COVID-19: Can It Qualify as a Force Majeure Event in a Commercial Agreement in Nigeria?

Abstract

The world is currently being faced with a common enemy – the novel coronavirus disease 2019, popularly known as COVID-19. This deadly virus which was first discovered in Wuhan, China, has now rapidly spread across many nations of the world. Many reported cases and deaths have been recorded in almost all the countries of the world. The devastating effects of COVID-19 on the economies of nations cannot be overemphasised. The pandemic has adversely affected almost all sectors of the world economy. Parties have been unable to meet up with deadlines and obligations under their agreements. Like many nations of the world, Nigeria has suffered from the deleterious effect of this pandemic. Expectedly, the Nigerian governments are quick-witted to this deadly virus. No doubt, extraordinary situations require extraordinary solutions. The drastic measures taken by the Nigerian Government to nip the virus in the bud have caused a huge disruption and setback to the economy of the most populous black nation of the world. While efforts are in top gear to bring an end to this deadly disease, it is almost certain that the post COVID-19 world would herald a bundle of cases involving breach of agreements arising from failure to perform obligations due to the unanticipated outbreak of the virus. The effect of this would likely be that parties would trigger the force majeure clauses in their agreements as a possible defence to the non-performance of their contracts.