• Expresses concern over opacity of procurement processes
•Insists Lagos ports do not need sovereign debt to be rehabilitated
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
Former Minister of Education and Solid Minerals, Obiageli Ezekwesili, Tuesday called on President Bola Tinubu to terminate the £746 million ports financing deal signed between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, describing it as opaque and potentially detrimental to the country’s fiscal future.
Ezekwesili, who raised the alarm about 152 days after the agreement was signed by Tinubu at Windsor Castle, said neither the Nigerian nor British government had publicly disclosed the terms of the deal, including its interest rate, repayment schedule and other key financial details.
The deal was signed during Tinubu’s state visit to the UK in March 2026, and was intended to finance the refurbishment of two of Nigeria’s major ports, the Lagos Port Complex, Apapa, and the Tin Can Island Port Complex, as part of efforts to modernise port infrastructure and improve cargo handling and operational efficiency.
But in a statement titled: “President Tinubu, Terminate the Dodgy £746 Million Ports Deal”, Ezekwesili said neither the Nigerian government nor its UK counterpart has disclosed the terms of the agreement.
According to her, the lack of transparency was particularly troubling against the backdrop of Nigeria’s rising public debt and mounting debt-servicing burden.
Ezekwesili maintained that Nigeria’s public debt had risen from N87 trillion in May 2023 to more than N152 trillion, while debt service was consuming more than 60 per cent of government revenues.
She also criticised the administration’s borrowing programme, stressing that annual borrowing had risen to almost N50 trillion, driven in part by a $21.45 billion external borrowing plan approved by the National Assembly.
On the ports financing agreement, she said at least £236 million was contractually reserved for British suppliers, while British Steel had secured a £70 million contract which it described as one of the largest in its history.
“Nigeria borrowed the money that British companies will harvest the contracts and Nigerians will repay the debt,” she said, questioning why the interest rate and repayment timeline had not been made public.
Ezekwesili said civil society organisations, including BudgIT, as well as opposition parties, had demanded disclosure of the agreement but had yet to receive substantive responses.
She identified three major concerns with the transaction, beginning with what she described as currency risk.
According to her, the loan was denominated in pounds sterling and benchmarked to a floating dollar rate, while repayment would ultimately be made from a Nigerian economy whose currency had lost significant value since 2023.
She also raised concerns about the procurement process, particularly the reported involvement of ITB Nigeria, a company she said was owned by Gilbert Chagoury, whom she described as a close associate of Tinubu.
Ezekwesili, who recalled that she was involved in Nigeria’s public procurement reforms, questioned whether the contractor was selected through a competitive process and demanded evidence of the involvement of the Bureau for Public Procurement and the publication of the evaluation criteria.
“Credible reporting identifies ITB Nigeria, a company owned by Gilbert Chagoury who is publicly identified as a bosom friend of President Tinubu, as the primary contractor without the due process of competitive tender,” she alleged.
She further criticised the government for choosing sovereign borrowing instead of private capital, citing the Lekki Deep Sea Port as evidence that major port infrastructure could be developed without placing the financial burden on the federal government.
According to her, the Lekki port was developed under a $1.5 billion private Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) concession without sovereign borrowing and had grown into a major container-handling facility.
She argued that there had been no convincing explanation from the government as to why the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports could not be rehabilitated through a similar private-sector model.
“These two ports do not need sovereign debt to be rehabilitated. What they need is a governance framework that attracts private capital on Nigeria’s terms,” she pointed out.
Ezekwesili alleged that the failure to pursue such an alternative raised questions about the motivation behind the financing arrangement, warning that the transaction risked reproducing what she described as a pattern of opaque and politically connected deals.
“What then must happen?” she asked, before outlining two immediate measures.
She called on Tinubu to terminate the agreement, suspend any drawdowns and return to the National Assembly with a competitive concession framework for Apapa and Tin Can ports.
She also urged the government to appoint an independent transaction adviser rather than a politically connected contractor, insisting that if the terms cannot withstand public scrutiny, they should not be implemented.
Ezekwesili further called on civil society organisations to file Freedom of Information (FOI) requests with the Ministry of Finance, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Attorney General, while also seeking relevant documentation from UKEF under the UK Freedom of Information framework.
She acknowledged the urgent need to rehabilitate Nigeria’s ports, particularly Apapa and Tin Can, but argued that the need for infrastructure could not justify opaque borrowing arrangements.
“Nigeria desperately needs functional ports. The dysfunction of Apapa and Tin-can Ports has cost the country immeasurably. But legitimate aspirations cannot be condoned as an excuse for illegitimate processes,” she said.
Ezekwesili linked the controversy over the ports deal to Nigeria’s wider governance and security challenges, arguing that both were manifestations of what she described as reckless management of public resources and weak accountability.
She said the 152-day period without disclosure suggested that the two governments could be relying on public fatigue to make the controversy disappear.
“To President Tinubu, terminate the dodgy ports deal now,” she said, urging Nigerians to demand greater transparency over borrowing undertaken in their name.