Power: Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan Spent N2.74trn In 16 Years

—THE Senate was told, yesterday, that the Federal Government has invested a N2.74 trillion in Nigeria’s power sector over the last 16 years (1999 to date).

The investments were made during the regimes of former President Olusegun Obasanjo; his successor, late President Umaru Yar’Adua, and President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali, and the Managing Director, Niger Delta Power Holding Company, NDPHC, Mr. James Olotu, disclosed this before a Senate Ad-hoc Committee probing the power sector from 1999 till date.

Furthermore, Olotu revealed that contrary to popular belief, the National Integrated Power Projects, NIPPs, which gulped about $8.23 billion or N1.64 trillion were actually being funded from the Excess Crude Account, rather than from ministerial provisions.

Jonathan, Yardadua and Obasanjo

Power in military era

Speaking further, Ambassador Igali told the Senate that former military Heads of state, who ruled the country from the overthrow of former President Shehu Shagari, up to 1999, when democracy was reinstituted, crippled the power sector.

According to Igali, this is because the successive regimes not only failed to recruit the relevant engineers for 19 years, but also failed to invest in the power sector during their reigns.

He disclosed that out of the 79 power generation units, only 19 were functioning at that time, adding that no new power plant was constructed from 1991 to 1999.

He recalled that the last plant, Shiroro was built in 1991, long before the emergence of Obasanjo as president in 1999, adding that consequently, the power sector depreciated rapidly due to lack of consistent investment and funding until Obasanjo began the power reforms.

Democracy brought improvement

Igali said further: “When democracy came, the government inherited the sector that had not made capital investment for a long time and not a single engineer was recruited in 19 years. Despite the effort at investment by government, we have not been able to invest in a consistent manner in the power sector.

“Investment from government and the private sector must go up gradually but consistently, as fluctuation will not help our economic development. I do know that despite government’s effort at funding the power sector, the nation continues to experience epileptic power supply. However, it takes time to stabilise.”

He equally recalled that when Obasanjo came to power in 1999, electricity generation capacity was a mere 1,750 MW, noting that in view of the volume of investment required, the Ministry had to bring in the private sector which resulted into a reasonable improvement from what it used to be.

Funds appropriation

Igali further disclosed that despite the sector’s need, budgetary votes were seldom released fully, noting that the country cannot realise the full benefit of any investment in power unless the value chain elements – generation, transmission and distribution were also revamped.

He gave a breakdown of the appropriation and money released from 1999 to 2015 as follows:

*1999 – N11.206 billion appropriated, N6.698billion released;

*2000 – N59.064billion appropriated, N49,785 billion released;

*2001 – N103. 397 billion appropriated, N70.927 billion released;

*2002 – N54.647billion appropriated, N41.196 billion released;

*2003 – N55.583billion appropriated, N5.207billion released;

*2004 – N54.647billion appropriated, N54. 647billion released;

*2005 – N90.283 billion appropriated, N71.889 billion released;

*2006 – N74.308 billion appropriated, N74. 3 billion released;

*2007 – N100 billion appropriated, N99.8 billion released;

*2008 – N156 billion appropriated, N112 billion released;

*2009 – N89. 5 billion appropriated, N87billion released;

*2010 – N172 billion appropriated, N70 billion released;

*2011 – N125 billion appropriated, N61 billion released;

*2012 – N197. 9 billion appropriated, N53. 5billion released;

*2013- N146 billion appropriated, N49 billion released;

l2014 – N69.8 billion appropriated, N48 billion released; and,

*2015 – N5. 240billion appropriated, no money released yet.

However, he said that it was only in 2009 that the power sector witnessed a full appropriation, adding that the annual net funding shortfall ranged from 22 per cent to 67 per cent.

Intervention funds

According to Igali, about N155 billion intervention fund was released to the Ministry for the Multi-Year Tariff Order, MYTO, to cushion the effects of the shortfalls in expenditure for the power sector between 2009 and 2013.

The funds were given for a period of five years. A breakdown of the interventions funds are as follows:

*2009 – N30.8 billion;

*2010 -N43.2 billion;

*2011 – N37.0 billion;

*2012 – N11.5 billion; and,

*2013 – N32.6 billion.

Outstanding labour issues

Speaking on the defunct National Electric Power Authority, NEPA, the Permanent Secretary, who noted that every aspect of power has been sold, except for the transmission units, said that about 2,000 workers were yet to be paid off.

He noted that many who claimed to be staff of NEPA do not have valid documents, adding that parts of the proceeds from the privatisation exercise were used to settle labour claims of over 46,000 workers by the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE.

He said the payments were made through the office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the National Pensions Commission.

Electricity operations

Speaking on the high cost of operations in the power sector, Igali who noted that a healthy infrastructure expansion programme required continual investment, said that about “60% – 70% is the typical utility debt to equity profile. Infrastructure projects should be fully funded over a three-year budget cycle.

“Typical Capital Cost (based on a 200:1 Naira/USD exchange rate), Gas processing plant N30 – N40 billion; each Gas pipeline N12 million per inch per km; Generation N200 million per MW; Double circuit 330 kV transmission line: N85million per km; Double circuit 132 kV transmission line N80million per km; Transmission transformer N16 million per MVA; Single circuit 33 kV distribution line N6.5million per km; Single circuit 11 kV distribution line: N6million per km; and Distribution transformer N2.5million – N6 million each.”

No witch-hunting

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Abubakar Kyari, APC, Borno North, insisted that the exercise was not to witch-hunt anybody, but a fact finding one in the interest of Nigeria.

Expected to appear before the Committee today are the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC; Bureau of Public Enterprises; BPE; Power Generating Companies, GENCOs and Power Distributing Companies, DISCOs.

It would be recalled that Senate President Bukola Saraki, had last month announced a 13-man ad-hoc Committee to carry out a holistic investigation into the management of funds appropriated to the power sector from the Olusegun Obasanjo civilian administration to date.

Senator Saraki had urged members of the committee to consider their reputation and integrity and come up with a report that would be acceptable to Nigerians. He lamented that a lot of money had been spent on the sector with no results, while Nigeria is still faced with the challenge of power supply.

The committee  was also saddled with the responsibility of looking into irregularities in the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN and to inadvertently probe how the Obasanjo, Umaru Yar‘adua and Jonathan administrations managed funds allocated to the sector.

It  was charged with the task of looking into the entire power value chain including generation, transmission and distribution with a view to identifying what the problems in the sector are.

Saraki who noted at the inauguration of the committee three weeks ago that the task before the panel is huge, had however frowned at the continued absence of regular supply of electricity despite the country’s huge investments in the sector.

Kyari, in his remarks during the inauguration detailed the nature of the investigation his committee is saddled with,saying, “ to have a close look at the entire power value chain (generation, transmission and distribution) calls for review of our policies in order to obtain optimum performances across the board.

Obasanjo Wants Probe Of Nigerians’ Death In Libya

Former President,Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed worry over how desperate youths risk their lives to travel to Europe and the maltreatment they receive from their hosts on the African continent.

Obasanjo in a statement he personally signed, yesterday, however, called for probe of the death of Nigerians and other migrants in Libya, saying ”The incident is the direct action of Western powers which is responsible for the current anarchy in the country.”

The former President added “It is thus a matter of considerable sadness for me when I witness the current wave of desperate youths risking their lives to travel to Europe and the futile efforts of European countries to deal with those who have already set sailing or have even reached shores of the European continent.

“The current inflow of African refugees into Europe from Libya is a direct consequence. The government in Libya which in 2000 acted humanely and responsibly to stem the outflow of illegal migrants to Europe has been replaced by unconscionable bandits and terrorists who have forcibly seized the instruments of state to facilitate human trafficking and illegal migration for their own material benefit.

“It is time for the international community and particularly African leaders to take a good look at the factors responsible for the death and destruction in the Mediterranean by illegal migration of youths from Africa and address the causes in an honest, responsible, humane and holistic manner rather than the current futile attempt to half-heartedly deal with the symptoms rather than the cause.

“ The sure way of prevention is the elimination of conflict and abject poverty and creation of employment in the countries where migrants originate. In the meantime, let African union, AU form a bulwark to stem the spate of migrants from Africa across the Mediterranean to Europe. It can be done.”

Obasanjo, who recalling how he managed the issue when he was in government, said “Sometime in September 2000, Libyan leader, Col. Muammar Ghaddafi brought to my attention the presence in Libya of thousands of Nigerian illegal immigrants attempting to make their way to Europe.

“These illegal immigrants almost entirely consisting of young men and women, who were prevented from using the facilities of Libya to sail to Europe had constituted themselves into a menace.’’

"Obasanjo Is A Liar, Economic Illiterate" Wole Soyinka

The Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said that he has no respect for Obasanjo, who he described as an indescribable liar.

Soyinka carpeted the former president on Friday night when he was responding to questions during a programme tagged: ‘An evening with Wole Soyinka’, organised by Globacom.

Asked to respond to Obasanjo’s assessment of him in the former president’s book titled ‘My Watch’, where he notes that Soyinka is good at hunting and wines but a political illiterate, Soyinka said that he was hardly bothered because he believed that Obasanjo was a liar.

Soyinka said, “Obasanjo is entitled to his opinion. But the question is: ‘Who respects the opinion of a liar?’

I can spend the whole night proving that he is a liar. Obasanjo was once described by an economist, the late Prof Ojetunji Aboyade, as an economic illiterate. They nearly ‘went into blow’ that night. It was Prof. Mabogunje who separated them.

“So, if an economic illiterate calls somebody a political illiterate, no problem at all.

“In ‘ My Watch’, Obasanjo told the first lie when he said he deplored lies. Anybody who said he never plotted to have an unconstitutional third term in office, even as a writer, I need a word to describe him.”

The former President and the Nobel laureate have been in a running battle taking swipes at each other over a lingering issue between them. Obasanjo had once stated that Soyinka once vowed that the differences between the two of them would not be resolved on earth.

Obasanjo had also in his book, My Watch, and at public events described Soyinka as an expert in wine matters than in political analysis.

He had said, “For Wole, no one can be good, nor can anything be spot-on politically except that which emanates from him or is ordained by him. His friends and loved ones will always be right and correct, no matter what they do or fail to do. He is surely a better wine connoisseur and a more successful aparo (guinea fowl) hunter than a political critic.

“Wole Soyinka is a gifted man. I have always acknowledged that but he is a bad politician and I have also always said that. That is my own point of view. He may agree with it, he may not agree with it. For instance, I know that if I want somebody to give me the best wine, one of the people I will go to is Wole Soyinka and I know he has a taste for good wine and I said that in the book.”

However, last year December, shortly after the book went public, Soyinka had, in a piece titled, ‘Watch and Pray, Watch and Prey’, vehemently protested such a description (of him), calling Obasanjo ‘’an expert liar, who lies to boost his ego.’’

But in an interview granted a private television station, Channels, on a programme tagged, ‘Book Club’, Obasanjo, while holding on to his words, said what he wrote about Soyinka was purely his view, adding that Soyinka did not have to agree with him.