₦airaland Forum

The candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 presidential election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has said that the judgment seizing the presidential jets by the Chinese company was a temporary setback that would be vacated in the next hearing.

He said no entity of the state attaches assets, money, or property belonging to a sovereign nation to a contract. He said things went wrong when the Chinese firm and the Ogun State Government, which were supposed to be partners, became opponents and started litigation.


He said: “Sometimes, these businesses outlive the tenure of the incumbent governor, and the successor might not understand the seriousness and decide to terminate the contract.


“But internationally, when you engage investors and you sign these contracts, you are not only signing commercial contracts, you are also signing treaties in some situations, and if there is a dispute between the government and the investor, the investor may decide to sue on their own, in a regular court, or it may go into arbitration, or state treaty arbitration.

“In this case, as a Nigerian doing business in China, there is an agreement internationally that Nigeria and China are signatories to, where they say if our citizen is doing business in the other country, they can do arbitration through the mechanism of the treaty.

“So, the issue we need to understand is that the dispute is not originally a federal government obligation; it is an obligation of Ogun State. But, under public international law, subdivisions, subsidiaries, and sub-nationals are not recognised internationally.

“So, if a state out of the 36 states in Nigeria has an international obligation, Nigeria will be the one to be held to account. That is where Nigeria is implicated in the matter. We also need to know that it is not a loan; it is not as if Nigeria took a loan and used any of these national assets as collateral.

“No, it was business that was supposed to be done between the Ogun State Government and the Chinese private firm, which has gone to arbitration to allege that the Ogun State Government breached the contract by stopping them from making progress, and they have suffered losses, and both parties went to arbitration.

“The second stage where it went wrong is that when you go to arbitration and the arbitration award is against you, you should try, for the sake of your reputation, to pay. But, on some occasions, the state entity involved may be advised by the lawyers that the arbitrators made a mistake, misconduct themselves, and went outside their jurisdiction.

“So, some of these things may go into litigation, and sometimes, it is just a lack of political will to deal with the issue, and they are dealing with it casually. The interim attachment of the presidential jets doesn’t mean that the jets have been lost because, under international law, assets of the Federal Government used by the government for diplomacy and monies kept in our central bank for banking activities are immune.

No court at any time can attach them. I want us to understand that clearly. So, when you go to court for an interim order, typically only one side is heard; the court has not heard from Nigeria’s side, so the Chinese firm is going to court to say that these are aircraft like any other aircraft; they are for maintenance in France, and any person, whether you are in government or not, can bring your aircraft for maintenance and seize the aircraft.

So, the court might be inclined to just put a temporary seizure and serve notice on Nigeria to appear. I believe that as the law stands, once Nigeria appears there and can demonstrate, especially with the assistance of the foreign ministry of the French government, that these are diplomatic assets, the court will lift the seizure.”

Biodun556:
Some people will not like this

mrjoeblinks:
Ehen?
.
Who Dey borrow suppose dey reason to pay no be to dey buy!

Lexusgs430:
It just goes to show that the Nigerian state, is in a much bigger mess financially.... Than they are all willing to admit.......

Biodun556:
The case is not about borrowing. Read well

zombieHUNTER:
What is there to like or not to like

There's fuel scarcity in the land

I bought 1300 black market yesterday

The country is collapsing right on our very eyes

mrjoeblinks:
Are we not owing? We just bought a new jet

Biodun556:
Owing who?

Biodun556:
It is so painful

We will overcome

Biodun556:
The has nothing to do with finance.

zombieHUNTER:
By buying Presidential Jet and 70k minimum wage, coupled with rising insecurity and kidnappings..

This administration is not getting their acts right

Biodun556:
Some people will not like this

Funkyswagzz:
This is where the presidency is transparent but when they bought the jet and parked it in France we have no knowledge of it including the actual cost

Biodun556:
Who knows

They said the old one was faulty and it is up for sale

mrjoeblinks:
World bank

In 2002, the Nigerian government under Olusegun Obasanjo concessioned the project to Japanese Kobe Steel in an attempt at revitalization, however without much success. In 2004, the project was again transferred, this time to Ispat Industries. The deal was financed by Global Infrastructure Holdings Limited (GIHL) (now Global Steel Holdings Limited, GSHL), which is chaired by Indian steel magnate Pramod Mittal. The concession ended in 2008 after the government accused GIHL of asset-stripping. GIHL then sued Nigeria at International Chamber of Commerce.[6] The dispute was initially resolved in 2016, with Nigeria regaining control of the Ajaokuta Steel Mill in exchange for GIHL retaining the Nigerian Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO) operating at Itakpe.[7][8] In 2022, the Nigerian government paid $496 million to GSHL to settle the claims.[9]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajaokuta_Steel_Mill

Lexusgs430:
As scrap or what..... 🤣😁


Tinubu wanted another jet, by fire or force......