In a landmark decision that reverberates through international business circles, a London court has nullified the $11 billion damages sought by Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Limited against Nigeria. The ruling comes as a culmination of a protracted legal battle over a failed gas processing project in Cross River, Nigeria.

Judge Robin Knowles, presiding over the case, delivered a damning judgment, pointing to the procurement of the gas processing project through bribery involving Nigeria’s oil ministry officials. The court found that P&ID had failed to disclose these corrupt practices during the arbitration against Nigeria.

“Today’s judgment unequivocally declares the damages null and void without delay,” emphasized Judge Robin Knowles, rejecting P&ID’s plea to revert the case to arbitration.

This decision follows a prior ruling in October, where the High Court deemed the contract obtained by P&ID as a product of bribery and fraud. Judge Knowles, in a separate judgment earlier this month, ordered P&ID to pay £20 million in damages and compensation to the Nigerian government.

P&ID’s attempts to revive their claims against Nigeria through fresh arbitration hit a roadblock as the court insisted that proceedings couldn’t proceed with the 2023 judgment standing firm.

The crux of the matter lies in the allegations that P&ID had paid bribes to Nigerian officials involved in drafting the gas supply and processing agreement (GSPA) back in 2010. This revelation has cast a shadow of doubt over the legitimacy of the entire agreement.

The long-drawn legal battle traces its origins to a 2017 tribunal ruling that demanded Nigeria to compensate P&ID with $6.6 billion in damages, along with substantial interest rates. Subsequently, in September 2020, Judge Ross Cranston approved this application.

However, Nigeria’s legal representatives countered these claims, alleging P&ID’s involvement in bribery to secure the contract. P&ID vehemently denied these accusations, countering them as baseless conspiracy theories.

Throughout the legal proceedings, Nigeria consistently argued that the contract was procured through deceitful means, including bribery and perjury. They contended that the ballooning arbitration award, now reaching $11 billion due to accrued interest, should be invalidated.

Judge Robin Knowles sided with Nigeria, delivering a resounding victory in court by affirming the invalidation of the claimed damages.

“I have not accepted all of Nigeria’s allegations,” the judge said. “However, the arbitration awards were obtained by fraud and the awards were, and the way in which they were procured was, contrary to public policy”.

I do not believe in new year resolutions. Yes, it is an illusion to think that switching of a digit from 2023 to 2024 will deliver a new outcome, when you have not investigated, and resolved, to fix and deepen what matters: processes. One of the greatest victories in life is the victory over time, and that time is allocated to all of us, equally (24 hours in a day). Time, even in its limitless form, is the most scarce resource out there. Until you can win over it, via your processes, you cannot resolve your future.

Leave new year resolutions, focus on resolving your daily and weekly non-optimal processes. Buy an exercise book. Every Sunday night, take 10 minutes to list important things you want to get done in that week. Then every night before you go to bed, or if you prefer, early in the morning, list important tasks for the day. As the days go and the week passes, cross-out the completed ones. Keep optimizing those processes, keep improving on how you execute the tasks, and track these two indicators: quality and speed.

In most things in the professional domain, those who can deliver high quality outcomes at the shortest time thrive. So, you must keep improving your processes while reducing the time required to execute tasks.

If you blog, how can you take 30 minutes to put that content over 2 hours without loss of quality? If you send a management report, how can you beat the deadline with high quality results, and demonstrate that you are ready for more responsibilities? Those simple resolutions will make the mountain-size new year resolutions irrelevant.

Happy new year ahead, and make new year resolutions unnecessary by constantly resolving your processes.