•Explains controversies behind Star University, International Golf Course
Prince Ned Nwoko is an international lawyer and a former member of Federal House of Representatives. In this interview with Bianca Iboma, the Legal Practitioner and Chairman of Linas International Limited, bares his mind on the risks and frustrations of pursuing the Paris Club for refund of excess deductions on Nigeria’s repayment of foreign loans as well as the challenges of setting up the first ever Sports University in Africa at Idumuje Ugboko.
My experience negotiating loan repayment
Let me say that it was a mixed bag in terms of what Nigerians know of it and how the three tiers of government have treated it.
One level, there is a sense of de ja vu especially among officials of government. You can imagine what it meant for a cash strapped government to realise that it had such a huge sum of money somewhere and the Federal and State Government have so far shared the sum of N413, 464,646, 605, from the Paris Club refund but I can tell you that it did not come that easy. Of course we pursued the matter from 1992 to 2002, when most of those who are treating the refund as a kind of bailout fund or a windfall from the sale of crude oil have not even dreamt of venturing into politics
At another level, we feel a sense of accomplishment of what one has done for his country. When you do a patriotic duty and accomplish the task, there is a sense of accomplishment. Like what the Interim leadership of Association of Local Government in Nigeria (ALGON) stated in their letter to the President in 2016, we took a lot of risks to pursue the creditor countries to make the refund, it was a patriotic duty that involved a lot of risks and hard work. It took a lot of time and expertise to pursue the creditor countries to refund the excess deduction of funds that they creamed off Nigeria’s repayment of the foreign loans. Of course, this was a process that began in 1992 to 2002. The state governors are simply treating it as a wind fall from the sale of crude oil or a form of bailout fund.
What do you mean by that?
Well, while the battle was on, we encountered series of hostility from the creditor nations. Some countries felt that we were impugning their national integrity and threatened to severe diplomatic relations with Nigeria. Some of them sent their security agents to go after us, some employed acts of blackmail and tried to compromise us. Some even went to the extent to convince the Obasanjo administration to instigate the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), against us, we were even arrested and after investigating us the EFCC had to apologise to us. Some officials of Federal Government who felt that we were meddling into their forte also built walls around us. It became an uphill task to obtain the required data, vital documents where we needed forensic evidence to support our work.
How did you get involved with this assignment?
As an international legal firm we had worked for some countries in Africa specially, West Africa, The countries engaged our firm to assist them to verify the process of repayment of their foreign loans and in the process we discovered that there were unethical things that had taken place, with that as our background, we approached some state governments to act as their consultants to verify the issue of repayment of the foreign loans. We entered into legally binding agreements with some of the states and as we progressed, the other states and Local Governments became interested. For instance under what was called: “the doctrine of collective sacrifice,” the Federal Ministry of Finance deducts funds from States and Local governments at source from the Federal account. The implication was that some states that were not in existence when the foreign loans were contracted suddenly found themselves making repayments for loans that they did not contract. The 774 Local governments that never contracted any foreign loan were grouped into the repayment. During our investigation, we found that some of the loans were of dubious origin, the old Gongola state was listed as having contracted $100million as foreign loan from an Austrian bank to build an international hotel. But in the process of our investigation, the bank wrote to say that it had no business relation in Africa, let alone in Nigeria.
Controversy behind Star University and Golf Course
Let me starting by saying that there’s no controversy about the projects and what you refer to as controversies are the voices of dissent which exist on every social environment. For me that is normal and natural as people come from diverse backgrounds, we have different opinions, world views and orientation, even among identical twins, such differences exist. The process of socialisation and social engineering is to mobilise and aggregate such different views to achieve a dominant position and galvanize it for a positive course.
That is what democracy tries to do, to build positive consensus. There are a few people who don’t understand what the projects are all about and our duty is to educate them rather than alienate them.
There are those who feel that their positions would be threatened by the changes that the socio economic benefits that the projects would bring but there are others who are driven by envy because they are not the ones behind the projects or because they have not been invited to get involved. Of course there is a place for everyone as we move along. This is a long distance race.
We are embarking on a legacy projects that would lift up our rural communities to global recognition. It has to be started by someone and that is what we are doing. We don’t have the energy to dissipate on needless controversies.
What about the rash of publications?
There’s only one publication on April 21 in Vanguard newspaper where some persons tried to mislead the people of Idumuje Ugboko and the general public. The rest has been responses from the elders, youths and other interest groups. They are reacting to the fraudulent manner the platform of Idumuje Ugboko Development Union was used to issue a communiqué condemning the university and International Golf Course projects. The way they obtained signatures to the communiqué has been condemned to the point that the youths have threatened to bring in the police to investigate it and bring up criminal actions against those behind it. It is a needless distraction.
Meeting requirements to projects take off
We have spent over one year to prepare all the necessary documents required by the Nigeria University Commission (NUC) and we have paid the application fee required by the regulatory authority. We have a change of name from Sports University to Star University but our vision and mission to promote tourism and human capital development through sports remain the same. We have paid the statutory application and we have spent over N90 million in preparing the necessary documents, the Master plan, etc, which we have submitted to the regulatory authority. The Nigerian University Commission,(NUC), insist on the following requirements before giving approval for a tertiary institution of this nature: evidence of the availability of the land as well as other evidences like the Certificate of Occupancy and Customary Right of Occupancy, obtained from Delta State Government in 2016, payment of N5 million registration fee, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), report of the project site, preparation of the Master plan . . . all these have taken more than N90 million. There have been inspection visits by officials of NUC preparatory to the take off of the proposed University. All these facts are available and could be given to present leadership of IUDU on demand since our vision is anchored on the overall development of Idumuje Ugboko Kingdom.
We have applied and obtained the necessary land titles and documents since 2016. We understand the grouse of some persons who are carrying out vile propaganda on the projects but we don’t intend to leave out anybody as Idumuje Ugboko Kingdom belongs to all of us.
It is pertinent to state here that the acquisition of land for the proposed Star University and Golf course at Idumuje Ugboko has followed all the due process and clearly outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), on the proposed project; stating the roles of the various stakeholders at national and international levels.
Under the terms of the MoU, one of the conditions for acquisition of the land for this project, is that the land will revert to Idumuje Ugboko community, if the development purpose for which it was acquired, is not achieved within five years. This means that the acquisition of the land is not in perpetuity.
Again, the title of the land for the location of the proposed Star University is not in the name of an individual or corporate body but in the name of the project as required by the NUC, Guidelines for Establishing Institutions of Higher Education in Nigeria.
We therefore have to develop it through conscious efforts and investments. Look at how much money China is pumping into sports now. Sports is one index of measuring the economic development of nations. In all major competitions, countries that are regarded as developed or emerging nations often occupy the top spots. We must not treat sports as an adjunct if we must be taken seriously. The idea of the Golf Course is to create an international event that would bring international visitors to Idumuje Ugboko. For me, this would help to promote the tourist potentials of this kingdom. We are making steady progress on both projects as you can see. We had a team of inspectors from National University Commission, (NUC), who were at the project site in November 2016.
Scope of curriculum
It depends on what you mean by being too narrow. First, you will provide a platform for general and specialised training. There are courses in Sports Laws and contracts, medical researches into medicine, nutrition for sports people, the fields of study are endless. This will be the first of its kind in Sub Sahara Africa and with a Golf course attached to it, there is nothing more that you need to kick up the tourist potentials of Idumuje Ugboko, the location of the project. The Asaba International Airport will spring to life. Hotels in Asaba and Abuja will boom as international visitors, especially, sports men and women who would come from overseas to study or lecture in the university or participate in Golf Tournaments
This is a capital intensive and being funded privately?
You are correct but one step at a time. We have met with the guidelines for the establishment of a university by the NUC, we have paid the application fee and we have spent about N100 million in preparing the documents for acquisition of lands especially, the Certificate of Occupancy and Customary Right of Occupancy. We have 90 hectares of land although NUC stipulated 100 hectares in its guidelines; we have prepared the master plan and signed MoU with the community where the project is located. The land forms forty percent equity contribution of the people of Idumuje Ugboko but there is also a clause that if the land is not utilised within five (5) years for the purpose that it was apply for, it will revert to the community. We will take off on a temporary site while we gradually work on the permanent site. This is a dream come true.
These projects would deprive the community of their land?
That is the impression that the enemies of progress want to create. The opponents of the project want to create that impression but I can tell you that there is nothing like land grabbing here. There is nothing like land grabbing because the land in question forms 40 percent equity of Idumuje-Ugboko’s equity that is invested in to the university and Golf course project.
Before the town became officially involved, we had bought and paid for the required lands from most of the farmers. However, when it came to the attention of the land allocation committee and the traditional Onotu group charged with dealing with land disputes, they invited me and informed me that the land in question belongs to the community and not the farmers. It was at this point that I was told that I should make a formal application to the community for the lands and pay the relevant fees to the land allocation committee. This was to ensure that the benefits went to all sons and daughters of Idumuje-Ugboko. In addition to that, we signed the Memorandum of Understanding, which had a condition that the said land would revert to Idumuje-Ugboko if, after five (5) years of allocation the land had not been put to use in the manner for which it was allocated.
We have pursued our requests for land legally. We have paid compensation to community land users and for two years now, we have pursued the Certificate of Occupancy and the Customary Right of Occupancy which we obtained in 2016. Our vision to build a University and a Golf Course in Idumuje-Ugboko, if after five years of the land allocation did not developed, the land will revert to Idumuje-Ugboko people. Either way Ugboko will not suffer any loss.