Nigerians are basking in the euphoria of a significant victory in the celebrated arbitration case instituted against us by controversial Process and Industrial Development, P&ID, a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands and owned by two Irish nationals, the late Michael Quinn and Brendan Carroll.

On Monday, October 23, 2023, the Business and Property Court in London presided over by Justice Robert Knowles, ended the enforcement of an $11 billion arbitration case awarded in January 31, 2017 to P&ID by the London Court of International Arbitration, LCIA, presided over by Justice Christopher Butcher. The court had ordered Nigeria to pay $6.6 billion to P&ID for alleged breach of contract.

It all started in January 2010 when the government of the late President Umaru YarAdua signed a Gas Supply and Processing Agreement with P&ID. However, by August 2012, the agreement collapsed, as the foreign company failed to produce any result. P&ID blamed Nigeria for allegedly failing to provide gas supply for the project, and sued for breach of contract.

Justice Butcher in awarding P&ID the case in 2017, started counting the period of the alleged contract breach from 2013. If P&ID had succeeded in pulling off this rip-off of Nigeria, it would have been empowered to confiscate our international assets and inflict a deep cut on our already badly haemorrhaging economy.

Experts and well-meaning Nigerians are raising concerns that a phoney company like P&ID succeeded in hoodwinking Nigeria into this deal by colluding with incompetent and corrupt officials. We join in calling on President Bola Tinubu to probe this deal, identify and prosecute those who facilitated it. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, little is done to deter people from betraying our country in this manner, which is why it continues.

We must commend the government of Muhammadu Buhari for choosing to investigate and pursue this case. They had no other choice, anyway, given that this punitive judgement by Justice Butcher came at a time the country was reeling in an economic recession.

An important lesson we must learn from this narrow escape is that we cannot over-emphasise the need to put suitably qualified and competent Nigerians in public offices, including political offices, without pandering to ethno-religious and sectional politics.

We need officers who will fight for Nigeria and defend her interests, not those who are ready to collude with domestic and foreign criminals to rip off our country for self-enrichment.