I wish there was an individual who could  let Governments know that the current procurement procedures are comic, and agreements and contracts awarded are to be followed religiously to the later, that you cannot wake up and just decide to alter something that two parties have agreed upon even if one group was drunk or unprepared when the signing took place.

A nation should obey its laws and keep to agreements. When they start attacking these, they gradually slip into lawlessness and chaos and instability.

There should be continuity of economic policies, there should be continuity of capital projects, and there should also be continuity and predictability in the economic sphere . At the same time, procurement and award of contract is not the sole belongings of one man. Whoever that maybe.

The reason most foreign organizations may shy away from coming to invest in Nigeria is because they have no idea what to expect or whether contracts will be respected or whether policies will be altered the moment power shifts hands or even whether signed contracts are truly valid.

To some leaders, it seems to them that decisions at the executive level is the sole responsibility and business and problem of whoever is there,  without realizing that whatever comes out of there, the entire nation is roped together in it. So if Mr A makes a decision and leaves, Mr B can undo it since he wasn’t the one who directly took the action. Unfortunately that’s not how the international community sees it.

It would be very difficult for any international body to take us seriously if we can’t keep to simple agreements.

Economic decisions are being made with political minds and thoughts. Decisions are made or unmade based on political  interest or perceived interest.

You may be wondering where this is coming from,  I myself I’m wondering too.

I’m probably as lost and confused as anybody is at the moment .

Few days ago,  it was announced that Nigeria had lost about $9 billion to an Irish firm simply because we couldn’t keep our own part of an agreement ,if really it was an agreement . It’s difficult to blame a specific individual  for this because when and how this contract was signed is shrouded in mystery. A few suggests it was signed at the time the late President Musa Yar’adua was in coma . Whoever signed it! Anyway, I don’t believe in ghosts. According to Reuters –

“A judge in London said on Friday he would grant a firm called Process and Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) the right to seek to seize some $9 billion in assets from the Nigerian government over an aborted gas project.

The company was awarded $6.6 billion in an arbitration decision over a failed project to build a gas processing plant in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar. With interest payments, the sum now tops $9 billion – some 20% of Nigeria’s foreign reserves

The judge’s decision, issued on Friday, converts the arbitration award to a legal judgement, which would allow P&ID to try to seize international assets.”

It’s not so difficult to understand why the government would want bail out of an agreement of such magnitude considering how the contract was awarded.

I don’t want to make assumptions as to why, but according to the Minister of Information :

“We want to place on record that the Federal Government views with serious concerns the underhand manner the contract was negotiated and signed. “Indications are that the whole process was carried out by some vested interests in the past administration, which apparently colluded with their local and international conspirators to inflict grave economic injury on Nigeria and its people.

“In view of the above, and in an attempt to unravel the circumstances surrounding the entire transaction, the  Attorney-General of the Federation, with the approval of Mr President, has requested the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, and the Inspector General of Police, IGP, to conduct a thorough investigation into the company, the circumstances surrounding the agreement and the subsequent event, which includes commencing a full-scale criminal investigation.”

As the whole process continues to unfold, I still hope and pray that the nation would come out triumphantly, somehow.

Remember that Nigeria had lost a  case to Cameroon in a 2002 ICJ ruling leading to the forfeiture of Bakassi Peninsula as a result of an agreement the Government of the day signed with the Cameroonian government during the civil war. 

One thing the Government and people in power should recognize is that the International community  expect agreements and laws to be respected and obeyed . They may not be interested in your internal political folklore , riddles and ghost stories.

The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), has announced that it would grant a purchase tax exemption to all Tesla vehicles sold in the country. It is such an unbelievably exciting news, in the face of a trade war between the US and China that has forced their companies to severe ties and bask on the uncertainties of economic egotism. The move has given Tesla an edge in an uncommon ground.

The 2019 localization of Tesla’s Model 3 production and its Model Y in 2020, exemption from import duties, all are in the Chines deal with Tesla that the US Government didn’t see coming.

The purchase tax exemption means that buyers could save ten percent ($14, 000) in purchase cost. They are 16 Tesla’s vehicle models currently selling in the Chinese market, and the deal covers them all. Tesla has seen a remarkable growth in China this year. In the second quarter of the year, its revenue climbed 42 percent to $1.5 billion, which is a whopping 13.5 percent of total company revenue, Clean Technica reports.

With the new measures taken, the coming year is likely going to be more lucrative for Tesla. There is proliferating enthusiasm among the locals over the expanding production plants of Tesla in China, and many of them can’t wait to buy from new products. For instance, the construction of Gigafactory 3 has become more like a national pride to the Chinese. It was reported that locals are flocking to the site to fly drones over it,  take pictures and get in the queue for the Model 3s, which will be the first made in China Tesla product come early next year.

The production is expected to yield 250, 000 of the Model 3s, as the excitement among the locals is spurring the demand.

With this latest move, the Chinese Government seems to be on top of their game in the trade war. While the White House is issuing tariffs and sanctions, American companies moving to China is more like a friendly bullet with the American Government on the receiving end.

It actually looks like the “America first” gospel of Donald Trump has unprecedented loopholes that the Chinese Government is set to exploit. With Tesla on the move, it would only take a friendly smile from China for another American company to follow suit.

And in the event where Trump is taking a swipe at some Americans companies like Google, the Chinese playing the good guys with tax waivers is a smart reconnaissance.