Endless Dispute over Paris Club Refund

With the dispute between the consultants and the 36 state governors over the non-payment of the $418 million consultancy fees from the Paris Club refund pending in courts, Alex Enumah writes that the parties should wait for the judiciary instead of the media war

The last has certainly not been heard of the controversy between the consultants and the governors of the 36 states of the federation over the non-payment of the consultants’ $418 million Paris Club refund. The governors last week picked holes in the arguments adduced by one of the consultants, Ned Nwoko to justify the payment of consultants engaged as a result of Paris Club loans.

Nwoko, while reacting to the flurry of allegations and controversiea trailing his company’s demand for the payment of fees from the state governments and local government councils in the country penultimate Saturday, had stated that his firm was owed only $68million and not $418million.

He frowned at the recent outbursts of the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, regarding the Paris Club refund, accusing him of telling lies over the payment of their entitlements. Nwoko had also claimed that the governors took $100million for Osun and Ekiti elections.

But in a swift statement issued by the Director of Media and Public Affairs, NGF Secretariat, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, the governors accused Nwoko of attempting to blur the real facts and legal issues in controversy by dishing out blatant lies and half-truths.

Before Nwoko’s outburst, the NGF had described the position of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on the controversial ‘$418 million Paris Club contractors’ fee as “fraudulent and self-serving”. The governors vowed to pursue the issue before the law court to a logical conclusion so as to know the next steps to take on the matter.

On Thursday August 11, Malami had stated that the state governors had no justification to protest against deductions from the Paris Club refund paid to the consultants they hired as they created the liability whose payment they had also indemnified. He accused the state governors of reneging on their agreement with the consultants, insisting they have no basis for complaining about the Paris Club refund deductions paid to consultants they hired.

“The governor’s forum comprising all the governors commonly agreed on the engagement of a consultant to provide certain services for them relating to the recovery of the Paris Club. So, it was the governor’s forum under the federal government in the first place that engaged the consultant,” Malami said.

According to him, among the components of the claim presented for the consideration of the federal government by the governors, was a component related to the payment of these consultants, implying that the governors had recognized the consultants and upheld their claims.

Bello-Barkindo, while reacting, urged Nwoko and the other consultants to end the media war and direct all energies towards defending the appeals. He said the NGF and its leadership remained focused and determined to diligently pursue all appeals on the Judgments on the Paris Club refunds.

He insisted that there was no collective agreement between the consultants and the NGF, adding that the forum has requested the consultants to provide evidence of work done. He maintained that there was no component that compels the governors’ forum to pay consultants anything, and there was no agreement between the consultants collectively and governors collectively.

“All that it requests of the AGF and the consultants is to allow the appeal processes to run and be exhausted. It may be that the consultants will successfully defend the appeals after which they will be paid. However, if they lose as Riok Nigeria Limited has lost; which is the most likely verdict that shall befall all the other consultants; let the public funds in issue remain protected,” he said.

The statement further read: “Not surprisingly, the desperate, spurious and futile advocacy mounted and coordinated by the AGF on behalf of the so-called Paris Club consultants to justify the plundering of the humongous sum of $418.9m from the public treasury of the states and local governments continued on Saturday August 20, 2022. The facts are and will always remain: whether the claims of the consultants are lawful and justified under our Constitution and whether any Judgment which is a subject of a pending appeal can be enforced or executed as the consultants now attempt to do? If both questions are answered in the negative, it does not matter if the contracts leading to the claims were entered into by any public official, past or present.

“No person or persons can agree to blatantly circumvent our Constitution and get away with it. Neither is the period when Judgments were obtained of consequence in this case…. While Mr. Ned Nwoko strenuously tried to single out and justify his own bogus claim of $68 million; the total amount which all the consultants working in concert, collectively seek and claim from the states and local governments, albeit unlawfully is $418,953,690.59 no matter how long it takes….

“The use of libelous language on the person of the Chairman of NGF, who has refused to be compromised and has firmly stood his ground on the unconstitutional and unlawful nature of the consultants’ claims, is not helpful to their case either. The NGF hereby states unequivocally that it has not at any time been involved in or been in receipt of $100million or any other funds from Ned Nwoko to finance elections in any state.”

Additionally, the governors stated that it was instructive to note that all the claims by the consultants were rooted in suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/130/13 between: Linas International Ltd & 35 ORS and Federal Government of Nigeria & 3 ORS in which Nwoko instituted and was awarded a bogus 20 percent of the sum of $3,188,078,505.96 from the states and local governments Paris Club refunds.

The governors said the judgement had been challenged on appeal by the states and NGF in Suit No CA/ABJ/PRE/ROEA/CV/327M1/2022: Attorney General of Abia State & 35 Ors Vs Linas International Ltd & 239 Ors.

The governors said the comment by Nwoko “was therefore to separate his own claim of $68 million as if it is not related to the claims of other consultants and is being clever by half. All the consultants claim to have rendered the same or similar service of helping the states and local governments to recover over-deducted Paris Club refunds by the federal government.

“Their cases, therefore, rise or fall together. A poison of the part is a poison of the whole. What is unlawful remains unlawful. Its origin is immaterial and the part or role played by all parties separately or collectively at all times is unlawful and cannot be remedied. As with all unholy alliances, it does appear that the romance between the consultants and their determination to fight together under the AGF’s tacit coordination to pull out of the states the sum of $418,953,690.59 may have suffered a crack.”

Background

In 1985, Nigeria owed the Paris Club creditors $8 billion which grew in interest to about $30 billion in 20 years. By October 2005, the Nigerian delegation headed by then Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, negotiated the Paris Club agreement which stated that the club would “write off” 60 per cent ($18 billion) of Nigeria’s debt to members of the club, while Nigeria would pay back the remaining 40 per cent in two phases.

The federal government entered into agreements with state governments to deduct certain amounts from their federal allocation to service the debts and by April 2006, Nigeria transferred $4.5 billion to the recipient countries to complete repayment of all debt owed to the Paris Club of creditors. However, some states were overcharged in the debt servicing arrangement and applied for a refund.

In December 2016, the federal government agreed to refund the states, but in three tranches. But controversy ensued when some consultants demanded money for their service in facilitating the payment. A former Military Governor of Kaduna State, Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, said some governors agreed with some consultants to pay fees ranging between 10 to 30 per cent to secure a refund.

There was also an allegation that about N3.5 billion was paid out as consultancy fees by a collective of the NGF and some of the funds were reportedly traced to the bank accounts of senior members of the Senate.

President Buhari had approved the payment of the contractors through the issuance of promissory notes, but this was resisted by the NGF. One of the contractors, Riok Nigeria Limited, who is a beneficiary of the Promissory Notes for $142 million and who had lost at the Court of Appeal, further appealed to the Supreme Court in suit no.: SC 337/2018.

The Supreme Court on June 3, dismissed Riok’s appeal as lacking in merit, noting that neither the NGF nor the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) has the power to award contracts and charge the same directly to the Federation Account as done in the case.

The apex court held that funds belonging to a state or local government must be kept in an account belonging to the State or Local Government as the case may be disbursed or expended by the state strictly in the manner and for the purposes prescribed in the Constitution and an Appropriation Law.

The dismissal of Riok’s case by the Supreme Court also affected the payment to two private lawyers to Riok – Nwafor Orizu ($1.2 million) and Olaitan Bello ($215 million) who were also beneficiaries of Promissory Notes issued by the Debt Management Office (DMO). Besides Riok and the two lawyers, the NGF is also challenging the claims made by the other contractors.

Rather than continue to dissipate their energies or inundate the public with the dispute, which is currently pending at the Court of Appeal, many observers are wondering why don’t the consultants save their breath and wait for the case to be determined

“What, perhaps is surprising to many, is that both the consultants and the AGF are aware that the dispute is currently before the Court of Appeal and yet very frequently they choose to hold press conferences on the issue. Why can’t they exercise some patience and wait for the court to determine it? Why are they so in a hurry to get the money? Is there anything they know that Nigerians don’t know?, asked an observer who did not want his name mentioned.