Construction work on the widely acclaimed 500MW Azura
thermal power plant in Edo state cannot begin, and progress on the
1,000MW Mobil gas fired plant in Akwa Ibom has been stalled, on account
of the failure of Attorney-General, Mohammed Bello Adoke, to accede to a
request for the waiver of Nigeria’s sovereign immunity to provide
comfort to financiers of the two projects.
Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is chairman of the government-backed Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET)
sent the request to Mohammed Adoke, the Justice Minister, following the
demand by the promoters of the projects who have sought a guarantee
that in the event of default, they are able to put a claim on the
government.
BusinessDay however learnt that the Justice Minister has
consistently declined to grant the request, arguing that there there
were no grounds for the government to leave open the window to a
potential litigation in the future.
President Goodluck Jonathan performed the ground breaking
ceremony of the almost $1 billion Azura Power on October 11 last year,
to signal the formal commencement of construction at the site of what
promised to be Nigeria’s most modern power plant but a surprise delay by
the Attorney-General of the Federation means that the project and its
hope of substantially resolving Nigeria’s power mess must now wait.
On the other hand, the Mobil power plant, to be sited in
Eket in Akwa Ibom State, has been on the drawing board for almost 20
years, having been first stalled during the Obasanjo administration,
when the government failed to open an escrow account to be dedicated to
meeting its own obligation.
Our reporter learnt that the team of Mobil officials working on the take-off of the project has relocated to the United States.
The finance minister acknowledged the national
significance of the projects and confirmed to BusinessDay that she had
already signed all papers required of her, but assured that the delay in
resolving the matter with the Justice Ministry would be over soon.
Said Okonjo-Iweala, “Mr President has stepped into the
matter and he has asked the vice president to meet the parties to work
out a solution and we will be meeting on Monday (today) in the hope that
all the parties involved will be able to reach an agreement acceptable
to all.”
Lawyers spoken to by our reporters say the globally
acceptable norm is when a government enters into a proper commercial
transaction like that involving NBET, the government usually will accept
to waive its sovereign immunity to show good faith, especially in this
particular case in which the government is the main backer of NBET.
According to one lawyer, “one basis of international law
says if a sovereign enters into a regular commercial agreement, that
sovereign must accept to waive its immunity to allow for a level playing
field.”
BusinessDay learnt that Minister Adoke has so far rejected
all entreaties made to him to complete the documentation relying on a
position which he himself put before the federal executive council some
years ago.
A similar power play at the office of Vice
President Namadi Sambo has so far halted the commissioning of the $500
million Geometric Power in Aba, which cannot be streamed because the
Vice President has refused to sign an order for the electricity
distribution assets in Aba to be hived from the Enugu Distribution
company and then sold to a Geometric affiliated firm, under a pricing
mechanism long worked out by the BPE.
Outgoing president Goodluck Jonathan personally staked his
own presidency on delivering power to Nigerians and it is unclear why
he cannot call his appointees to order.
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