A legal practitioner of over 20 years experience, Mr. Ndi Syke Chuks Nwasike is principal partner of FirstCounsel Firm, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria. Ivory International Magazine recently caught up with him for an interview.
IVORY: The recent judgment you won against NNPC concerning petroleum pipelines failure was widely reported in the Nigerian press and in some media here in the United Kingdom. Considering this is not the first judgment against NNPC, why do you think this is generating ripples?
NWASIKE: I would want to believe that the ripples are partly as a result of the soundness and thoroughness of the judgment as a whole. In the course of the trial, the judge in fact moved the court to the point of rupture and spillage to see for itself. The trial itself lasted about 4 years, traversing 2 judges, and ending up in a different judicial division from where it started. My clients, Ubahu town, on their own part were determined to see the case to its logical conclusion despite the frustrations they faced from the excruciatingly slow pace of our judicial system. Something funny happened in the course of the trial. The NNPC awarded a contract to one of the key Plaintiffs representing the town, and thereafter he ceased to appear in court.
IVORY: What can we do to reduce the turn around time for cases in Nigerian courts?
NWASIKE: I must say that a lot has been done for the judiciary in the past 7 years of our democracy. You must realize where we are coming from; a military regime where might was right, and people had no need for the law courts so long as they had access to a military officer. The federal and state judiciaries have done a great deal in terms of reforms, and the effects are being felt although not as fast as one would desire. What is lacking however is the political will and reorientation of judicial officers to the reforms. Admittedly, in political cases, there has been a resurgence, and realization of the worn dictum that “justice delayed is justice denied”. I’m afraid that this rebirth has not been felt in other causes and subject matter. I can be sure that if an appropriate study is commissioned, the spate of unexplained deaths in the country through the years could be linked to potential claimants who did not have the confidence they would get justice from our courts.
IVORY: Anything to learn from the west?
NWASIKE: Interesting question for Nigeria’s policy makers who pack their suitcases and jump into airplanes to the west to seek solutions to every conceivable problem. In an annual study I conduct as a local Nigeria partner to the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation over the past 5 years, it was determined that the average time for enforcing a simple contract in Nigeria is about 2 years. Neighboring Ghana, which shares its legal system origin with us from Britain, enforces in about 100 days, if I remember correctly. The interesting bit of this story is that the turnaround time for Ghana is less than that of our grandmaster Britain. Tell me, who do we learn from here? My recommendation is simple. We should continuously benchmark with countries that share similar structures and processes with us, learn from each other, compete, and continuously improve.
IVORY: Back to the case. What was notable about it?
NWASIKE: Well, all the time, the government of Nigeria blames every petroleum product spillage on vandals. The government even has a law that says victims of petroleum spillage fire disasters get no compensation where the spillage is due to third party vandalism. They send the police to arrest innocent persons passing by or residing near the points of leakage. Where fires have occurred, burnt Nigerian citizens are hunted by the Police even to the extent that some hospitals are often afraid to admit and treat victims of spillage fires. The judge made a very bold pronouncement in his judgment, and I quote him; ““The corporate culture of the Defendants (NNPC) seems to treat every rupture of pipeline as a case of vandalisation”. This pronouncement is a heavy indictment on NNPC, which the government should take seriously.
Furthermore, we were able to establish that the NNPC pays lip service to the rules of engagement in this industry. As everyone knows, activities in the oil industry are exceedingly risky, dangerous, but lucrative. For such activity in other advanced parts of the world the emphasis is on safety and the environment. In Nigeria the emphasis unfortunately is to take so much from the bowels of the earth as quickly as possible, and share the petrodollars. The Nigerian government, I’m afraid to say this, operates like an army in occupation in the oil region. This mindset is responsible for the unrest in the Niger Delta today. NNPC witnesses did not know if the pipelines were insured. Can you imagine that? Of course no serious underwriter will take that kind of risk without ensuring that maintenance budgets are judiciously applied.
IVORY: Is this an indictment on the Nigerian Engineer?
NWASIKE: Not necessarily so. It is a case of abandonment of industry regulations by an operator who is stronger than his regulator. The regulator used to be an “unattractive” department of the NNPC. The lapses are bound to occur in any part of the world. Our expert witness, who exposed the lapses, is himself a full-blooded Nigerian engineer. The practice of engineering worldwide involves standards. No local standard or practice is isolated from the other. For instance, the standards for pipelines designs in Nigeria derive from American Society of Mechanical Engineers standards, what they call the ASME code. Local legislation prescribes our own standards and additionally adopts the ASME code. Where standards are not followed, or where corners are cut, any pupil engineer would know that damages would result in due course. It’s only a matter of time. And this is what happened. How else can one explain that, despite the publicity elicited by the Nigerian press, the DPR has not to the best of my knowledge visited the community? The court agreed that the repairs carried out by the NNPC after the spillage occurred were unprofessionally, carelessly, and imprudently carried out, and ordered for the job to be properly done. If you visit the community today, you will see ample and very credible evidence of the negligence of the NNPC such as the exposure of the metal of the pipes and lack of concrete coating or anchor across the river. You do not need to be an engineer to know this. The risk of lethal consequences from further leakage is therefore high and substantial, but the industry regulator sleeps.
IVORY: Are these lapses in standards widespread?
NWASIKE: I would not know with certainty. The regulations should be seen as minimum standards. In Nigeria, the operators should self regulate and ensure that local peculiarities and oddities are well considered in their operations. There is a general provision in the pipelines safety regulations that provide that pipelines operations must be carried out in a way that shall cause the least disturbance to the environment. This appears a general provision but it is the most far-reaching in my opinion. I listened recently to an NNPC staff speak to newsmen on camera at the site of a recent spillage in Lagos State, Nigeria and he made an interesting admission that was not lost on me. He said that to avoid recurrence, they plan to bury that pipeline deeper. Did they have to wait for loss of lives before engaging in this basic preventive measure? More like medicine after death.
IVORY: How do you unwind, when you are not chasing negligent operators?
NWASIKE: I used to drink and club a lot, but hey, I’ve had my share. These days, I love spending quality time with my family. I especially cherish times I spend playing with my four girls. They amaze and inspire me. I am the present. They are the future. And, I’m also playing catch up with establishing a close relationship with my God. You cannot beat the combination of time with ones you love, and with He who loves you.
IVORY: Thanks for your time.
NWASIKE: Anytime.
