Power sector probe: What Nigerians expect
Olusegun Obasanjo and President Yar’AduaAS the probe in the Power Sector gets messier with more revelations about the fraud perpetrated by those charged with the national responsibility OLU OSUNDE feels the impulse of some Nigerians on the issue asking what they really expect from the probe.
ARSENAL outing these days looks promising”,
the elderly man in his 70s reeled out commendations while moving in a snail-like motion closer to the tube of his 25” Phillip television set holed-up in an aged cabinet. His passion for the European team revealed his interest behind acquiring a cable network despite being a retiree aboding in a squalid environment.
When this writer approached him on the he sat on with some of his grandchildren clutching the remote control of his ardonable gadgets, he mistook him for one of his grandchildren’s friends who sometimes throng the house to watch European soccer. By his response, he never for once believed that he could at any time be considered to be a respondent to question on issues of national interest meant for publication in a national newspaper like the Tribune.
“Who do you say he is”, he charged at the grandson who was trying to draw his attention from the tube. “A reporter from Sunday Tribune, he retorted. He wants to talk to you on the probe going on, on energy and why Nigeria is still in darkness”.
As he gathered himself curiously perhaps to know what was amiss, light went off and the elderly man, who apparently was angry with the development simply said, “Mr reporter, the sector you want me to speak on has angrily shut-up my mouth, oju si loro wa and now we can’t see ourselves”.
When prompted to at least say a word, he said, “I have never been interested in the probe because I know it will end up the way of the others, we hear of billions, trillions of naira that never translate to anything good for people like me.
Please don’t mention my name in your paper so they don’t stop the little pension I get quarterly. The only thing I watch, is football. The cable you see was provided by my son. He bought me a generator set, but I packed it up because it costs a lot to fuel it”.
With those pathetic statements, he shoved off this writer, walked outside and demanded to be given a mat and pillow. Further question on the involvement of Obasanjo in the probe was rebuffed. He only just hissed and begged to be allowed to rest his head.
The reaction of this anonymous respondent speaks volumes about the apathy of some Nigerians on the on-going probe in the energy sector.
While some see it as another dramatic display common with the House considering the number of probes that have greeted Nigerian democracy since 1999, others see it as an explosion of a bottled-up anger by those who want to prove the devil out of what they see as saintly appearance of Obasanjo administration.
Apart from these two divides, there are still those who appear not interested in whatever happens within the government circle. They see every successive government as not different from one another. To them, probe, especially if it originates from the House is seen as an exercise in futility or sometimes an attention drawing technique to their own selfish needs. A subtle call some say, for Ghana-must-go bag to go round. Their grudge, deduced from their comments are against those involved in the energy fraud most of whom they see as untouchables. A particular reference was made to Senator Iyabo Obasanjo by some of the respondents who questioned the rationale behind her continuing stay in the House in spite of the avalanche of criticisms that have greeted her corruptive tendencies, by those she claimed to represent. All put together, appears to explain why so many people are apathetical about the energy probe.
For Hon (Prince) Akinlolu Adeyemi, Majority leader, Osun State House of Assembly, the probe must be carefully handled.
According to him, “it must be done in such a way as to give power supply to the people at the end of the day”.
He said, “we must ensure that the probe uncovers the real people who are the real culprits. It is not enough, according to him, to single out the former preside
But as if reacting to Hon. Adeyemi’s submission, Femi Okurounmu in his column in the Nigerian Tribune posited that, “since Obasanjo was the sole approving authority for these contracts, the investigative work of the House Committee on Power and Steel will not be done until it has summoned Obasanjo himself to appear before it”.
He said, “I chuckled when last week, the PHCN gave notice that there would be two days of national blackout, because to Nigerians, that is nothing unusual and hence, no news ... what would have been news is a notice that there would be two days of uninterrupted power supply”.
Obasanjo, he said, “would feel serious embarrassment each time he spends the night at his newly completed palatial, hill top mansion in Abeokuta, for he would not fail to notice that most nights, the whole town is in pitch darkness, while his mansion stands out, bathed in resplendent illumination, like an emperor’s outpost overlooking a conquered dark age settlement”.
On what he expects from the probe, Okurounmu was pessimistic saying “unfortunately, the House of Representatives can only make recommendations. The implementation of any recommendations rests on the executive.”
According to him, Yar’Adua being a stooge of the former president and the former president himself being a powerful figure in the ruling party would stall effective implementation of the recommendations.
He said, “Nigerians can scream as much as they can, nothing much is going to happen in the form of punishment or deterrent”.
Ironically, Liyel Imoke, the former minister of Power and Steel under former President Obasanjo under which a contract for the construction of the 561 megawatts Calabar power project in Cross River State was alleged to have been over paid by N224 million, recently charged the committee probing the energy to ensure that those who failed the nation in the power sector did not go unpunished.
Speaking at his office when the lawmakers went for permission to tour the power project sites, the former minister further asked the committee to make recommendations that will address the challenges of the sector.
He said, “the work of the committee is very important to this nation”.
In the same vein, a coalition of civil society groups in Abuja during the week also called for the prosecution of all persons found guilty of looting the public treasury under the guise of power sector reforms. The statement was said at a joint press conference addressed by the Lead Director, centre for social Justice Mr. Eze Onyakpere.
Reacting to Liyel Imoke’s statement, a former lecturer at the Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, Mr. Babatunde Fajenyo in a statement apparently laced with anger said that Imoke’s “charge to the committee was mere official statement common with someone boxed on the defensive”. So, whether the probe will succeed would be determined by the committee’s ability to bring all the contractors involved back to the sites to complete the energy projects or have them return the money paid to them so that the contruction can go on and at the end, the masses can enjoy stable electricity supply. Anything outside this, is nonsense”.
He said, “in a civilized society, people like Imoke and Agagu could never have succeeded in turning out to be governors of their states. They ought to be called to question to explain how they finance their ways into the high positions they now occupy”.
“By their position, they do not feel the pinch of darkness and they can afford to appear on TV to say whatever they like because they are presently protected by the immunity clause which only allows for investigations. Since they can’t be prosecuted in the heat of the matter now, they are free to pride themselves”, he said.
When confronted with Hon. Adeyemi’s plea for subtle approach, he said, while Hon. Adeyemi to a large extent appears correct in his recommendation for a subtle approach to the issue as it affected the former president, it is also pertinent to also observe that economy of a nation thrives on strict adherence to financial regulations”.
“Going by the revelations made by the former Minister of Finance, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala to the probe panel in Abuja as to how the former president himself had to waive due process for reason best known to him, he Obasanjo must be called to question. What is leadership by example when a leader violates his own laws?”, Babatunde asked rhetorically. “By that act of violation of laid down rules and regulations which is the due process, following the request of the former minister for Power and Steel, Obasanjo stands culpable”, said Babatunde.
Pre-empting Obasanjo’s defence, Mr. Babatunde said, “even if the waiver was meant to fast-track the execution of the power projects, that the action has not been justified with a stable supply of electricity to Nigerians, made a mess of the matter.”
He said probe or no probe, what Nigerians need at the end of the day is a stable source of energy that will liberate them from more than 40 years of darkness. That done, whatever amount went into the pockets of those involved in the liberation will not matter to them.”
Taking the country down the memory lane, Yushau A. Shuaib, former Head of Press and Public Relations, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Abuja in a piece sent to Sunday Tribune regarded the probe as a repeat of old dramas. He added that the disclosure was a re-enactment of similar public hearing held in June 2006 by a Joint Senate Committee of Appropriation and Finance investigating withdrawals of funds form the Federation Account.
He said, at the Senate Public Hearing in June 15, 2006, Engr. Hamman Tukur, the chairman of Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission disclosed that “deductions have continued unabated from the Federation Account in the name of developing power in the Niger-Delta which he said should have been from the Federal Government of Nigeria’s budget. He added that, “if these withdrawals are advanced payments, it is hoped that each is supported by a due process bank bond guarantee”.
While also expressing pessimism about the outcome of the probe, he said, “the fear presently is that, after Godwin Elumelu led Committee on Power Sector has finished its sitting, and if it has the gut to submit its report, nothing may happen till after another administration comes to office. Yet the public through the media screamers are aware of the figures, personalities and firms involved in those deals of immense magnitude”.
Absolving former President Olusegun Obasanjo of the blame, Shuaib said that most of the failed actions of his administration for which he is being crucified were based on recommendations of some members of his cabinet and aides who were either interested in enriching themselves or lack the courage to give sincere advice. “It may be necessary”, he said, “while encouraging the committee to dig further, to ask, if they are sincere on the exercise considering some past panels which were mere revenue spinners for members to fill their pockets”.
He asked whether Nigerians have so soon forgotten the failed panels on the famous $12.7bn missing oil revenue, on Ghana-Must-Go bag of money deposited at National Assembly to remove Ghali. Na’Abba, on the alleged distribution of millions of naira to legislators by a presidential aide to actualise the Third Term Agenda and the scandal on the million naira furnishing scam in the Federal House of Representatives” amongst others.
In an exclusive interview with our Northern Region Bureau Chief, Hassan Ibrahim, the chairman of the conference of Nigerian Political Parties, (CNPP) Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa explained that “the hearing lacks credibility even though it is desirable.”
By his submission, the desirability would be justified by the probe panel’s ability to bring stable electricity supply to the people at the end of the day.
As Babatunde puts it, “it will not matter if all the trillions stolen, later translate into stable light for the masses.”
However, while Nigerians were still grappling with what to make of the probe, a news came on Monday last week that they may have to wait till 2050 to realise their dream of stable electricity supply. The statement, the report added, was sequel to an indication from the National Energy policy.
While declaring a forum of the World Energy Council open in Abuja, on Monday last week, the Minister of State for Energy-in-charge of power, Mrs. Fatima Balarabe, Ibrahim explained that the policy which would soon be passed into law, had forecast that the entire nation would not have stable electricity supply earlier than 2050 while only 75 per cent would enjoy a stable supply by 2020.
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