The din over the controversial $418m Paris Club Refund contract controversy has become so disturbingly loud that it can no longer be ignored. The time has come for the government to take an impartial look at the issues involved and take a definitive stance on the matter.
This complicated legal tussle involves the governors of Nigeria's 36 states, under the aegis of the Governors Forum and persons who purportedly undertook contracts on their behalf in the process of securing Paris Club Deduction Refunds to their states. In discussing the issue, it is pertinent to go back to the genesis of this drama.
The Nigerian government in 2006, in a historic move agreed to pay $12b to get $18b debt written off by the Paris Club of international creditors. Since the $12 was paid from the federation account, there were petitions from some states and local governments that were not debtors to the Paris Club. Such states and LGAs demanded refunds, a protracted process that led to the controversial emergence of the consultants.
The refunds, which took time to be made, were in tranches. In making those refunds, the federal government had intended to help the state government settle some of their burgeoning debts and salaries owed to their workers.
Curiously, the state governments came up with the idea of consultants who, supposedly, facilitated the payment of the amounts that the federal government had decided to refund to them. That was how they ended up with consultancy services.
It is the demand for payment for such contrived consultancy services that is at the centre of this ongoing controversy. Those who supposedly acted as the consultants and now want to be paid by the states include Dr Chris Asoluka (owner of the business NIPAL Consulting Network, Linas International Limited, Joe Odey Agi, (operating with the business name Joe Agi, SAN & Associates).
Other so-called consultants are Riok Nigeria Limited, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, Dr Ted Iseghohi Edwards, Panix Alert Security Systems Limited, Dr George Uboh, Ned Munir Nwoko, Prince Orji Orizu and Olaitan Bello.
Altogether, they are demanding the payment of $418 to them, with each of them receiving different amounts.
This has led to several court cases, one of which had even received judgment at the Supreme Court, with at least one still pending currently.
The current case involves the 36 state governments through their Attorneys-General suing the President, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Accountant-General of the Federation, the Minister of Finance, and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Each of the persons above is joined in the suit in respect of the roles they played. The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and his counterpart in the Ministry of Finance, for instance, are joined in the suit for their support for the so-called consultants to be paid.
The DMO on its part is joined in the suit in respect of the Promissory Notes it has issued to the so-called consultants, through which their claims will be deducted from the Federation Account against the states, etc.
Without prejudice to the court cases, Daily Trust, hereby, calls for thorough investigations into this saga. We hinge our call on two recent developments on this matter. The first is President Muhammadu Buhari's reported order at the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday, August 3, 2022, halting the planned $418 million refund to the consultants. That presidential order reportedly came after some millions of dollars had been released to some of the consultants on the orders of the AGF and the Minister of Finance, and the protests that followed the report at the FEC meeting.
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The investigation should seek to unravel the consultants, what specific roles they played, individually or collectively in the release of the amounts to the states?
Who engaged them and on what terms? Where are their letters of engagement? How were they selected among others.
Also, the various governors who were involved in this matter must be made to answer some questions, whether they are still in office or not. Besides every actor, they are central to the whole drama. They should explain to Nigerians and people of their states the enhancements that the consultants brought to the receipt of the refunds, and in whose interest they acted. In our view, the investigations should be handled by an independent panel or commission, to be set up by the federal government. All those found to have committed infractions must be made to face the full wrath of the laws of the land.
