When government is against progress

LEWIS OBI 08173446632 SMS ONLY lewisobi66@gmail.com

If the “Travails of Aba Pow­er Project” published in Thisday of 17th April 2015 had not been signed by Prof. Bart Nnaji, I would have thought it an impossible tale. But everyone knows the for­mer Minister of Power. He is not a man given to crying wolf or pleading for sympathy. He is far too principled and far too strong a character to do so.

But what happened between the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the National Council on Priva­tization (NCP) on the one hand and Chief Emeka Offor and his Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) on the other illustrates why Nigeria cannot have electricity soon and why darkness is everywhere on issues that require absolute transpar­ency.

Years before he was appointed minister, Prof. Nnaji had discov­ered a little secret to slaying the elu­sive electricity monster in Nigeria through the first power plant he built at Abuja. The “emergency” plant was specifically built to provide uninterruptible supply of electric­ity in the Abuja Central District. It was an unqualified success. It provided power without blinking for nearly three years. Having proved the theory and practice on a small scale, he now proceeded to try it on a grand scale.

Aba is a very special city in Ni­geria in many respects. It bustles with entrepreneurs, with innova­tors, full of creative traders, man­ufacturers of all manner of goods. “Aba Made” became a popular description because if you want something manufactured you’d get a volunteer to make it in Aba. And a World Bank chief touring Nigeria to explore centers of en­terprise accompanied by the then Finance Minister Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had challenged Prof. Nnaji to help meet the yearning of the Aba entrepreneurs for sufficient electricity in order to enable them unleash the enormous energy which everyone can see to be latent in Aba and its environs.

Nnaji took up the challenge and he was able to sell the idea even to the Obasanjo administration which in 2005 concessioned the Aba metropo­lis to Geometric Power Ltd.

The Aba plant, in Nnaji’s vision, would serve as a model of an inte­grated, dedicated, self-sufficient, sustainable power plant capable of being replicated in other Nigerian major cities. It would be the quickest and least expensive way to provide uninterruptible power supply in the country. He bounced his ideas on multinational organizations includ­ing the European Industrial Bank, the International Finance Corpora­tion, the Energy Africa Infrastruc­ture Bank, each agreed that the Aba model was sound, feasible and sustainable, and was the best model which would be able to persuade in­vestors to put down money for power projects in Nigeria.

The concession Geometric re­ceived for Aba from the Federal Government was the only guarantee for all the investment poured into the Aba Independent Power Project. All this was before the Power Sector Re­form Act of 2005.

To cut a long story, Prof. Nnaji re­signed as Minister of Power when a subsidiary of Geometric Power from which he had divested every execu­tive relationship was wrongly if ma­liciously accused of submitting a bid for one of the Power Holding Com­panies then being privatized. Sens­ing that critics would seize on the al­legation and scuttle or cast a negative shadow on the privatization program which he has worked so hard to initi­ate and promote, he resigned.

The Enugu Disco was one of the units bought and sold during the privatization process. Within the EEDC jurisdiction is of course the Aba IPP which was by then almost completed. It was here the “govern­ment magic” began.

That Chief Emeka Offor was a huge financier of the then governing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was beyond doubt. What was unknown to most was that every civilized rule of bidding for a contract has to be violated to make sure that a big party financier must win bids at all costs.

The preliminary bids required the proof of technical competence and demonstrated commercial experi­ence i n t he fi eld. E veryone k new the chief to be a regular contractor – buying cheap and selling dear – of all manner of wares including construc­tion and other ventures not demand­ing of high technological expertise and experience. It was only to be expected, therefore, when the tech­nical committee ruled his (Interstate Electronics) bid as unqualified.

The Vice-President who chaired the full committee reportedly over­ruled the committee with a laughter saying “we cannot afford to embar­rass our good friend Emeka Offor.” Many members were horrified, but that was just the beginning of “gov­ernment magic.” At the second stage of the bidding, Chief Emeka Offor’s bid was also turned down by the committee due to the unrealistic bid price submitted. In any legitimate competitive setting this should have been the end of Interstate bid for Enugu Disco.

It was clear the chief and his people were bidding for something they did not fully understand. But they now appealed to be allowed to amend the bid claiming they had made a typographic error. And lo and behold Interstate was once again allowed to move a decimal point in its bid in contravention of all known principles of competitive bidding.

Those who know Chief Emeka Offor say his mind was not in the business which became very clear when he was of all bidders the lone bidder who defaulted and could not meet the payment deadline. The rule was that if the preferred bidder missed the deadline, the reserved bidder was to be offered the slot.

The whole world watched in utter amazement as no action was taken even after the NCP voted 10-1 not to hand over Enugu Disco to Interstate for failing to meet the payment dead­line of August 21st. Indeed the BPE reportedly wrote two letters dated 21st and 22nd August which con­veyed rejection and disqualification to Interstate.

But government magic could turn white to black and truth to falsehood. It rendered the privatization of Enu­gu Disco illegitimate because it was a travesty which led to the “hand­ing over of electricity distribution in the entire (Southeast) geopolitical zone to a firm which both the BPE and the NCP say in an official report has neither the technical ability nor the financial muscle to run the busi­ness,” as Senator Chekwas Okorie lamented in a Daily Sun article.

But it now gets worse. Having concessioned Aba and its environs to Geometric Power you’d take it for granted that the smart lawyers at NCP and BPE would clearly demar­cate the ring-fenced Aba to show that it cannot be part of Enugu Disco sale. Indeed, they did.

But government magic was still working up to the point that Inter­state was now disrupting Geometric activities in the concessioned area, as if the Aba IPP which cost nearly thrice the price paid by Emeka Of­for for EEDC has become part of the Enugu Disco sale.

The Aba IPP has been ready to go – to provide uninterruptible power to Aba and its environs, yet it can­not until the new government finds time to review the iniquitous situa­tion that created Enugu Disco and stunted the Aba IPP.

It transcends party politics simply because cases like this are part of why Nigerians tend to look at gov­ernment with suspicion as in this case where it is clear government had clearly stood against progress.