By Adekunle Adekoya

I AM afraid that if action is by unflinchingly patriotic Nigerians, our country might have been unwittingly transformed into the reverse of a rentier state. 

A rentier state is one which derives all or a substantial portion of its national revenues from rent paid by foreign individuals, concerns or governments, and at the same time without increase in the productivity of the domestic economy or political development of the state, interpreted as the ability to tax citizens. 

The Nigeria state taxes its citizens, however inefficiently, but a disturbing trend is how people, usually in connivance with foreigners conceptualize projects that deliver mouth-watering dividends while the local economy remains parlous.

One of such, in all likelihood, was the famed P&ID project, which sought to make Nigeria pay more than US$8 billion for defaulting a contract. 

The Buhari government deserves accolades for battling this evil in foreign courts. Many more are still active; the future will show what the national experience will be. 

By now, discerning members of the public, especially those who take interest in public affairs must be aware of the Customs Modernization Project, presented by its promoters to the Federal Government of Nigeria as being capable of delivering the mouth-watering sum of $176 billion to the federal coffers in 20 years. The project, after conceptualisation was brought to government attention towards the end of the first term of the Buhari Administration.

In a memo dated 17th September, 2019, signed by late Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari, the Federal Government had advised the Ministers of Finance and Justice that the President had “approved the engagement of Bionica Technologies West Africa (lead sponsor), Bergmans Security Consultant & Supplies Ltd (co-sponsor), Africa Finance Corporation (lead financier) and Huawei (Lead Technical Service Provider) to establish a  project special purpose vehicle (SPV) to enter a 20-year concession arrangement with NCS and ICRC for the Customs Modernization Project (Establishment of Digital Paperless Customs Administration).”

It is curious that the Federal Government approved this when actually there exists an on-going modernization project being executed by another firm, Webb-Fontaine. 

By the way, Webb-Fontaine is a provider of e-government software solutions, electronic single-window portals, Customs automation, and business process re-engineering among other capabilities. But that is talk for another day.

Bionica Technologies, said to be the lead sponsor of the project in collaboration with Bergmans Securities Consultants and Supply Limited as co-sponsor drove matters appertaining to the project and secured approval by the Federal Executive Council, FEC, the highest decision-making body on government affairs in the country, as far back as 2019. 

Then in the year of our Lord, 2022, some magic happened. The Federal Government received communication from the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, that Bionica Technologies, recognised by the Federal Government, and which had been given approval by the same FG to set up a special purpose vehicle, SPV, to drive the project, was “no longer interested.” 

In its place, another firm, Trade Modernization Project Limited, TMPL, would now be the lead sponsor. By the way, TMPL was  registered on April 7, 2022, less than eight weeks before it replaced Bionica as lead sponsor for the  project. Magic? Ask Professor Peller! Observers are not only wondering, but befuddled on how a company that did not participate in the statutory processes leading up to incorporation of the earlier SPV, including FEC approval became lead promoter in such a short space of time. 

This is where Buhari can show us more leadership. I am of the bent that the entire Customs Modernization project, approved long before the demise of the President’s former Chief of Staff, Malam Abba Kyari, needs to be re-examined, perhaps, with a fine tooth-comb, or better, with a microscope. Specific investigations regarding the real interests behind TMPL, which replaced Bionica, and indeed, all other parties in the project must be undertaken.

Ordinarily, these are facts that we would easily have been availed of if our judiciary functions like the those elsewhere. People will be shocked at the revelations during cross-examination of witnesses during the P&ID case in the London court. 

But we do not have that fortune, at least now. That is why the matter needs a deep, forensic investigation before we become a reverse-rentier state. And it is not hard; all the information needed is staring Mr President and his aides in the face. It’s just a matter of picking.