Back in 2017, a private arbitration tribunal ordered Nigeria to pay $11 billion to Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID), an award which included the interest on a transaction that began in 2010.The award came after P&ID took the Federal Government to court, accusing it of reneging on a contract agreement that would have generated 2000 megawatts of power to the nation’s national grid. The purported contract stipulated the installation of pipelines by the Nigerian government to P&ID’s gas processing plant at Calabar, with P&ID to sell 15 percent of it by product at a profit of $6,597 billion within 20 years.

Dissatisfied with the tribunal’s judgement, the Federal Government went on appeal which it won last October. The judge in charge of the case, Robert Knowles, held that the arbitration award should be stopped because the process through which P&ID secured the 2010 contract to build the gas plant in Calabar was fraudulent. Knowles submitted that Nigeria succeeded in its challenge of the arbitration award under Section 68 of the British law, which frowned at winning contracts contrary to public policy. The judgement from the British commercial court comes as a thing of joy to citizens of this country, and The Hope commends the Federal Government for taking up the case.

In 2011, Shell and Eni paid $1.1 billion to acquire 100 percent Oil Prospecting License OPL 245 in a shady manner, but when the Federal Government pursued both criminal and civil cases in foreign jurisdictions over the deal, it lost. Still in 2011, 40 barrels of crude oil poured into the Gulf of Guinea through Shell’s pipelines, but when the people of the Niger Delta took the case to court in Britain, they lost. This year, claims by 11,317 people and 27 institutions went for judgement in Britain over the environmental destruction to the Niger Delta area of Ogale, with the victims asking Shell to take responsibility by paying compensations, the case remains pending.

The P&ID case gives confidence that Nigeria shouldn’t lose hope over cases lost or pending for long in foreign jurisdictions, because victory could be obtained through a diligent pursuit of justice. Through the recent P&ID judgement, Nigeria saves about $15 billion, an amount crucial at this period of economic adversity, where the exchange rate of the dollar escalates on a daily basis.

The judgement also continues a tradition where Nigeria saves money that would have been lost through dubious foreign transactions, as it follows on the heels of the recovery of $700 million looted by Nigerians and stashed in foreign bank accounts. It also follows the retrieval of 4.2 million pounds from the United Kingdom from the account of the former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori.

With the recovery of the stashed funds, and the prevention of monetary losses through the London judgement on the P&ID issue, the Federal Government can have more funds for urgent development of the country. According to the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Nigeria loses $18 billion annually to illicit financial outflows generated by corruption, including such practices as tax evasion. A report in December 2015 by the Global Financial Integrity showed that the country lost about $178 billion to illegal outflows between 2005 and 2015.Another report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimated that Africa loses $88.6 billion annually to illicit financial flows, with Nigeria contributing a whooping 30 percent to the phenomenon.

The above scenarios correlate with the P&ID issue, and The Hope condemns the role played by Nigerians who compromised national interests for personal ones due to greed and avarice against their fatherland. Consequently, Nigerians, including government officials, should have a rethink about colluding with foreigners to milk the nation’s resources dry, or refrain from taking individual actions towards the same goal. The Federal Government should always carry out a diligent pursuit of cases related to illicit outflows, or pending in foreign jurisdictions, as chances exist to show they might be successful.

Nigerian government officials should be wary of foreign adventurers cum businessmen in the country, as some of them want to take advantage of the loose climate of corruption in the country. When ordinary Nigerians, state and the Federal Governments take this advice, occurrences such as the P&ID case would cease to occur in the polity.