammed Idris, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, said that the government was working to discharge the order by the French court.
Idris said that the government would always work to protect national assets from predators and shylocks who masquerade as investors.
He said that the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation was addressing the issue.
An Economist, Dr Chijioke Ekechukwu, said that the seizure of assets of Nigeria, especially the presidential aircraft, was the most embarrassing situation the country could have gone through amongst the comity of nations.
Ekechukwu said that states and their actors should be punished for the embarrassment.
“The guarantee of states by the federal government should be made very strict and seriously supervised by a responsible committee of the Federal Government going forward,” he said.
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) described the seizure of the presidential jets as a monumental disgrace and a show of shame.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said that the development was due to negligence on the part of the Nigerian government.
“The government failed to professionally handle this matter, leading to this international disgrace.
“If it were a civilized society, some persons would have either resigned or been fired,” he said.
A lawyer, Titilope Anifowoshe, said that the incident was indicative of the deep financial entanglements that the country has found itself in over the years.
Anifowoshe said that the situation underscored the urgent need for introspection and decisive action.
“This incident is more than just a legal or diplomatic issue. It is a reflection of the consequences of poor financial management, excessive borrowing, and a lack of strategic foresight in previous administrations.
” It is disheartening to see our sovereignty compromised and our national pride challenged on the international stage.
“The targeting of our assets by foreign entities serves as a painful wake-up call that the decisions we make today will echo into the future, for better or for worse,” she said.
She called on Nigerian leaders at all levels to prioritise fiscal responsibility and reduce their reliance on foreign debt.
However, the Director-General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Patience Oniha, said that the office had no role to play in the agreement as it was not debt-related.
“From the information in the media narrating the nature of the underlying transaction and allegation of breach of contract, there is not a loan involved or guarantee issued by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“In this case, the DMO does not have a role. The Federal Ministry of Justice or the agency in charge of Free Trade Zones should be more relevant to the transaction, ” she said.
A former Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel, under whose watch the contract was signed, promised to support the Nigerian government in the legal dispute with Zhongshan.
According to the former governor, it is also important to note that this is a very sensitive matter involving our collective national assets and commonwealth, which every patriotic Nigerian should feel concerned about ” he said.
This case is coming closely on the heels of the Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) case, where Nigeria was on the verge of incurring 11 billion dollars in judgement liabilities.
” Nigerians are worried about the carelessness of government officials at federal and state levels which puts the country in such embarrassing situations internationally.
Stakeholders urge the Federal Government to be more diligent in its oversight of bilateral and multilateral business transactions by the states. (NAN)
1st September, 2024.
C.E.
Tags: ZHONGSHAN
