The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nnaji

  • Nnaji calls for synergy among South-East states

    Former Minister of Power, Prof. Bath Nnaji, at the weekend listed crisis of values, lack of unity in practical terms and absence of joint planning of development as some of the often over-looked factors militating against the socio-economic development of the present day South-East geo-political zone of Nigeria.

    Nnaji, who is also the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Geometric Power Limited, made the assertion in his keynote lecture during the 2nd South-East Media Summit, which took place at Nike Lake Hotel, Enugu on Saturday.

    Speaking on the theme, “Role of the Media in South-East Integration”, Nnnaji stated that there is fast erosion of culture and values in the zone, stating that societies which have a high stock of social capital develop faster than those which have a low stock of such values as trust, loyalty, honesty, solidarity and cooperation.

    “We certainly do not want and should not allow our beloved Igboland to become the Sicily (where mafia and criminal organisations exist to make the area perpetually backward) of Nigeria and so the assault against our sacred cultural values must be fought with all our might and talent.

    The former minister identified area of insecurity as a critical area of integration where the South-East governments can work together by, according to him, jointly procuring tracking equipment, the type used in Abuja by federal security agencies; and devise security information sharing strategy.

     

  • PHCN privatisation: Now that Nnaji is gone

    PHCN privatisation: Now that Nnaji is gone

    When Prof Barth Nnaji left as Minister of Power in late August, it was not clear whether he jumped or was pushed. Most guesses including mine, however, was that he was pushed, if only because his departure was rather too sudden.

    The terse two paragraph announcement of his departure by the spokesman for President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Reuben Abati, hardly suggested the minister left on his own. “President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan,” Abati said, “has accepted the resignation WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT of the Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji.

    President Jonathan thanks Prof Nnaji for his services to the nation under the present administration and wishes him well in his future endeavours.” (Emphasis mine)

    Presidents don’t go about accepting the resignations of their sidekicks with immediate effect and without saying why.

    In this case, the President did say why eventually but his reason hardly suggested that Nnaji jumped. In any case, sudden resignations are very unusual ways to depart lucrative jobs like ministering to a country’s electricity power supply.

    Nnaji left on August 28. It took the President two days to say why. This was on August 30 during a town hall meeting in Onitsha after he’d inaugurated the town’s inland river port complex. “Barth Nnaji,” he reportedly said, “has not committed any offence. He is a very competent and seasoned professional.”

    However, before seemingly exonerating the minister, the president made an oblique reference to the issue of conflict of interest involving not just the minister but probably other senior government officials as well. “Before we started this privatisation,” Thisday (August 31) reported him as telling his distinguished guests, “some major stakeholders who had access to me, came to me and said, ‘Mr President, we heard all these privatisation of projects in the power sector had already been shared among the people and we want the president to assure us so that we do not waste our time.’ I said, ‘no you can keep faith in the process.’”

    The minister, the President reportedly said, had willingly declared his interest in two companies that had bid for Afam Power Station and for Enugu Distribution Company. This, he said, was what gave rise to a conflict of interest that made the minister resign in order to safeguard the privatisation exercise. Obviously, it was contradictory for the President to say his minister did nothing wrong and yet point at the conflict between his private interest and his public duty as the reason why he “resigned.”

    The President did not say when Nnaji declared his private interest in the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), but anyone familiar with the exercise knows the minister’s conflict of interest did not arise yesterday. It goes all the way back to the time of the President’s immediate predecessor, the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, when the minister was his special adviser on energy. That conflict of interest had been a source of serious, and a times violent, conflict between Nnaji and both management and workers of the PHCN.

    The minister could, therefore, not have resigned simply because the President suddenly discovered his private interest was in conflict with his public duty; the conflict had been there all along. From the President’s oblique talk about some VIP stakeholders’ worry about the integrity of the exercise, a more likely explanation could be that the private interest in the exercise of some officials more powerful than the minister simply trumped the minister’s.

    In which case it should be obvious that Nnaji’s resignation alone has hardly solved the problem of the conflict of interest of government officials responsible for the exercise.

    When the president announced on August 28 that he had accepted the “resignation” of his minister, he said he would replace him quickly and with another Igbo. It’s now mid-October and Nnaji is yet to be replaced at all, never mind with an Igbo compatriot. This undue delay suggests the politics of PHCN’s privatisation has complicated matters for the President.

    If this is the case, the President has only himself to blame; he ought to have known that a policy of allocating portfolios by ethnicity – or for that matter, by state, as seems to be the case with the ministry of defence which has remained vacant since he sacked the last minister, who is from Kebbi State, months ago – is as wrongheaded as it is untenable in a world where competence has no tribe, creed or colour. Not that there are no other Igbos even more competent than Nnaji. There are. But to insist on an Igbo replacement was clearly restricting his choice.

    In announcing Nnaji’s departure as minister, the President praised him for his competence and professionalism. Few would or can question the President’s judgement about the ex-minister’s credentials. However, it misses the main issue which is the integrity of the exercise. The fact is that competence and professionalism are no substitutes for integrity. And it is the dubious integrity of the exercise that has left the country as poorly served today by its power utility company as it was nearly 13 years ago when President Olusegun Obasanjo promised he will turn the sector around.

    Nnaji did little to enhance the integrity of the exercise which, by the president’s own admission, was why the gentleman had to leave.

    The question is would his departure make any difference? It is doubtful that it would, for the simple reason that Nnaji is probably not the only senior government official whose private interest ran counter to his public duty. The evidence is there in the history of privatisation in this country where the commonwealth has largely ended in the hands of senior government officials and their cronies and kins. It is also there in the fact that, as with previous exercises, perhaps the most notorious of which was that of NITEL, the country’s telecommunication company, the assets of PHCN have probably been grossly understated.

    Government ownership of companies may have been discredited in this country but the record of the private ownership in sectors like banking and aviation has given little cause to believe that privatisation is the only solution.

    Elsewhere, among the Asian Tigers – South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, etc – and in China the world’s emerging economic super power, there is ample evidence that efficiency and profitability is not the preserve of privately owned companies. The evidence is also right here on our continent, where the publicly owned Ethiopian Airline, for example, has shown that public ownership is not necessarily an obstacle to commercial success.

    By all means let’s go ahead and privatise our public companies since they have proved unviable. However, as we do so we must remember that their problem was less the nature of their ownership than the lack of integrity with which they were run.

    Unless the authorities do all they can to guarantee such integrity in the sale of the public companies, their privatised offsprings can only bring even more pain to consumers than was the case before.

     

     

     

     

  • Before we crucify or applaud Nnaji

    Before we crucify or applaud Nnaji

    In a country not accustomed to probity and accountability especially in public office, the resignation or sacking of a public officer over conflict of interest in the discharge of his or her official duties calls for serious reflection.
    The departure of Professor Barth Nnaji as Nigeria’s Minister of Power last week offered an opportunity to assess the commitment or otherwise of the Goodluck Jonathan administration to transparency in governance and how far or close we are to achieving that goal.
    Although it remains unclear whether the former Minister left voluntarily or forced to resign (another name for sack), his exit, coming on the heels of the administration’s new drive to promote performance in government through the recently introduced Performance Contract Agreement by Ministers could be an indication that the government was finally ready to deliver on its promises to Nigerians. And one of those promises is the provision of no fewer than 10,000 Megawatt of electricity to the national grid, a task Professor Nnaji was expected to achieve, and I think he was well on the way to doing just that. Given the very low level of electricity generation in the country prior to assuming office, achieving the present 4,400 Megawatt was no mean achievement by Nnaji and nobody could deny that things were looking up in the power sector under the former Minister. So, what went wrong? Why did he resign or given the boot?
    The man at the centre of it all said he had done nothing wrong, including the controversial conflict of interest accusation and left to protect the integrity of the Jonathan administration in the face of some powerful interest groups interested in manipulating the ongoing power sector reforms to their advantage. He had stepped on the toes of these groups in the course of his assignment.
    President Jonathan has equally defended Nnaji claiming he had done well but for a certain conflict of interest involving a company in which the former Minister had an interest showing active interest in the ongoing power sector reform.
    Depending on which spin on the sack/resignation you want to believe, the fact remains that something fishy has happened or is happening in the power sector which if not fished out and addressed immediately could affect the ongoing reform and our ability to generate enough Megawatts to power our economy. No fewer than 40,000 Megawatts of electricity, according to experts is needed to achieve this. How do we achieve this and in what way would the exit of Nnaji help?
    If truly the sacking of the former Minister was due to the conflict of interest as alleged by the Federal Government, then his exit could help on the long run as it is expected that nobody in government with interest in the power sector no matter how remote and no matter how highly placed would be allowed to participate in the ongoing reform in the sector. This expectedly should also include some serving state governors who are alleged to be eyeing some of the successor companies to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
    The Federal Government would do well also to look beyond the issue of conflict of interest and address Nnaji’s allegation that some powerful interest groups whose toes he might have stepped on were behind his decision to quit. Although it is not uncommon in Nigeria for us to blame everybody but ourselves for our woes, the allegation should not be swept under the carpet as it is not unlikely that was the situation given the culture of insider abuse in Nigeria by people in position of authority in the country.
    Rail transportation that was once the backbone of haulage business in Nigeria is in ruins no thanks to what the people believe to be the activities of some powerful individuals within and outside the government with interest in road transportation. Have you ever asked why Nigeria Airways died and some of our private airlines are still flying even in the face of harsh economic environment? The same could be said about the defunct Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) and privately owned Nigerian shipping lines. The truth is that here we promote more of our selfish interest above that of the nation and protect same. So if Jonathan could kick out Nnaji to protect his flagship power sector programme, he should also not hesitate to fish out and punish those others bent on thwarting the programme or manipulate it for their selfish interest. Can he do it? On the evidence of his swift move against Nnaji, he should not find it difficult to deal with this powerful enemies within. But as it is with Jonathan, don’t expect anything and if it happens, then you are lucky.
    Gauging from the reaction of members of the public to Nnaji’s departure from Jonathan’s cabinet, one could safely conclude that the former Minister is a man of integrity, but how he got caught up in this conflict of interest mess is still a surprise. More surprising is Jonathan’s feigned ignorance of Nnaji’s subsisting interest in the power sector even as a serving Minister.
    It is public knowledge that the former Minister had substantial interest in a company, Geometric Power Limited which is a major player in the power sector. I am sure Jonathan made him a minister with a view to tapping his expertise and experience garnered over the years in the sector, including his years at Geometric. As it is the practice elsewhere,the man put all his interest in his company in a blind trust, severed all relationship with Geometric and headed to the Ministry of Power to serve his fatherland with love and strength and faith. But how ‘blind’ do we expect this trust or even the Minister to be when a business venture that will naturally interest the company comes up in the Ministry? This is where the problem lies and I think this gave rise to the doctrine of conflict of interest. I think putting private interest in a blind trust while serving the public was a legitimate window to insulate a public officer from the accusation of conflict of interest. This Nnaji did and I think Jonathan knew about it before appointing him a Minister. The SSS must have discovered this during their investigation the report of which must have influenced the Senate confirmation during his screening. With this known to those who should know, at what point did Nnaji violate his oath of office? Did he do anything while in office that was not known as at the time he was being made a Minister or did he do anything that was anticipated then? If he had not done anything new or unknown to Jonathan before to warrant being sacked on account of conflict of interest then the charge of conflict of interest cannot stand. There must be something else behind his sack; there is more to it than we are being told. Could it be those big toes that Nnaji stepped on that are behind his sack? Only Jonathan knows, but the president will not tell us. What a shame? And if the media talk now he will say we are biased.
    Nnaji himself is not without blame in this matter. How can he be so naive to think that he can eat his cake and have it? The law on this conflict of interest thing we are told is very clear, to allow a breach is like allowing insider trading on the stock exchange; it is unethical. If anyone had assured him that “nothing will happen”, now he knows better. You don’t trust the promise of a politician. Now as for those calling for his reinstatement, it is rather too late as the Federal Government has conveniently placed this charge of conflict of interest on his neck and except he or Jonathan opens up on it and tell us the truth, the charge is enough to keep him away from public office at least for now.
    That pipeline fire in Lagos
    Lagos has again experienced another pipeline fire due to activities of vandals. And at the rate this thing happens we might need a dedicated security outfit to protect this important economic facility. And since our security agencies appear incapable of doing this who is better placed to do it than the vandals themselves; the pipeline thieves. If we could hand over the protection of pipelines in the Niger Delta to ex militants and pay them millions of dollar every year, then the vandals here deserve the same thing, don’t you think so? This is the implication of implementing stupid policies. Jonathan over to you.

  • Nnaji and the power sector jinx

    For watchers of the developments in the troubled power sector, something akin to a disaster befell the nation with the ouster of Professor Barth Nnaji as power minister Wednesday August 28. For a sector that has just begun to witness some modest improvements in service delivery across the board, it was a perhaps a case of the Nigerian gnome knowing when to strike for maximum effect. That it consumed the individual who in the last months – by the estimation of the generality of citizens – gave so much and added so much value to the hitherto moribund sector is perhaps best explained by the Nigerian jinx.

    I describe Nnaji exit as unfortunate essentially because the affair is foreseeable. For a sector being primed for the most comprehensive overhaul in its history, it was perhaps expected that the entrenched forces of the ancien regime would not let go without a fight. In this, the government seems to have supplied the catalyst when it failed to anticipate the problem. Although it seems now convenient for the same government to play the Pontius Pilate, its feigning of innocence is to put it mildly, hypocritical. That the issue of conflict of interest which provided the ammo for Nnaji’s ouster did not come up earlier is only because there was no basis for conflict at the earlier stages. The matter only became hot button when the reform ship began to coast to the final, home stretch – the sale of the entities. This is where the stakes are at utmost and the government ought to have known better by ensuring that the chief midwife, like Caesar’s wife, stays above board!

    Blind Trust or not, the ex-minister’s interest in Geometric Power is certainly not hidden. This was after all where he was yanked off to become Special Adviser to the President and later Minister of Power. I personally thought that the ex-minister’s job was just about done at the point of the production of the milestone Power Sector Roadmap in August 2010. Solely on account of his interests in the sector, and given the potential landmines in the path of the privatisation process and the powerful interests at play, I believe that he ought to have been excused before the privatisation process kicked off at least to confer credibility on the exercise. That the minister and his boss, President Jonathan waited for things to get out of hand is no doubt revealing of the administration’s sloppiness.

    I must say however that Nnaji’s exit merely confirms that the gnome behind the power sector’s woes is alive and well. Today, the fear that the modest success would be imperilled by the changes is back. As one would imagine, the wild celebration by the electrical sector unions in the aftermath of the minister’s exit would merely represent the more comical dimension of the forces ranged against the reforms. But theirs is nothing compared to the dark forces that are far more powerful and sinister. These forces have the money, the muscle and the connection at the highest levels of government to guarantee that no initiatives work!
    That is to say that the fear of the sector’s relapse is not entirely unfounded. After all, the mere existence of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005 – a legislation whose coming marked the turning point for the industry – could not guarantee that the reforms would move from the pages of the papers on which the law was written. Indeed, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua not only dithered in implementation – a clear violation of the Act – for nearly two years, he acted as if the law did not exist. Even his pledge to declare emergency in the power sector remained until his death – a wish.

    The lesson here is that it is one thing to have a fanciful piece of legislation; it is another to commit to its implementation.
    President Jonathan is no doubt entitled to his achievement which is modest by all standards given the resources that his administration has thrown into the sector. Of course, cash was never a problem. The administration after all began by warehousing $5 billion for the National Integrated Power Projects. That was after it secured the agreement of governors and their state assemblies to draw from the excess crude account. In spite of this, performance could hardly be said to have matched expectations. Note for instance the rather curious and confounding arithmetic of the power generation in which a country that did not start from Ground Zero currently celebrates 4000 MW as achievement. How about this for the record – that we blew nearly $20 million on the sector in the last decade alone to achieve an incremental 1,500 MW additional output! How does one explain the power sector’s arithmetic of reducing balances?

    The question is apt, considered in the background of the administration’s projections in the celebrated roadmap. By the projection, the sector ought to have delivered 7033MW by April 2011. By December this year, the generation capacity is supposed to hit 11,879 MW. Now, we are told by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission that the best the nation could hope for in 2012 – barely three months away – is 5,000MW! Meanwhile, the administration is in frenzy over achievements!

    Having said that, I personally believe that current fears about the reforms slipping into relapse mode are somewhat exaggerated. Clearly, much work has gone into grounding the institutional framework. There are also undeniable signs that progress is finally being made in the completion of the NIPP plants. Much also has been done to harmonise gas policies to ensure delivery of gas to the plants. However, it seems to me that the sustained interest of the ordinary Nigerian in the sector is what will make the possibility of a slip into the dark days very difficult. To be sure, the nation didn’t get to this point because those in charge suddenly became more committed. It did because Nigerians have gone beyond asking hard questions to demanding explanations on why in spite of the trillions of naira sunk, the government cannot deliver. One can only hope that President Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party read the signs of the times correctly.

    It is of course a long way ahead. The word however is vigilance – eternal vigilance. The next battle is the sale of the unbundled entities of the Power Holdings Company of Nigeria – perhaps the most critical in the entire process. Just as Nigerians cannot wait to see this phase happen, it must be seen as the beginning of the long, difficult road to improved service delivery – a step towards the so-called Eldorado of liberalised power sector.