The Alliance of the Owls of Destruction Against Investment (1)

As I See 

Adel El-Baz

1

I was overcome by a fit of hearty laughter as I read a statement by the Governor of River Nile State calling on investors to invest in the state, promising them facilities and incentives, and offering them a host of enticing assurances. The reason for my amusement was that the very same governor had, just twenty-four hours earlier, cancelled a contract with a company that had fulfilled all the requirements. He did so because he listens to rumour-mongers, dysfunctional institutions, and junior officials, as we shall see. Here is the story.

2

As part of the government’s Million Housing Units Project, the Minister of Housing in River Nile State promptly set about looking for a company with which to establish a fruitful public-private partnership. He laid down conditions for this partnership so unreasonable that only a madman would accept them.

Al-Mubarak Company, owned and managed by Ayman Mubarak Abu Jebin, came forward with a proposal, given the company’s specialisation in this field. Under the proposal, the company would construct a limited pilot project consisting of sixty small houses. If the state approved the model, the company could then proceed with further construction based on the design that had been built and tested.

3

Based on this proposal, the River Nile State Government spent three months studying the company’s offer, as though it were a proposal to establish a nuclear power plant.

After those three months of examining an idea originally put forward by the state itself, the government submitted a series of demands. Al-Mubarak Company responded to them, demonstrating its commitment to presenting a new construction model that it is currently developing in Uganda, Somalia, and Djibouti.

Eventually, everything was finalised, and the contract was signed after being officially authenticated by the Ministry of Justice in River Nile State. The signing ceremony took place in the presence of the entire state government, headed by the Deputy Governor. The Governor himself was absent, despite his keen interest in attending the ceremony, for reasons that arose at the time.

The Minister of Housing and all the state’s prominent figures attended. It was a major public ceremony, for which virtually every senior state official had been mobilised.

Had the contract been implemented, the project was expected to provide 3,000 housing units at prices 50% lower than those offered by any other construction model. It would also have created more than 1,000 jobs for engineers, workers, and medium-sized companies. This would have stimulated the local market and enabled people to obtain affordable homes, while providing an inspiring model for other states to follow.

4

So, what happened after the contract was signed? Something truly astonishing.

The machinery of destruction was swiftly set in motion, and the owls of ruin converged from every direction. One sought to settle an old sporting rivalry with Ayman Abu Jebin. Another brandished the political weapon of Haftar and Hemedti, seeking to exploit it in his own personal conflict. A third was consumed by jealousy because the company had come from outside the state to secure what they imagined was a massive project promising enormous profits.

Every one of them wanted a piece of the pie, even if that meant destroying the entire project.

Phone calls were made to influential figures, and the campaign of incitement and alarm-raising began, with each party beating the drums from its own corner. Unfortunately, those influential figures, whose minds seem to reside in their ears, responded immediately.

In haste, senior authorities and the relevant security agencies convened to discuss what was presented as a “serious” issue and a “major catastrophe” that had suddenly befallen the state. An emergency was declared that could not even wait until the following morning.

A brief discussion took place, and, at lightning speed, the owls of destruction, with the assistance of influential figures, managed to have the contract cancelled on a laughable pretext: they claimed that the procedures had not been properly followed.

Just imagine this farce! These were procedures that had taken three months, undergone comprehensive legal and engineering reviews, and formed the very basis upon which the contract was signed!

Can this really be a government that respects itself?!

Do those who are preoccupied with petty rivalries possess any of the capabilities required to build and reconstruct a state?

The Governor, who readily responds to interventions of every kind, regardless of their importance or the standing of those behind them, emerges the very next morning to invite investors to invest in his state, a state that appears to have no control over its own affairs.

Who could possibly believe such nonsense? And what fool would bring his money to invest in River Nile State, or indeed anywhere in Sudan?

How can a country that does not honour its contracts and commitments expect to earn the confidence of any investor?

This is not a story about a contract for sixty houses that was cancelled. The real story is that this mentality cannot build a state, attract investors, or inspire confidence in its own contracts.

A state that cancels its duly authenticated contracts within a matter of hours, only to emerge the following morning inviting investors to come and invest, is a state that deserves to be believed by no one.

To be continued.