NGF AND THE US$418M PARIS AGENCY FEES

Nosike Ogbuenyi urges the governors to honour the agreement they freely entered

In recent times, the payment of the approved $418m service fee to four consultants who facilitated the US$13 billion Paris/London Clubs refunds to the 36 states and 774 local governments has been hugging unnecessary controversy. This follows the opposition of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) leadership to deductions from their share of the Federation Account for the payment. The NGF is calling for forensic audit of the approved part payments and further investigation of the consultants by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The governors are also contending that the approved US$418m part payment was too much for the states to shoulder. The NGF has even hired a ranking Lagos lawyer to file a suit seeking to halt the release of the money to the consultants despite presidential approval of same.

The approved consultancy payments are service fees which are supposed to have been deducted at source by the Federal Government during the payment of the various tranches of London/Paris Club refunds to states beginning from 2016. The states had collected the entire payments then with the promise that the service fees accruing to the consultants would be set aside and paid to them. But that pledge has not been kept thereby constraining the consultants to file various suits in court to compel the government to pay. They got judgments in their favour which left the Federal Government at the mercy through invocation of garnishee orders.

The Federal Government in approving the US$418million part payment to the four consultants came out with a staggered payment arrangement which spreads the deductions over a period of 10 years. The reason was to make the payment easier to bear by the states. The FG has demonstrated commitment to have the matter of the payment resolved to avoid further embarrassment of government through enforcement of garnishee orders by the consultants.

Matter of fact, enforcement actions have already been carried out against the Federal Government in various cases through garnishee orders absolute made against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) attaching Federal Government funds.

Under the prevailing situation, the Federal Government is bearing liability over the actions of NGF and ALGON in not paying the consultants when they reaped the refunds. Yet the consultants were lawfully engaged by them. It smacks of selfishness and lack of honour for the NGF to be resisting efforts to defray the liability incurred by them without providing any safety net for the Federal Government. And should the Federal Government accede to the request of the governors by not implementing the payment, the implication is that the judgment creditors (consultants) will continue to threaten or take actual steps against the assets and funds of the Federal Government and its agencies. Such enforcements would come with the accompanying adverse effects and legal burden that would be suffered by the Federal Government and its officials and not the NGF or ALGON.

The NGF’s contention that the US$418million approved fees is huge cannot suffice when one remembers that the staggering sum of $13billion fully reaped by the states and the LGAs came through the sweat of the consultants. There were also other direct or indirect salutary effects of the consultants’ services such as the $18b accumulated debts earlier written off by the London/Paris Club creditors and the US$12billion debt buy back deal. This hindsight, together with the binding agreements, explains why the Federal Government, which knows more about the matter, has demonstrated clear commitment to making the payments in order to keep faith with agreement terms and avoid further embarrassing judgment enforcements.

It is not enough for the NGF to accuse the consultants and some Federal Government officials of corruption in a futile bid to demonize them into abandoning the quest for the payment. Honouring the terms of the agreements with them will enhance rather than diminish the anti-corruption stance of the current administration. It will preserve the integrity of the governors as well. There are still many Nigerians who will not fall for the cheap antic of spraying the odium of corruption on persons and companies asking to be paid for agreed lawful services rendered.

The fact should not be glossed over that many consultants are involved and that there were many consent agreements. The agreements were essentially class actions entered into either between the states via NGF and the consultants or between the consultants and the local governments through ALGON. It is both unlawful and dishonourable for the NGF to attempt to foot drag midway on the deals they willingly signed with the consultants after benefitting from the refunds they labored to bring about.

Also the blame for the duplication of consultants which led to the ballooning of the service fees should be laid on the doorstep of the NGF and ALGON not the Federal Government or the consultants. If the governors and the local government chairmen had stuck with the initiator of the refund process, Ned Nwoko Associates/Linas International as the sole consultant, the cost would have been far less. But the NGF and ALGON introduced more consultants and contractors once the signals began to emerge that Ned Nwoko had won the case for them. That was precisely what raised the cost of the consultancy services. The Federal Government knows the truth about the matter.

The President is aware that it is not an issue of corruption on the part of the consultants but bad faith by the Fayemi-led NGF aimed at barricading payments with documentary and judicial backings.

Furthermore, the argument of the Governor Fayemi-led NGF that the London-Paris Club refund is a sovereign debt which ought to be predicated on the consent of the 36 state governors plus approvals by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the National Assembly (NASS) cannot suffice due to the fact that the states under the NGF have already received payments from the same source since 2016 through 2018 and 2019 amounting to trillions of naira without recourse to FEC and NASS approvals.

Similarly, the indemnity issued by the immediate past NGF Chairman, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State with respect to the consultancy payment remains a valid class action which cannot be repudiated by his successor and the incumbent Chairman, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State as untenable or antithetical to the best interest of the forum whereas they had collectively received refunds through processes and authorizations by the same former NGF leadership. The law recognizes leadership as a valid continuum.

The consultants whose efforts and risks culminated in the multi-billion dollars London-Paris Club refunds should be paid their fees without hindrance or grudges. And in factuality, if you risk nothing, you gain nothing. Why begrudge those who staked their lives and careers to fight for a cause while you relaxed in your comfort zone thriving in political and social correctness? As the holy books say, a labourer is entitled to his wages.

The NGF and ALGON should better leave sentiments aside and implement the payment as structured to be made gradually through deductions for 10 years. Some persons may not like the faces or names of some of the consultants who are entitled to the payments, but the question that arises is: Did the consultants facilitate the refunds? The answer is in the affirmative.

It is also irksome that a dogged patriot like Prince Ned Nwoko who is the undisputable initiator and principal facilitator of the refunds is among those being subjected to needless further litigations by the NGF. It smacks of dishonesty and lack of integrity to begin to sing a different song on validly sealed agreements. Of course, the states and the LGAs can’t possibly eat their cake and have it back.

The Federal Government should be commended for the bold policy initiative to honourably liquidate the judgment debts and avoid the agony and calamity of judgment enforcements. It would be belabouring the obvious to state that many states are in short of credibility when it comes to paying for jobs and honouring obligations. The present case about paying Paris Club refund consultants has not deviated from that trajectory.

Twisting of facts and manipulating public opinion to blackmail those who secured the much-applauded Paris-London Club refunds that bailed many states and local governments from severe economic crunch cannot help the governors.

Ogbuenyi, former SA Media to the FCT Minister, wrote from Abuja