August 30, 2012
From JULIANA TAIWO-OBALONYE, Abuja
The Federal Government yesterday assured Nigerians and the international community that the resignation of former Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, will not in anyway affect the privatisation process.
Nnaji had on Tuesday evening resigned his appointment as cabinet minister having admitted that two companies in which he has interest participated in the power privatisation process, thereby compelling the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) to cancel the technical bid evaluation process conducted for Afam Generation Company Limited and Enugu Distribution Company Limited.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, argued that instead of it halting the process, Nnaji’s resignation would rather give credibility to the process.
Maku noted that other members of the council would have wished he was around to complete the process but be as it may, he said that the President Goodluck Jonathan administration would be more consistent in the management of power.
The information minister added that government was serious about the issue of power and that progress had been made.
Maku said: “Let me put it this way: the reasons why Prof. Barth Nnaji resigned are already known to you.
“Let me put it clearly that Prof. Nnaji resigned to give credibility to the power sector privatisation process and the statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media Affairs yesterday was very clear and explicit that the former Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, resigned his position to give credibility to the process of privatisation of the power sector. So it should be very clear to us.
“Part of it is to give credibility to the process and the voluntary resignation of Prof. Nnaji is indeed something that will reinforce the credibility of the FG’s reforms in the power sector.
“I do not see it in any way hampering the process, rather, it would assure investors all over the world that Nigeria and all of us in government are prepared to do everything possible to ensure the credibility of the process and this is exactly the intention of the minister when he resigned his appointment following issues of conflict of interest.
“It is something that should rather reinforce confidence in the process.”
On the effect of Nnaji’s resignation on government’s efforts to stabilise power in the country, Maku said: “Well, yes we definitely would have loved that Prof. Nnaji, who had put in a lot of energy in this process, was there to complete the process or see it to greater fruition but as you know governance or government is a continuum and you know there are institutions in place and there are processes in place.
“I do not see the present gains we’re beginning to see in the power sector being obstructed in any way by the decision of Prof. Nnaji to resign his position.
“I see rather greater momentum coming on board and I believe that the FG and the Ministry of Power will work even harder in the months and the years to come to give this country very stable power supply.
“Between now and the end of the year, as you know, the minister has already set targets to increase power in the nation.
“And from all that we have heard in recent weeks in many parts of the country, we’re beginning to see more stable power supply and the situation will continue to improve because there are power plants that are coming on board and we believe that by the end of the year, the power situation in the country should even improve further.
“Like I said, its regrettable that Prof. Nnaji will not be there but definitely he is still a citizen of Nigeria, he is still in the country and I believe he will contribute his quota as a private citizen wherever he is because it is his dream and the dream of the FG and the President to ensure that we attain power stability and from what we are seeing, Mr. President is determined to stabilise power and a lot of work is going on out there in the field and we believe that the power road map itself is the major engine, the propeller of the President’s effort to stabilise power supply.
“And because of the policy reforms, particularly by the time we complete the privatization of the power generating companies and the power distribution companies, we are going to see from next year more proficient management of the power sector and we are also going to see more consistency in terms of response to citizens’ need for power and we are going to also see a lot of influx of investments, that’s the whole purpose.
“The purpose is to free the sector to the private sector to bring in capital, to bring in new technology and to bring in new management methods.”
SOURCE: 30 August 2012.
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