Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, on Tuesday resigned from office amid controversies and allegations of conflict of interest in the privatisation process.

Besides being at loggerheads with Power Holding Company of Nigeria’s workers on sundry issues, he was said to have interests in two firms that submitted bids for the Afam Power Plc and the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc.

The PUNCH learnt on Tuesday that Nnaji must have been pressured into resigning from the Federal Executive Council by the Presidency because of fears that the issue of conflict of interest could damage the credibility of the privatisation process, which has local and foreign investors as bidders.

The privatisation of 17 electricity firms is scheduled to be concluded in two months’ time.

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan said he had accepted the resignation.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the President thanked Nnaji for his services to the nation.

It was gathered that it was when it was established that Nnaji had interest in two firms, Skipper Nigeria Limited and Eastern Electric Nigeria Limited, that the National Council on Privatisation chaired by Vice- President Namadi Sambo, decided to cancel the technical bid evaluation process conducted for the two firms.

The NCP had last Friday named seven firms as the successful bidders for five generation companies.

According to Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation’s Technical Committee, Mr. Atedo Peterside, the successful bidders qualified to take part in the financial bidding slated for September.

The preferred bidders for Ughelli Power Plant are Phoenix Electricity, Transcorp Consortium and Ampiron Power Distribution Limited.

Two bidders, CMEC Energy and GPN Nestoil Power Services Limited, were named for the Sapele Power Plant.

Only one firm each emerged successful for Geregu, Kainji and Shiroro Power Plants. They are Ampiron Power Distribution Limited, Mainstream Energy Solution Limited and North South Power Company Limited respectively.

He explained that the seven firms were chosen after scaling the 750 pass mark for the bidding process which involved submission of bids by pre-qualified bidders.

There was speculation that the NCP had been silent on the bidders that were prequalified for the Afam Power Station because of the conflict of interest that had arisen during the privatisation process.

A national newspaper had reported that Nnaji, a member of the NCP by virtue of his position as Minister of Power, had told the council that O & M Solutions of Pakistan, a member of one of the consortia bidding for Afam, had worked as a contractor for Geometric Power.

Nnaji further notified the NCP that Geometric Power had a minority stake in Eastern Electric Nigeria Limited, which had submitted technical and financial bids for Enugu Distribution Company Limited on July 31.

He also reportedly informed the council that owing to his position, he had notified President Jonathan of his company’s bid for Enugu Distribution Company, and brought it to their attention that although he had an interest in Geometric Power, he had resigned from its board and transferred his shares to a blind trust.

Following this disclosure, Nnaji was said to have excused himself from the consideration of the report of the technical bids.

Having been informed of Nnaji’s direct and indirect interest in two companies being privatised, the report said the council decided to cancel the technical evaluation that had been conducted for Afam and disbanded the evaluation team.

Reacting to the issue of conflict of interest few hours before his resignation, Nnaji said he had voluntarily on Friday, August 24 , 2012, informed other members of the National Council on Privatisation at a meeting, which considered the report on the technical evaluation of bids for generation companies. He said he had revealed to the committee that a company with which he was associated before he joined the government in 2010, was a client of a member of a consortium interested in acquiring majority shares of the Afam power plant in Rivers State.

A statement from his office then said, “The minister consequently applied to be excused from all deliberations at the meeting, and he maintained his ground despite the insistence of some of his colleagues.

“The minister ought to be commended for exemplary commitment to transparency, probity and the common good. If most public officers had been behaving like Professor Bart Nnaji , there would not have been trust deficit in Nigeria over the decades in respect of the relationship between the people and those in government. The unprecedented domestic and international investor confidence in the

Nigerian power sector is directly traceable to the personal and professional integrity of the process drivers like Professor Nnaji.

“We welcome wholeheartedly the decision of the National Council on Privatisation that bids for the Afam plant be evaluated all over again because justice should not only be done but also seen to have been done by all and sundry.’’

Before he finally threw in the towel, the former minister had also been at the receiving end of the war declared by workers of the PHCN.

The workers had opened a can of worms on some financial transactions allegedly carried out by Nnaji which reportedly drained the purse of PHCN.

They had given the embattled minister a seven-day ultimatum to explain what he did with the money running into millions of naira which they claimed was withdrawn from the firm’s coffer.

Vice-President of the National Union of Electricity Workers Employees, Mr. Etete Ntukuben, last Friday, called for a probe, not just of the PHCN superannuation account, but the entire account of the PHCN.

Ntukuben said that investigators should be brought in to take a critical look at the withdrawals by the former minister from the account of the PHCN.

“Let us have a holistic look at the PHCN account apart from the pension account; we should take a look at the minister’s withdrawals.

A lot of millions of naira have been withdrawn and given to soldiers and policemen in the guise of security maintenance,” he said.

afam4eva: Can you list the corruption he was involved in.

Besides being at loggerheads with Power Holding Company of Nigeria’s workers on sundry issues, he was said to have interests in two firms that submitted bids for the Afam Power Plc and the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc.

The PUNCH learnt on Tuesday that Nnaji must have been pressured into resigning from the Federal Executive Council by the Presidency because of fears that the issue of conflict of interest could damage the credibility of the privatisation process, which has local and foreign investors as bidders.

The privatisation of 17 electricity firms is scheduled to be concluded in two months’ time.

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan said he had accepted the resignation.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the President thanked Nnaji for his services to the nation.

It was gathered that it was when it was established that Nnaji had interest in two firms, Skipper Nigeria Limited and Eastern Electric Nigeria Limited, that the National Council on Privatisation chaired by Vice- President Namadi Sambo, decided to cancel the technical bid evaluation process conducted for the two firms.

k2039: [color=soyouquotedme]@Op.
When people voted in 2011 presidential election?, was the voting based on merit?.

Was the 2007 african footballer of the year award based on merit?

I can go on and on, my point when it comes to issues of voting, people are bound to vote on setiments.

So you shouldn't allow the hall of shame thing to be a headache for you.

The fact that you consider someone an hero doesn't necessarily mean he is a hero so is the otherwise.

If people were to vote for the best president in Nigeria, some will vote Abacha, IBB. I hope you get my point [/color]

oyb:

if our dictator in chief could truncate the hall of shame to protet the sensibilities of a tribe, the he should truncate the hall of fame for the same reason - we don't want to be seen s members of a forum that celebrates crooks now, do we?

GARRI (x7):
Nnaji is a shameless criminal who should ßξ stripped nak.ed and flogged in Onitsha main market. No wonder the so-called improvements in the power sector were so temporary.

oyb:

oga, stop feigning ignorance



is that too hard for you to understand?

i am overseeing a process i have direct interest in? and i fail to declare it? that is a direct compliance and ethics violation ethics 101, if you will

Self-dealing is the conduct of a trustee, an attorney, a corporate officer, or other fiduciary that consists of taking advantage of his position in a transaction and acting for his own interests rather than for the interests of the beneficiaries of the trust, corporate shareholders, or his clients. Self-dealing may involve misappropriation or usurpation of corporate assets or opportunities. Self-dealing is a form of conflict of interest.[1]

One of the more current and widely agreed on definitions is from political scientists Ken Kernaghan and John Langford in their book “The Responsible Public Servant”. They define self-dealing as “a situation where one takes an action in an official capacity which involves dealing with oneself in a private capacity and which confers a benefit on oneself."

Michael McDonald, Ph.D, Chair of Applied Ethics at The University of British Columbia provides examples based from this book: “You work for government and use your official position to secure a contract for a private consulting company you own” or “using your government position to get a summer job for your daughter”.

Where a fiduciary has engaged in self-dealing, this constitutes a breach of the fiduciary relationship. The principal of that fiduciary (the person to whom duties are owed) may sue and both recover the principal's lost profits and disgorge the principal's wrongful profits.

afam4eva:
Are you actually from Delta state like you claim, because your tribalism is becoming even worse than those of the legends.

GARRI (x7):


So I should celebrate a thief cos I'm from Delta abi?? Do I look like Ibori??

afam4eva:
I'm sure you did not hear the part where he said he had to resign as part of the board of those companies to become the minister of power.

oyb:

oga, was he linked to the companies or not?

Standing5: He deserves commendation for Resigning rather than go ahead to play Abuja politics as is widespread in the system but then i think he has taken too much credit for the rise in power output which was a result of high rainfall this year.

afam4eva:
That's not my concern. My concern is whether what he did was against the law of the land. Since you opened this thread, you can start by telling us what the law says and how he violated it.

Standing5: He deserves commendation for Resigning rather than go ahead to play Abuja politics as is widespread in the system but then i think he has taken too much credit for the rise in power output which was a result of high rainfall this year.

oyb:

typical dodger

this is the sort of argument we hear from the likes of doyin okupe

let me throw it back to you - if the man's hands were clean, why was he forced out of office?

k2039:
[color=soyouquotedme]Thank you, his achievement was inflated and overrated.
If he did work whike in office his legacy should still be on. [/color]

afam4eva:
But your tears were also inflated from crying due to years of living in darkness. Very typical of Nigerians.

Pataki: Nigerians are really most idiotic in their reasoning.

Barth or whatever his name is, has no place in the Hall of Fame. Can the mods please take off his name?!

Here are my reasons:
(1). He has not done anything special to the power distribution in Nigeria! How myopic can some Nigerians be? My Nigerian friends are on facebook whinging about no power supply during this Christmas period. Yet here, we have some Nigerians nominating him (Hall of Fame) for under-performing as former Minister of Power in a season when Nigeria experienced torrential rainfall to the point of flooding? Your legacy and works should live long after you have resigned. Unfortunately for Barth, this is not the case.

(2). Barth was a corrupt entity. He had interests which was far above the primary post assigned unto him. A man who resigns as a government Minister based on alleged corruption has no place in the Hall of Fame. He rather belongs to the hall of shame.

(3). The Hall of Fame is for prestigious Nigerian people, whose impacts continues to be remembered by Nigerians for the common good. I have never heard of Barth speaking or fighting for the common good of Nigeria. He is only part of the elite rich group who continue to eat and suck Nigerians dry!

afam4eva:

What long lasting legacy can someone who spent a few months in the power ministry possibly leave behind? You say the torrential rainfall was responsible for the high rate of power supply. Then one will wonder why the torrential rainfall that we've been having for years did not do the magic before. I guess we need to be praying for more rainfall and ask the ministry to fold their arms. Why do we need the ministry when there's ran. Some Nigerians are just pathetic.

afam4eva:

What long lasting legacy can someone who spent a few months in the power ministry possibly leave behind? You say the torrential rainfall was responsible for the high rate of power supply. Then one will wonder why the torrential rainfall that we've been having for years did not do the magic before. I guess we need to be praying for more rainfall and ask the ministry to fold their arms. Why do we need the ministry when there's ran. Some Nigerians are just pathetic.

oyb:

Barth nnaji has been in nigeria's power industry in one form or another for the past 10 years

it just so happened that he decided his grand opportunity to be a force for change would better be served chopping and cleaning mouth

Pataki:

Don't be idiotic in reasoning. Do you want me to produce the now regular annual nairaland threads on improved power supply in Nigeria? Or should we assume Barth was also responsible for all that as well? Only for December to set in, and we all start whinging about no electricity supply for weeks non-stop.

afam4eva:
That's the respectable thing to do. people that resign from their positions are not necessarily guilty of what they're been accused of.

I'm still waiting for what the law says about this....do us proud

afam4eva:
The level of power reached it's highest ever when Barth Nnaji was there. Knock yourself out.