Nigerian billionaire Wale Babalakin settles 20-year fight over his Lagos airport terminal

Nigerian billionaire Wale Babalakin's Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Ltd. has signed a final settlement with the federal government, ending a dispute of nearly 20 years over the MMA2 domestic terminal at Lagos' Murtala Muhammed Airport and allowing the state airports authority to collect fees from the terminal for the first time in two decades.

Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo announced the signing on Tuesday at a ceremony formalizing the deal between the government, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Bi-Courtney and Stabilini Visinoni Ltd., a construction company Babalakin chairs. The Federal Executive Council, the cabinet chaired by President Bola Tinubu, approved the framework on April 30.

"FAAN had not earned a kobo from MMA2 for the last 20 years because of disputes," Keyamo said. "Today, FAAN begins to earn its money from that settlement."

Under the agreement, Bi-Courtney waives its outstanding claims against the government, including a court judgment of about N132 billion ($99.1 million) plus interest. The government and the airports authority in turn release historical claims against the company, including concession fees that piled up before the deal. Bi-Courtney will resume paying fees under the original concession.

Neither side disclosed the size of the fees the authority will now collect or any revenue-sharing percentage.

What each side gave up

Bi-Courtney gave up an exclusivity clause that handed it control of the domestic flight market in Lagos, and it accepted that the older General Aviation Terminal, also called MMA1, belongs to the federal government and stays under the airports authority. In return, the company can expand the apron at MMA2 and take regional flights within Africa, subject to the terminal's capacity.

The deal also restores Bi-Courtney's rights to a four-star hotel and conference center opposite the terminal. The airports authority terminated those leases in April 2012, saying the company had failed to meet its construction obligations, and Bi-Courtney challenged that in court. The buildings remain unfinished. Keyamo said in April that the company has 24 months under the new agreement to complete them, and that the projects will run on a shared-revenue basis.

"Everybody drives through there every day, so I am saying it before the camera," Keyamo said on Tuesday, urging the public to "look whether Babalakin is building that place and raise the alarm."

Keyamo said the government did not hire outside lawyers for the talks and relied on its own legal and technical teams. "What years of litigation could not deliver, constructive engagement has now made possible," he said.

Babalakin, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the country's equivalent of senior counsel, said the matter had gone unresolved for more than 18 years and pledged that Bi-Courtney would meet its obligations. "We must thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for resolving this issue," he said. "It is going to unleash a number of quality jobs into the system immediately."

A long legal fight

The government signed the concession with Bi-Courtney on April 24, 2003, to design, build, operate and eventually hand back a new domestic terminal after fire destroyed the old one in 2000. MMA2 began operating in May 2007 under a 12-year term that was later extended to 36 years.

The relationship broke down soon after. Bi-Courtney said the government breached the deal by letting airlines keep flying domestic routes from the General Aviation Terminal, which it said cut into its revenue. The cases went through several courts, some up to the Supreme Court, and Bi-Courtney won a judgment of about N132 billion against the government.

The fight spread to the company's lenders. The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, the state agency that took over bad bank loans after the 2009 banking crisis, said in 2019 that Bi-Courtney owed it more than N119 billion ($89.4 million). Bi-Courtney denied owing AMCON anything and said its judgment against the government should be set off against the agency's claims, since AMCON is government-owned.

Babalakin, 66, studied law at the University of Lagos and earned a doctorate at the University of Cambridge before founding the law firm Babalakin & Co. He chairs the Bi-Courtney Group, whose interests span aviation, construction and property. The government revoked a separate Bi-Courtney concession to rebuild the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in November 2012, citing non-performance, which the company disputed. He resigned as chairman of the University of Lagos governing council in September 2020.