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The power sector scandal
By Sun News Publishing
Thursday, March 27,
2008
. The on-going probe by the House of Representatives into
the activities of the Obasanjo administration in the area
of power has, once again, brought to the fore the very cankerworm
that has held Nigeria down for decades.
Obviously irked by the enormity of the amount of money which
was said to have been sunk into the power sector between 2000
and 2007, the House of Representatives Committee on Power
and Steel decided to conduct a public hearing on the issue
with a view to establishing what the true situation is.
So far, the revelations have been mind-boggling. For instance,
we have been told that 34 of the companies that were awarded
contracts worth N6.2 billion were not registered.
They were unknown to the Corporate Affairs Commission. We
have also been told that the Bureau of Public Procurement
otherwise known as Due Process Office did not follow established
civil service rules in the award of contracts. This was contrary
to all the fetish that was made of the Due Process Office
in the years under review. It has also been revealed that
the Federal Ministry of Power and Steel which had direct responsibility
for contract awards abdicated its responsibility and allowed
contractors to draft the agreements of the National Integrated
Power Projects (NIPP). That was not all. The chairman of the
Revenue Mobilisation; Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Hamman
Tukur, has also told Nigerians the story of how $482 million
was withdrawn from the excess crude account in one week for
the purpose of financing the NIPP.
We need not catalogue all the damning revelations that have,
so far, been made. Even though some of the claims are being
contested by some of the persons or organizations involved,
the trend of events suggests clearly that more disclosures
are bound to be made in the weeks ahead.
But if Nigerians are shocked by what they are being told,
it is not because $16 billion said to have been spent on power
between 2000 and 2007 is at stake, but principally because
the country is worse off in terms of electricity generation
and supply today than it was before Obasanjo assumed the reins
of governance in 1999. It is, in fact, amazing and ironical
that huge capital expenditure on energy merely translated
into more darkness for the country.
It is also shocking that these bizarre discourses are directed
against a government that made so much political capital out
of transparency, accountability and anti-corruption.
Today, some prominent Nigerians are facing trial as a result
of the anti-corruption posturing of the Obasanjo administration.
From what we have been made to know so far, we are left in
no doubt that the anti-corruption war of the Obasanjo era
was a huge joke; indeed a grand deceit tailored towards diverting
the attention of Nigerians from the free style sleaze that
the government indulged in.
Given the seriousness of the issue of power generation and
distribution, a problem which has tasked Nigerians to no end,
it is hardly surprising that President Umar Musa Yar’Adua
took interest in the matter as soon as he came into office.
The President had planned to declare a state of emergency
in the sector but developed a cold feet when he discovered
that over $10 billion was expended on the sector during the
tenure of his immediate predecessor. Subsequent findings have,
however, put the figure at $16 billion. This is what the House
of Representatives is currently probing into.
We commend Mr. President for his courage and forthrightness.
We are at the threshold of knowing the truth about the looting
that went on in the power sector under Obasanjo because Yar’Adua
spoke up. We also commend the House of Representatives for
taking the issue beyond what the president has told us. Their
decision to probe the sector has unearthed the disquieting
truths that we have at our disposal today.
No doubt, the country stands to benefit from the truths that
have been told.
At least, Nigerians are now in a position to know why the
quest for stable power has remained a mirage in spite of the
rosy promises and the huge amount of money that was sunk into
the power sector.
But the real issue now is how to deal with the corruption
we have on our hands. We believe that the truths that have
been told will only serve their purpose if those who perpetrated
the heinous crime are brought to book. The authorities have
to insist that anybody who played a role in the squandering
of the $16 billion must appear before the House Committee
to explain what he knows about the scam.
When full disclosures have been made, government will then
take up the responsibility of bringing all those who have
been implicated or who implicated themselves to face the laws
of the land. In other words, appropriate punishment must be
visited on those who have fleeced the country through phantom
power no matter how highly placed.
As a matter of fact, the issue at stake will be a test case
for Yar”Adua’s avowed belief in transparency,
accountability, due process and the rule of law. Those who
have run foul of these fine ethos of governance must be made
to pay for their misdeeds.
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