Spokesperson of former President Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Reno Omokri, has laid the blame of Nigeria’s $9bn legal dispute with Irish gas company, Process and Industrial Development Ltd (P&ID), at the feet of a cabal he claims is working with President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, while exonerating his former boss.
Dayo Apata, Solicitor General of the Federation and permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, had on Friday said the court ruling which was as a result of the Federal Government’s inactions over a gas deal with P&ID was inherited from the previous administration by the present one.
Omokri has, however, refuted the allegation, blaming instead an “unelected cabal” that took advantage of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s ill health in 2010 to strike shady deals on behalf of the Federal Government.
Members of that cabal, he claims, are also inside President Buhari’s present administration. He went on to name the late President Yar’Adua’s minister for petroleum, also late, Rilwanu Lukman, as the man who packaged and arranged the signing of the contract with P&ID.
“The transaction occurred in January of 2010, and President Jonathan was not President in January 2010. During that time, he was completely shut out of power by an unelected cabal that ran Nigeria during the period of the ill health of the late President Yar’Adua, before the National Assembly courageously intervened on February 9, 2010,” Omokri said.
“That cabal not only fought against the ascension of then Vice President Jonathan to the office of acting President, but went beyond that to take documents, including budgets and contracts, to Saudi Arabia, and claimed that the then ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had signed them,” he said.
“Nigerians may recall that the cabal announced on December 28, 2009 that the ailing President Yar’Adua had signed a supplementary budget and other documents from his sickbed in Saudi Arabia, without the foreknowledge or acquiescence of then Vice President Jonathan or the Executive Council of the Federation,” he further said.
He said Lukman and other members of the cabal treated then Vice President Jonathan with disdain and kept him in the dark about their actions because he had no executive authority, as the then President was unable to hand over to him as constitutionally stipulated due to the suddenness of his ill health.
Omokri explained that the same cabal has resurrected and has now coalesced around President Buhari, with some of them being made either ministers, or formal and informal advisers.
“As a matter of fact, the main man behind that cabal is now one of the closest persons to General Buhari. Nigerians may want to note that while this controversial contract was signed in January of 2010, former President Jonathan only became acting President on February 9, 2010,” he said.
“So, if the Buhari administration is looking for someone to blame for this judgment against Nigeria, it should look at its own cabal,” he added.
Meanwhile, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said on Monday that the Federal Government is making moves to stop execution of the judgment ordering Nigeria to pay $9 billion to P&ID.
“I am not scared at all. Since the news about the judgment broke late on Friday, we have been discussing with our counsels, and they have advised that there are sufficient and strong grounds on the basis of which we could file a stay of execution and also an appeal against that judgment,” Emefiele told journalists on the sidelines of the ongoing Presidential Retreat for newly appointed ministers at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He pointed out that “there are certain anomalies in the process leading to the award of that contract”, adding that the issues were already being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“I believe that the EFCC itself has its own investigation reports about that. So, we will follow through and aggressively too on ensuring that the execution of that judgment is stayed and that the appeal succeeds at every level both within Nigeria and abroad,” he said.
Emefiele used the opportunity to assure friends of Nigeria, both local and foreign investors, that there was no need to worry.
“We know the implication of that judgment, that it has some impact on monetary policy, and that is why the CBN is going to step forward and very strongly too to ensure that we defend the country and defend the reserves of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
On President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to the CBN to stop forex to people who import food items into the country, which has generated a lot of backlash, Emefiele said the policy has been part of the logic of the apex bank’s management of foreign exchange policies that started since 2016.
“If you recall, we started with about 41 items (food and non-food items), because we believe that those items can be produced in the country. As we stand today, there are about 43 items on that list and I will say substantially most of them are food items,” he said.
“We are basically saying, if we have a food item that can be produced in the country, why should we waste scare foreign exchange importing those items into the country when those can be produced in the country?” he added.
He, however, regretted what he described as attempt to misrepresent the comments of Mr. President on the issue, saying it was unfair and unfortunate.
“What we will say from the CBN is that Mr. President has made this comment purely to strengthen the position of the CBN, to say that he believes in what the CBN has been doing since 2016 and there is need for us to reinforce that going forward. I will say that to be honest, we would aggressively go more into the list of items that are being imported into the country, items that can be produced in Nigeria,” he said.
Emefiele stressed that the policy would ensure that more of these items would get on the list of items that would be restricted from accessing foreign exchange in the Nigerian banking industry, not just from the CBN source.
“I have heard some comments that maybe it’s about the CBN’s source. It is not the CBN’s source, we are saying you will not be able to access foreign exchange from the Nigerian banking industry because it is important for us to produce these items in Nigeria and we will follow through on them,” he said.
But Emefiele’s position contradicts the explanation earlier offered by the Presidency.
A statement signed by Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, on Sunday had explained that importers of food items that wish to source their forex from non-government financial institutions were free to do so.
“Should importers of these items wish to source their forex from non-government financial institutions (and pay customs duty on those imports – increasing tax-take…) they are freely able to do so,” Shehu had said in the statement.
Emefiele also allayed fears that the President’s pronouncement would have negative effect on the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
“When we get into the AfCFTA issues we will also look at the details of it, but at this time we are saying we need to create jobs for our country, for the youths. We yearn for growth and the only way we can really accelerate growth in Nigeria between now and next four years is to see to it that items that can be produced in Nigeria are indeed produced in Nigeria rather than being imported into the country,” he said.
He described the retreat as a very brilliant initiative since it would help government to set the focus.
“Everybody will know what the assignments and responsibilities will be in specific terms between now and the next four years. I am here because as a member of the monetary policy authority, it is part of the attempts for collaboration between the monetary and fiscal authorities in Nigeria,” he said.
LOLADE AKINMURELE, DIPO OLADEHINDE, Lagos, & TONY AILEMEN, Abuja
