Presidential Jets’ embarrassment and abandoned projects; EFCC to the rescue.

By Bolaji O. Akinyemi

In the news recently is the embarrassing seizure of 3 of our Presidential Jets in France. Typical of us, assumptions have taken over the tales in public places, bar parlours are agog with different versions. Many believe it is a propaganda plot on the part of the presidency to advance its desire to buy a new Presidential Jet against the cry of the public, leading on this is Mr Omoyele Sowore, Presidential Candidate in the last election and Publisher of Sahara Reporters. Credence may be given to his position if the report of Sahara Reporters on the Arrival of a new Presidential Jet in Abuja is found to be true. According to Sahara Reporters, the AirBus departed from EuroAirport Bank Mulhouse – Freiburg in France at 4:16PM and landed in Abuja at 8:29PM, Sunday evening.

But are their possibilities of a local interest fanning this Chinese embarrassment against Nigeria and the government of the day? We should not forget quickly the role of Nigeria collaborators in the PID scam against our Nation. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has given us a new national anthem and the National Assembly is playing with the idea of forcing us to memorise it, whence what we need is the taken to heart of the lines of our national anthem.

The lead actor in our present international drama is a man with a very big cap. If caps house wisdom, Ibikunle Amosun will have enough to give Nigeria, given the size of his cap. From his cap however comes the flow of trauma from the international front when there is more than enough on our plates locally.

Mr Ibikunle Amosun, the former governor of Ogun State, southwestern Nigerian from 2011 to 2019, has admitted in a statement personally signed by him that he didn’t do even a cursory assessment of facts before asking a Chinese team to take over the Ogun-Guandong Free Trade Zone in 2012. His decision marked the onset of a protracted legal crisis that led to aggrieved Chinese investors’ recent targeting of Nigeria’s assets in Europe and the United States.

The free trade zone was conceived in 2007 between Ogun State under Governor Gbenga Daniel and Guangdong Xinguang International China Africa Investment Ltd (or China Africa) to facility seamless trade between Nigeria and China in Igbesa, Ogun State. China Africa, the major investor at 60 per cent of the stake, was developing the 10,000 hectares facility when, in 2012, a year after Mr Amosun assumed office, another firm that identified itself as Zhongfu International Investment Ltd came in with tales about how the place was being poorly administered and thereafter sought to manage it.

Mr Amosun, in his statement, said he subsequently asked Zhongfu investors to take over as the interim managers of the trade zone before his administration could find time to investigate the allegations.

“Zhongfu International Investment FXE, pretending to be a concerned and genuine tenant and Zone stakeholder, volunteered very damaging and destructive information about the official representatives of Guangdong Province, the Joint Venturer and lawful Zone Managers, China Africa Investment FXE and subsequently requested to be appointed as Interim Zone Managers.

“Based on the information at the government’s disposal at the time, Zhongfu International Investment FXE was appointed interim zone manager on March 15, 2012, pending further evaluation. The whole idea was to ensure that someone was in charge and thereby prevent unwholesome and untoward development in the zone pending the completion of our fact-finding exercise.

“It was later discovered that the information and claims volunteered by Zhongfu International Investment FXE against China Africa Investment FXE were tissues of lies

“Unknown to Ogun government at the time, Zhongfu International Investment FXE merely sought to de-market China Africa Investment FXE and to surreptitiously covert the state-owned assets of Guangdong Province in China together with the zone ownership and management rights of their business rival,” Mr Amosun said.

The former governor said Chinese authorities later directly intervened through several notes from the country’s mission in Nigeria.

“It was further discovered – much later – through the intervention of the Chinese Government via Diplomatic Note 1601, dated March 11, 2016,” Mr Amosun said, saying the Chinese government told him the company he had terminated was the rightful owner of the investment.

Mr Amosun said that after he ousted Zhongfu International Investment, the company approached Nigerian courts in different jurisdictions to ventilate its legal and business rights but lost all four cases filed. He didn’t list out the cases.

Consequently, the former governor urged the federal government and Ogun State to continue desisting from entering into any resolutions that would benefit Zhongfu.

“Nigeria should not give Zhongfu International Investment FXE any listening ear as doing so would amount to indulging and, encouraging an unlawful entity without locus standi to appropriate our common patrimony,” Mr Amosun said. “This matter of Zhongfu International Investment FXE should be treated the way Nigeria treated the P&ID case. There is no basis for negotiation.”

Mr Amosun has recently been criticised as the source of Nigeria’s confrontation with Chinese investors before international arbitration panels. The Chinese have been trying to seize private jets used by President Bola Tinubu in France.

On August 9, an appellate judicial panel in the United States authorised Zhongfu’s parent firm Zhongshan to proceed with its legal efforts to seize Nigeria’s assets in the U.S. Zhongshan had in 2021 obtained a compensation judgment in the United Kingdom to the tune of $60 million, which it has since been trying to enforce in France, the U.S. and other countries where Nigeria’s assets could be targeted.

The attitude of Mr Ibikunle Amosun is a puzzle and the usual arrogance of our political class, whose postures in doing wrongs are usually suggestive of the fact that its their right to be wrong and ours is to simply live with it and move on. Amosun shouldn’t be telling us how to treat the case at hand. When he failed to do due diligence when it was his beat. An apology to Nigeria and Nigerians is what should concern Amosun. How to deal with the issue at hand should be left with those who are on the saddle. This case, will definitely put to test the capacity of Chief Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the Anthoney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This of course should lead to the formation of a department in the ministry of Justice and the Office of the Attorney General to oversee the State’s Ministry of Justices and offices of their Attorneys generals, since under international law, sub division and sub national aren’t recognised. In case of a situation like this in the future, the Federal Government will still be at the receiving end. Record should be kept of all state transactions wherein they are surety.

Nigerians should not be hearing the tale of a judge in his own case; Mr Ibikunle Amosun. We will like to hear an update from the Ministry of Justice and the office of the Anthoney General of the Federation. The Ministry of internal Affairs should be informing Nigerians of the emptiness of the China product of a seizure. Why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission will do well to investigate Amosun’s claim and update Nigerians of their findings. For now let’s take the counsel of Adewole Adebayo, Presidential Candidate of the Social Democratic Party, A lawyer with experience in international law and adjudication who warned that we should do due diligence when putting pen to paper, for in commercial contracts of this nature you may also be signing to treaties, where if there is a dispute between the Government and the investor, the investor may desire to sue and consequently this may affect the businesses of Nigeria and Nigerians who are bounded by such treaties.

Adebayo who spoke on a Channels TV programme with Seun Okinbaloye, went further, “if you want to be like Singapore, Dubai and other emerging economy that the world is heading for to make investment, your profile as a litigious nation may close the door against you. We must also make our court fair and respected so that investors and partners can agree to do their litigations in Nigeria. Not just Nigerians should believe in our judiciary system. While the world may be ready to put up with our personal integrity as citizens and that of our nation corporately. The integrity of our justice system will determine the level of investment we are able to attract. A case of, ‘omo buruku se fe, ana buruku ni o dun yan’, meaning it is easier to marry a wayward girl but keeping an indulging in-laws is the real contention.

Nigerians must become interested in the activities of our incumbent leaders, it shouldn’t just be enough to prepare hand over notes and sign them. The joint transition committee of the out going and incoming administrations should be more concerned about the business of government than the ceremony of transition.

It can’t be said that we are fighting corruption if the process is not capturing projects started, projects completed and projects abandoned. Nothing enables huge plundering of our resources like abandoned projects. With an estimated 56,000 across Nigeria, with the federal government contributing 11,886. 2/3 of the projects done were abandoned. South East, the states in the region crying marginalisation, has the highest number of abandoned projects contribution with 15,000, followed by South South with 11,000, South West with 10,000 of which the Amosun’s mistake stands out as the most embarrassing to us as a nation. The North West and North Central have a tie at 7,000 each. North East 5,000 and the FCT Abuja. The work of EFCC will remain ineffective if we see no need for a department for Project at the State and the Local Government level to supervise the handling of projects by incumbent leaders to their successors. This I believe will save us from what the Yahaya Bello Gate has become to corruption trials in the country.