A former member of the Federal House of Representatives and facilitator of the refund of Nigeria’s excess payment to the Paris Club, Prince (Dr) Ned Munir Nwoko is set to deliver the 2019 University of Ibadan Alumni Association Public Service Lecture.
The Public Service Lecture, with the theme; “Towards Efficient Management of Nigeria’s Foreign Loans,” will hold at the University of Ibadan Alumni Association Multipurpose Auditorium, the University of Ibadan on Friday, 30th August 2019, by 4 pm, under the chairmanship of the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor Idowu Olayinka.
Prince Ned Nwoko was opportune to work on multilateral institutions on reconciliation of debts in developing countries in the United Kingdom.
He later came across the malfeasance that had been perpetrated by the creditor nations.
This formed the basis on his research into the case of some African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
It was discovered that the debt was self-inflicted wound entered into by greedy politicians and civil servants after independence, which later caused social and economic hardship on human lives in Nigeria.
His research revealed that the reckless contracting of single digit interest rate loans from private banks in Europe by civilian and military governments in the 1960s/1970s, the rackets in import licences and frauds in letters of credit/Bill of laden transactions, over invoicing of import products as well as the round tripping of imported goods were features of Nigeria’s international trade.
It was also discovered that there were cases of Nigerians colluding with financial institutions in Europe to defraud Nigeria through money laundering and dubious deals.
It will be recalled that all these had negative impacts on Nigeria’s foreign reserves.
Prince Ned Nwoko went through a lot on negotiations about the nation’s foreign debts and repayment process.
At a point, it seemed impossible that Nigeria would get out of foreign debt burden.
Ned Nwoko deployed his contacts, knowledge and experience that he gained as a member of the international legal team that carried out forensic investigation of the debt among nations.
He approached the Federal, states and local governments and legally negotiated with them to consult and verify the debt and repayment process.
The Paris Club refund was certainly a major relief to Nigeria during the economic recession in the country.
The Bill for the Recovery of the Looted Public Funds (2002) was sponsored by Prince Ned Nwoko, when he was federal lawmaker from 1999 to 2003.
The UI Alumni Association Lecture is therefore another opportunity for the cerebral politician and accomplished business man-cum legal practitioner to shed more light on the issues of the debts of the country and Paris Club Refund.
