Chairman of Resort International Limited, parent company of Bi-
Courtney Limited, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services and Stabillini
Visinoni, Dr Wale Babalakin SAN, has said neither he nor his
companies enjoyed any preferential treatment from the regime of former
president Olusegun Obasanjo and the successive governments.
He stated this in an exclusive interview with The Punch newspapers,
published on Sunday, July 5, 2020, according to a statement issued by
Mikail MUMUNI, Group Corporate Affairs Manager, Resort
International Limited.
Dr Babalakin was responding to a question on whether his companies
were favoured by government in the concessioning of the Lagos-Ibadan
Expressway and the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos Terminal 2
(MM2) as well as the purchase of the old Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi,
Lagos.
He told The Punch that “You see, the biggest challenge in Nigeria is
ignorance. All these issues you’ve mentioned can easily be verified. The
facts can be ascertained. But strangely enough, nobody seems to care
about the truth. What we have in Nigeria, which is sad, is propaganda
rather than factual, in-depth reporting of situations. I’m happy that you
have presented these issues because they will enable me tell the public
what happened. I will start with the Federal Secretariat.”
He recalled that “There was an advertisement in the newspapers that
disused government buildings that were becoming environmental
problems would be converted to good use. The old federal secretariat
building in Ikoyi, Lagos was advertised; it was the most hotly contested
bid that I have ever participated in. At last, three bidders remained. One
of the bidders was Dangote.”
He said “The bid spanned almost two years with the government setting
up at least three different committees to verify the bids. We (Resort
International Group) emerged as the preferred bidder and paid for the
property in accordance with the bid. I don’t know anybody who was
interested in the bid that was excluded. I’m not aware that anybody who
put in a bid did not have a chance to defend his bid.”
He stated that “Post-mortem, after we’ve came up with our own
ideas of converting the place to apartments, interests began and
these interests were negative interests. But I don’t want to go into
that now. I just want to say that there was no peculiar advantage
for us (Resort International Group). We paid N7bn for the property
in 2005. And at today’s cost, I want you to imagine how much the
value of that money would have been today.”
Stressing that the “Obasanjo’s Government gave us no preferential
position on the old federal secretariat., He said “Let me tell you
about the old Federal Secretariat building. It was a well-conceived
project. We moved to site around December, 2015. We had
completed the design, totally prepared the buildings, and removed
all the partitions for construction.
“We had also created a demo room where you could see what a
two-bedroom or three-bedroom flat and a penthouse would look
like. We had pre-sold half of it to other people, and one day, two
years after, some people claiming to be agents of the Lagos State
Government overran the place and stopped us from building. We
couldn’t believe that this was happening in modern Nigeria.
“So, we made entreaties to the state government, but we
discovered that the government’s argument was that the building
ought to have been sold to the Lagos State Government and not
anybody else. We saw that that argument was so mundane and
irresponsible because if the Lagos State Government was
interested, it should have put in a bid. If it did, then it could say it
wanted some preferences because it is a government. But it didn’t
participate in the bid at all. It waited for two years after the project
had commenced and then overran the place in the most uncivilized
manner.”
Dr Babalakin said “We lost an unthinkable amount of money, but
fortunately for us, our lawyers anticipated the interference of the
Lagos State Government, and had provided in the agreement that
the Federal Government would be responsible for obtaining a no-
objection approval from the Lagos State Government, if necessary.
“So, it was actually the Federal Government’s responsibility to
protect us from the state government. I continue to thank the body
of lawyers, Babalakin and Co; they have really supported me in my
various endeavors because without that clause, today, we would
have been orphans. Because of that clause, we went to arbitration
against the Federal Government and we won.
“The arbitration also awarded us substantial damages and cleared
the coast for us to resume our work.”
On when his company would move back to site, he said “We will
resume work as soon as all the ancillary issues are sorted.”
He said “ There are so many abandoned projects and there are so
many abandoned buildings. But everybody points to the experience
of the old federal secretariat and they are reluctant to participate in
it. So, because of the unlawful action of the Lagos State
Government, its revenue base has been short-changed, the
availability of accommodation has been reduced and the
environmental image of Lagos has been worsened.”
Dr Babalakin said “ For every major project you stop unlawfully,
about 12 other good projects will refuse to come in and that is the
position today. There is no single major individual project going
on in Lagos today apart from Dangote Industries. This is because
there is no enabling environment. Capital is very shy and timid; it
only goes to secure places where the rules are known and where
you are sure that if you put in your money and follow the rules,
you are likely to get your return. But when the rules are opaque or
subject to the whims and caprices of certain people, who will bring
money?
On the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos Terminal 2, he said
“For MM2 also, there was a well-advertised bid for the airport and
there were responses. At the end of the day, some companies
emerged as the winner and we emerged as the reserved bidder.”
He asked that “ If (former) President Obasanjo had something to
do with it, why didn’t we emerge as the winner?”
Speaking further, he recalled that “A year later, the Minister of
Aviation called us and said the preferred bidder had not delivered
on their commitment and told us to come in as the reserved bidder.
When we came in, the design we were given by the authority was
just a shed; we were told to build a shed for Nigerians as their
Airport.
“I had gone to South Africa for a meeting and South Africa was
then completing its domestic airport. When I looked at it, I cried
that we were going to build a shed in 2003, when South Africa had
just completed a domestic terminal that looked like something out
of this world in 2003.
“So, I came back and told the then minister, Mrs Kema Chikwe,
what I saw. She looked at it and was amazed. She advised me to
make a presentation. We went through the whole process and our
design was approved. That is the MMA2 you see today; to
actualize it, we brought in South African architects and supported
them with Nigerian architects.
“That is why 13 years after it was completed, there is no airport
terminal in Nigeria that has the flow of MMA2 because it was
well-thought out and designed.”
He said “If we had been allowed to continue, phase two would
have been completed 10 years ago and we would have had one of
the best Airports in Africa.”
On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, he said there was also a
competitive bidding for the concessioning.
According to him, “For the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, again, there
was a bid, there was a response to the bid and we emerged as the
preferred bidder. I’m not aware of anybody who submitted a bid
and didn’t receive any consideration. So, I don’t know where the
complaint is coming from.
“But what is most sad is the picture that we were in default on the
project. That story is totally false. We got approval for the project
not under Obasanjo and it went to council (Federal Executive
Council) under late President Umaru Yar’Adua. It was Yar’Adua
that approved the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway project.
“We were to design, build, operate and transfer. We began the
design and discovered that the current road had outlived its
usefulness. It was built or completed around 1977. From Lagos to
Ibadan, the plan in 1977 on that road was to have it fenced and the
fencing actually started but was not completed.
“There was no town on that road; you had to go outside the road to
see Sagamu. But today, the road has been so messed up that so
many towns had emerged on the road. You have Ogere, Sagamu,
Redeemed, NASFAT, Mowe and Isheri all on the road. We
brought the best designers in the world to put it together while
maintaining palliatives on the road and traffic control.
“We had traffic controllers on the road, patching the road and
putting the design together. We actually started full construction in
October 2012.
“We finished the design and submitted our inception report (with
the first and second design) to the Federal Ministry of Works. It
took the ministry two years to be able to get back to us on this
design. We lost two years to the ministry, with over 50 consultants
that we had been paying for two years.
“We thought it was time to brief former President Goodluck
Jonathan; he gave us an appointment and we went with all the
consultants who gave a display of what they were going to do to
transform Nigeria’s infrastructure the way MMA2 transformed
Nigerian aviation.
“The former president expressed satisfaction and directed the
Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission to work with us
and conclude the process. But a few weeks later, the project was
terminated. It was a scandal. We had sunk an unthinkable amount
of money in actualizing that project. The project on that road
included seven overhead bridges. I’m not even sure there is one
overhead bridge on the one being built now.
“Also, our project had proper lay-bys; you didn’t have to buy
petrol on the road. You had to go off the road for about one minute
where you would find a restaurant, small hotel and all the facilities
you would require. We had three of such on each side of the road.
We also had a truck bay that could accommodate 12,000 trucks
and was expandable because we counted the number of trucks on
the road then and they were about 4,000. Now, we are told that
they are about 6,000.” Dr Babalakin also spoke on his experience
with the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON).
He said “I never owed AMCON any money and I give gratitude to
my lawyers. When the airport agreement was mercilessly violated,
when we were deprived of all our rights and our revenues were
curtailed, our lawyers went to court and got a judgement for
N132bn against the Federal Government. As soon as AMCON was
created, our lawyers went to court to say that we had a judgement
credit of N132bn against the Federal Government and if there was
any Federal Government agency that we owed money, they should
set it off. And it was approved by the courts.
“AMCON appealed and the Supreme Court confirmed the N132bn
Judgment credit in our favour and the set off of all our liabilities to
AMCON from this credit standing in our name with the Federal
Government of Nigeria.
“We had about N20bn to N30bn we were alleged to be owing
AMCON and based on this set off, we were entitled to a credit of
N100bn. That is the law today, irrespective of any propaganda of
AMCON.”
He noted that “Our company, Resort International, the owners of
the old Federal Secretariat, paid N7bn. We borrowed N4bn for
construction and pre-sold half to an entity on certain terms and
conditions and used the money to build. When AMCON came, we
explained to it that we didn’t have any debt, that we owed N4bn
and it was even current. We have paid N1.3bn and it was a five-
year loan, out of which we had done about two years and would
pay the balance. But AMCON refused and took us to court. When
we got to court, we counter-claimed that we didn’t have any debt,
save the N2.3billion or N2.7 billion, and that the other thing
AMCON was claiming was a debt was an equity investment.”
Saying that “You can’t turn an equity investment to a debt
overnight,” Dr Babalakin noted that “ When we got to court,
AMCON had no document that we owed any money, yet it had
published our names for seven years that Resort International owed
money to AMCON.”
He said “The court did the right thing and held that we owed no
money, that AMCON had libeled us and that the court awarded us
N3bn as damages for libel. We think the libel award was very
little, but, at least, we made a statement. Today, based on Nigerian
laws, we are not indebted to AMCON. Whatever you hear to the
contrary is propaganda. I think AMCON wants to go on an appeal
but I don’t know what the basis will be.”
