Consortium alleges...

and emerged as the reserved bidder and, eventually, as the preferred bidder when the selected preferred bidder, Infrastructura, did not press on.

Recalling recent events in the 18-year old process she began in 2002, she said her company first took part in the bidding concession management of the National Arts Theatre Lagos, when it was advertised by the BPE in 2002, with one other firm. Two consortia were then shortlisted – Jadeas Trust and Lloyd Anderson Ltd.

However, Jadeas Trust was the only one that went ahead to make a presentation to the technical committee of the BPE which, at the time, had Nasir El Rufai as the director-general. El Rufai is the current governor of Kaduna State.

“That transaction was not concluded and the BPE in a bid to demonstrate transparency, went ahead in 2007 to re-advertise the transaction and proceeded to shortlist eight Consortia (including UPDC, the property development arm of UAC Plc). Jadeas Trust Consortium emerged the reserve bidder and when the initial preferred bidder Infrastructura, was unable to conclude terms, Jadeas became the preferred bidder via the BPE transaction.

Jadeas said former President Olusegun Obasanjo set up an inter-ministerial panel chaired by the then secretary to government, the late Ufot Ekaete, and including the ministers of culture, works and housing and finance, among others, to work with Jadeas Trust Consortium and ensure that the interests and concerns of the federal government were taken on board in the development of their master plan. The master plan was also endorsed by the then director of the federal ministry of works and housing, Umaru Aliyu, and the FMWH technical committee set up for the National Arts Theatre building redevelopment.

After the change of government, Jadeas Trust Consortium said it made presentations to former Vice President Namadi Sambo, who was impressed and then instructed the National Council on Privatisation to receive their financial and technical bids, with Edem Duke, former minister of culture, directed to attend the negotiations to conclude the transaction.

“Rather than adhere to the vice president’s insistence on due process and the conclusion of the transaction, Edem Duke appears to have misled then President Jonathan by failing to mention the existence of the BPE transaction, which was awaiting conclusion, in order to secure “anticipatory approval” from President Goodluck Johnathan to commence a parallel transaction via the ICRC.

The minister himself, Edem Duke, without any attendant due process, appointed BGL as the transaction adviser. This was in contrast to the BPE’ transaction, which was a World Bank assisted transaction and conducted according to international best practice for PPP.

“The ICRC transaction eventually threw up TopWide Apeas as the preferred bidders, leaving Jadeas Trust with no option but to take the various MDAs to court on behalf of the members of their Consortium and to protect their longstanding interest in this transaction.

“In the public interest and in order that this project not go the way of other moribund privatization projects such as Ajaokuta, which are stalled because of a failure to bring parties to the table and reconcile conflicting stakeholder interests, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo convened a stakeholders meeting, which included the Hon Minister for Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed, representatives of Jadeas Trust, TopWide Apeas and their lawyers, and representatives of the BPE, ICRC, BPP, and the Minister for Justice.

“Following this positive intervention by the Vice President, Jadeas Trust rather than insist on the conclusion of their BPE process, which preceded that of the ICRC/TopWide, eventually signed an MOU with TopWide where both parties agreed to jointly serve as master developers, based on the holistic terms of reference of the BPE Public Private Partnership transaction that includes the National Arts Theatre building and its surrounding landmass .

“In their role as Master Developers, the SPV to be formed by Jadeas Trust and TopWide Apeas, will provide development guidelines for all the business units within the Master Plan, as well as being responsible for infrastructure development, site improvement and services. “Jadeas Trust engaged Theatre Projects, globally recognised leaders in this sector, who are the consultants behind the Dolby Theatre (formally Kodak Theatre), home to the annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles and a global portfolio of successful theatre projects. The proposed retrofit of the National Theatre building into a 21st Century Performing Arts centre, which will include a Museum of Black and African Art (MOBAA), a Black Hall of Fame with hologram and augmented reality capabilities, modern Cinemaplex and Comedy Theatre and, of course, the derelict Main Bowl of the National Theatre will be transformed into a 21st Century televisual stage, broadcasting world class Black Heritage themed content all over Africa and its diaspora.

“The MOU signed by Jadeas Trust and TopWide Apeas and the Terms of Settlement were endorsed by both the BPE and ICRC. The logical next step was for the minister to present this agreement to FEC to confirm that the two parties had agreed to work together.

“With this background, it came as something of a shock that the same minister that co-facilitated and made constructive contribution to encourage the two parties to agree to work together is now the one who showed up on Sunday morning on July 12th with a placard proclaiming the “Official Handover” of the National Theatre and the 150 hectares of prime land it sits on, to the CBN and Bankers Committee.

The Jadeas CEO said three issues beg for answers are:

• What happened to the subsisting PPP processes of ICRC and BPE, and the MOU between Jadeas Trust and Topwide for which the minister co facilitated with Vice President Yemi Oshibajo?

• What is the detailed breakdown of the N7 billion that the CBN and Bankers Committee want to spend on National Arts Theatre, as minister Lai Mohammed is on record as acknowledging that Lagos State Government carried out a comprehensive renovation of the National Theatre three years ago in preparation for the celebration of Lagos at Fifty.

• Did the PPP arrangement of the minister with the CBN and Bankers Committee follow the government laid down due process? Was there a Request for Proposal and what papers did it appear in? Who were the other bidders? What is CBN/Banker’s Committee mandate? Who was Transaction Adviser to the Minister?