Agbakoba cautions Nigeria on trade relationship with China

• It is a misconception that judiciary has failed, says CJN
• FG partners Huawei to boost transition to digital economy
Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), has said that trade relationship between Nigeria and China is skewed in such a way that will favour China and Nigeria getting nearly nothing. Agbakoba stated this yesterday during the 2018 yearly conference of the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Arbitrators held at Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

He said the bilateral relationship favours China more because the Asian country has found in Nigeria a large market to keep pushing its manufactured products while Nigeria, on the other hand, remained a consuming country depending on imports. Besides, the former NBA president said that despite a large pool of competent arbitrators in Nigeria, a lot of high-value disputes involving companies operating in Nigeria are still being taken abroad to be resolved by foreigners.

He also said that the government needs to design a policy such that multinationals doing business in Nigeria must put a clause in their contract stipulating that all arising disputes must be resolved in Nigeria.

In the same vein, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, has said that there is a problem in the misconception that the judiciary in Nigeria has failed.He said such ill perception allows disputes involving companies operating in Nigeria being taken abroad to be resolved by foreigners because they believe the system in Nigeria has collapsed.

Onnoghen, in expressing his support for the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system, said the office of the CJN and the judiciary would aid the progress of arbitration and ADR in the country for the betterment of the society and the economy of the nation to help move the country forward.

The CJN spoke at an interactive session during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Annual Conference of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) with the theme: “Arbitration and ADR in Africa: Challenges, Gains and Lessons for the Future,” yesterday in Abuja.

The 2nd Vice President of NICArb, Prof. Fabian Ajogwu (SAN), who aligned with Agbakoba, blamed the trend on “the consumption attitude” of Nigerians and speed with which Nigerian courts set aside arbitration awards.

In another development, the Federal Government has signed a pact with a leading Chinese technology firm, Huawei Technologies and Galaxy Backbone, to provide capacity development that would enable Nigeria transit to a digital economy.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, who spoke at the signing of the pact yesterday in Abuja, said the initiative, which is a part of government’s ‘ICT for change programme,’ would train about 1,000 civil servants and provide scholarship to young Nigerians to train in China.

He said that over 2,000 Nigerians had already been trained under the first phase of the programme and that the move would help Nigeria transit to a digital economy and empower youths and students.However, Vice President, Huawei Technologies, Xue Man, said Nigeria could realise over 30 per cent contribution to Gross Domestic Product if policies in the sector were properly harnessed.He said the programme is way of knowledge transfer, adding that the firm is more interested in knowledge-based initiatives rather than donating materials as social responsibility.