The BusinessDay Newspaper report that nailed Barth Nnaji

Disquiet over Nnaji’s link to bid for Afam power plant

Tuesday, 28 August 2012 00:00 By our reporters

 

Afam power plant

   A gale of disquiet yesterday greeted an exclusive report by    BusinessDay, that power minister, Bart Nnaji has a direct interest in a consortium that bidded for the Afam power plant, one of the generating plants put up for privatisation by the Federal Government.

The Afam plant is widely believed to be lucrative with its installed capacity of 776 megawatts (MW), comprising of 18 gas turbines, for which the Federal Government had just approved N500 million rehabilitation.  

BusinessDay had reported on Monday that the minister, who before his appointment was the chairman of Geometrics, confirmed his interest in a bid for the plant at the crucial meeting of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) on August 24, at which the evaluation of the bids for Afam , Geregu, Kanji, Shiroro, Sapele, and Ugheli power plants were appraised, and authority given to the Technical Committee on Privatisation, to announce the firms that were passed to proceed to the next stage of the bid process. 

Nnaji was reported to have told the meeting that his firm Geometric, had indirect equity holding in one of the three firms – Primeniza Energy Limited, Skipper Nigeria Limited and NPG Consortium -  which bidded for  the Afam plant and that he had disclosed his interest earlier.

The minister left the meeting chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo, when it became apparent that his continuous participation in the deliberations would jeopardise the integrity of the appraisal by the NCP?

Industry stakeholders who spoke with BusinessDay on the development, raised several issues like “why was his (Nnaji) interest not made known publicly? What kind of probability is there that  we talking about that the winning bid was a coincidence? Does it mean there was insider dealing from the start and the minister use privileged information about the privatisation process to his own advantage?  It should also be asked...why Afam? Afam is potentially the most lucrative of all the power assets...because it will require little rehabilitation, and so on.”

According to one analyst “Can we honestly say now that he has been fair to all and that he has not sought to benefit from the process from the start; What other interest (s) does he have that have not been mentioned.

“What can be said about the manner this privatisation is beign handled is that it appears to be quite robust and that it is able to throw up issues like this and deal with them is truly commendable.”

Reuben Abati, special adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, when contacted, told BusinessDay that it was a weighty matter and that he should be given time to get all the facts before commenting.

Similarly, all efforts to speak with Nnaji did not yield result, as he switched off his phone all day and could not be reached.

The minister’s media adviser, C. Don Adinuba, failed to come up with a response to the BusinessDay report by yesterday night. After repeated assurances to make available to BusinessDay, the minister’s own side of the story, Adinuba later called BusinessDay last night, saying that the minister’s reaction would be made available today.

Senior government officials at the presidency told Business Day yesterday that despite the controversy, the NCP would meet the BPE deadlines for the privatisation of the power assets.
“We have considerable room and government will ensure that the privatisation deadlines are strictly adhered to, despite this minor hiccup.

“One thing I can assure Nigerians is that President Goodluck Jonathan will conclude this privatisation programme on schedule and that the process will be fair. What you are seeing today should be taken as evidence of the strength of the process rather than its weakness.”

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) and other civil society groups yesterday said they were not against the privatisation of PHCN, but called on the Federal Government to ensure the transparency of the exercise.

Duro Kuteyi, National Vice Chairman, National Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI) and managing director, Spectra Industries Limited, said: “This is not the spirit that we expect from the minister. This is anti-due process. Why will a minister of power that we expect would take Nigeria to the moon, be in such a mess?”

Shuaibu Idris, business consultant and former deputy managing director, Dangote Flour said:  “To my mind, at this critical moment where everybody is concerned about the level of corruption in our society, any public officer whose integrity is put to question must be shown the way out.”

A stakeholder who craved anonymity said that “It is a moral issue that the minister has to deal with.  He should have realised that he does not have to take advantage of the organisation that he heads”.

Eben Akinyemi, partner at Stransact Partners, a professional services firm, told BusinessDay: “We need to make our conflict of interest rules very clear. Here, the minister could simply feign ignorance and insist he had a blind trust looking after his businesses and he will go scot free.

In saner climes, a minister will not dare participate in a bid process being conducted under the auspices of the government of which he is a member. Here the rules are different. The minister would not need to participate in the bid directly. He could use his fronts and take control after leaving office and no one will remember… This is why I commend the minister- for being  different. If it is true, that is.”