The Nigerian modest economic gains will be wiped out and will be forced to return to hard times, much harder than those experienced under the recession as two arbitration rulings totaling over $8.9bn (about N2.7 trillion at CBN’s N305.4 as of May 22) were made against the country. The administration has been stalling in its compliance with the judgement.
With no other option, the country might be forced to make this payment. The fines emanated from the contractual actions of three previous administrations – the Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan regimes.
On March 20, 2013, a three-man arbitration panel, constituted under the rules of the Arbitration Act 1996 (England and Wales) and the Nigerian Arbitration and Conciliation Act (CAP A18 LFN 2004), awarded $6.6 billion in favour of Process & Industrial Development Limited (P&ID), an engineering firm registered in the British Virgin Island (BVI).
An additional $2.3billion in accumulated interest at 7 per cent rate per annum over more than five years it remained unsettled. The second award of about $21.24 million (N6.5 billion) was in favour of ENRON Nigeria Power Holding (ENPH) Limited, which signed an agreement with the Lagos State government for the construction of power projects in the state. The federal government guaranteed the agreement and has now been held liable after Lagos was accused of breaching it.
The award in favour of ENRON, which has been affirmed by both high and appeal courts in the United States, has been awaiting settlement for more than a year and 26 days, since April 26, 2017.
