A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mike Ozekhome, has given the Federal Government a hint on how to address the trouble created by the recent $9 billion judgment given against the country by a British court.
Ozekhome, who faulted the current approach by the government, suggested the urgent engagement of brilliant British lawyers to make a case for the country.
In a statement yesterday, the popular lawyer noted that the amount stated in the judgment is over N3.2 trillion.
He averred that if the order by the UK court was executed, “it will simply cripple Nigeria, whose entire 2019 budget, which was signed into law in June, is N8.92 trillion only”.
Ozekhome added: “The judgement creditors will not seek Nigeria’s permission to go after her foreign assets. They will not politely ask Nigeria to ‘surrender’ her assets. No.
“They will simply use the available, tested and trusted legal option of garnishee proceedings, attach and fiefe (confiscate) all available and known Nigerian bank accounts, assets, monies, properties, among others, wherever they find them in the UK and in any part of the world.
“It is not a matter given to puerile lachrymal effusion, chest-beating, adventurous swashbuckling and grandstanding. It is a matter of cold law and facts.
“Let the Federal Government hire experienced legal hands in the UK immediately to stem this impending disaster that will eclipse all of us, without exception.
“The current foreign reserve of Nigeria is about a mere $47.62 billion, with China having the highest foreign reserves in the world, to the tune of $3.6 trillion…
“The best option thus open to the Federal Government to halt the looming disaster of attaching her foreign assets to the tune of $9 billion is to immediately appeal the judgment and ask the court for stay of execution.
“To allow execution of the judgment will plunge Nigeria’s already battered, pilfered and mismanaged economy into irreversible doldrums and recession of unimaginable proportions.”