Shameful Zombie Minister

Omoakinsuyi:
http://independentnig.com/2016/03/fashola-trying-times-buharis-super-minister/

When people come and say that there is no power, they only speak of their inefficiency and incapacity to deliver power. Electricity, as an invention, is over 100 years old; so there is no excuse for Nigerians to continue to live in darkness”.

“Let the EKO DISCOs sign a contract with me, giving part of their concessioning to the state government. In about six to eight months, there will be power in all homes in Lagos State – Babatunde Raji Fashola March 8 2015
With the above statement in mind, many Nigerians greatly rejoiced when President Muhammadu Buhari on November 11 2015 inaugurated his cabinet and assigned the Ministries of Power, Works and Housing to Babatunde Raji Fashola, the immediate past governor of Lagos State. To many analysts, this is not surprising especially given his sterling performance when he managed the affairs of Lagos State for eight years. Many Nigerians even believed that, for the political differences between Lagos state under the control of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) controlled federal government, Fashola he could have done better.

‘A Ridiculous Portfolio’
However, elder statesman and former Minister of Transport, Chief
Ebenezer Babatope had a contrary view. As a former minister himself, Babatope described the appointment as ridiculous, wondering how it will be possible for a man to combine three powerful ministries. According to him, To me Fashola’s appointment is ridiculous. Power, Works and Housing are three powerful Ministries rolled into one. Has he become a superhuman Nigerian to be given Ministries of Power, Housing and Works? I am waiting and I want to see how this will work. These are three powerful ministries rolled into one” he said.

Also speaking, a former governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Dr. Ade Dosunmu, said though he has no doubt that Fashola will perform in his new role, he will be overstretched in the long run.

Dosunmu, who said there is nothing too big for Fashola to handle, added that the three ministries combined are not as big as Lagos state which Fashola successfully governed for eight years. In his words “The president has the discretion to allocate portfolios the way he feels based on his perception of the capacity of individuals. I don’t think anything is too big for Fashola to handle. Here is somebody who has governed Lagos. Those three ministries put together are not bigger than Lagos. So, I don’t believe it is too big. The only thing is that he is just going to be much overstretched and I pray that he copes. It is a challenge to him and I believe he will live up to expectations” he said.

Politics Behind Appointment
While to some Nigerians, Fashola’s appointment by President Buhari was due to sheer competence given Fashola’s brilliant performance when he held sway in Lagos, but to others who are conversant with APC politics, it was a calculated attempt by the president, based on the advice of his loyalists, to spite those opposed to Fashola’s emergence as minister and assert his authority as the President and leader of the APC . Some analysts have also argued that the position, which made Fashola the most powerful minister in the cabinet is Buhari’s way of compensating the former governor for losing out in the vice- presidential position. To these ones, Fashola is the de facto Vice- President in the cabinet. According to a credible source “ When the idea of President Buhari as APC’ s presidential candidate first began, Buhari’s original plan is to make Fashola his running mate. Then, the incumbent Vice- President, Yemi Osinbajo was not even in the picture at all. This plan, however met a brick wall owing to the controversy that arose on the danger of the APC fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket. Buhari agreed to have a Christian as his deputy but still believes that his job will be very much easier with Fashola as his right hand man”.

Fashola quickly settled down to business by unfolding a 13-point agenda to drive efforts towards enhancing power supply in the country. During his maiden meeting with power generation, distribution and transmission companies, and other stakeholders, he said that the agenda was drawn up to ensure effective monitoring of the sector.

According to him, the agenda involves continuous public engagement on tariff collection, debts, power generation, maintenance, ancillary services, dispatch orders and discipline. Others areas include gas requirement and constraints, transmission constraints, 33KV load offtake, imbalances-locations of excess, overload safety, service quality, new captive and embedded generation, franchising and other issues relevant to the growth of the sector.

According to Fashola, President Buhari has approved that all stakeholders in the sector should hold monthly meetings on issues concerning the industry. He said that the meeting would be rotated among the various GENCOs, DISCOs, TCN and other stakeholders across the country. Fashola said that all decisions reached in such meetings would be binding on all the stakeholders. In this respect, the minister stated that the various companies and stakeholders would each be represented by a management member with authority to take decision on behalf of their companies. He explained that in order to minimise the cost of hosting the meetings, the companies were advised to jointly pull up resources required to hold the meetings. The minister further said the meetings would also involve lawyers, engineers, planners and other stakeholders, adding that the ministry would issue a communiqué at the end of each meeting on steps taken to address challenges in the sector.

Outrage Greets Electricity Tariff Increase
The minister was recently in the eye of the storm over the increase in electricity tariff. This however did not go down well with many Nigerians who felt the increase is unjustifiable given the epileptic nature of power supply. The minister however justified the increase saying it is the only way to have improved power supply in the country.

According to him ”Electricity is a product, it is made from raw materials and some of the raw materials are gas.? So, the issue of tariff is the single issue of price, when the raw materials of course will go up the price cannot stay the same. ? You may ask why can’t we have more power before the price goes up: I am also a consumer, but we see that investments in power are not where they should be”. ?

“If the recovery of price, the income and profit do not make economic sense to the investor, would you do that business if you are the one? ? So, it is not what I want, it is what I think will solve the problem, everybody is owing everybody in the power equation and they are also owing banks. ? Now, if you want investment in power, banks must continue to see confidence to lend. ? There are a lot of investors who want to pay a little more than the open market tariff, if we want them to come into the industry we have to allow the new tariff order,” he said.
His explanations however did not go down well with many Nigerians especially the labour organisations which held a nationwide rally to compel the federal government to revert the increase.

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) in a statement statement signed by
Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, its President, and Barrister Musa Lawal, its Secretary-General said argument that an Act of the National Assembly actually empowered the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to increase tariff and that the Act cannot be tampered with even by the federal parliament, was certainly “very lame, too simplistic and misleading.”

“Any Act that preys on the masses that it is supposed to protect negates public policy. Any Act that compels the citizens to pay for services not delivered is not only flawed and undemocratic but is ultra vires the power of the Assembly to make laws for the good of the country, and should not enjoy any applicability.

“Any Act that further impoverishes the downtrodden and lowly is evil and should be discountenanced. We lend our voice again to advocate the need for the minister and NERC to stop trying to enforce the obnoxious Act,” TUC said in “It is high time the minister and proponents of the tariff increase are reminded that one of the major reasons Nigerians demanded a change of leadership in May 2015 was so they could heave a sigh of relief. A major expectation was that we would, for once, stop paying for services that are not rendered”. The
Senate has however ordered a reversal of the tariff.

Nigerians React
The minister has continued to receive criticisms from Nigerians as power generation which peaked at a record 5,000 megawatts in January plunged to an abysmal 1,600 megawatts. Many Nigerians have taken to social media platforms to express their frustration over what they described as Fashola’s poor performance. Others have also called for President Muhammadu Buhari
to reassign the ministries of Works and Housing to other ministers and allow Fashola focus on the Power ministry alone.
A socio- political group, Rescue Nigeria Economy Project said it is high time the president realises his mistake and allow Fashola focus on one ministry. In a statement signed by its Executive Secretary, Dennis Alamu- George said the current situation in the country has clearly shown that Fashola lack what it takes to combine the three ministries.

“ The president should in the interest of Nigeria do away with the idea of having a Super Minister. From what we have seen so far, Fashola is overwhelmed with the challenges of managing the three ministries. He is focusing on Power alone, while the two other ministries are suffering. If the president is really concerned about moving Nigeria forward, he should take the ministries of Works and Housing from him and assign to others”.

“ Let Fashola focus on Power alone.
From what we have seen, the problem in the Ministry of Power is too complex and Fashola cannot solve everything in the next four years. Why compound it with two powerful ministries again?” he asked.
Also aligning with the group’s position, former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja branch, Monday Ubani said the recent actions of the minister has clearly shown that he is incapable of effectively managing the three ministries.

“I am saying that with what is happening now, it is becoming obvious that Fashola is overwhelmed. The Ministries of Power, Works and Housing under him should be unbundled and he should be allowed to handle only one, maybe Works”.

“I believe Fashola took a wrong decision with the increase in tariff because there has been no corresponding return in services rendered. So, the president should consider removing the Ministry of Power from him and give it somebody that is competent to handle it. If this government does not get it right with power, it will be regarded as a failed government” .

“The president should bring in a competent person who has the much needed experience in the sector, maybe someone like Prof. Barth Nnaji once again. Nnaji, as we know carried out a comprehensive reform in the power sector before he was prematurely removed by the former president. But the reality is that Fashola is overwhelmed” he said

The basic truth is that Fashola was just overhyped.To compound matters,Buhari in his super cluelessness also puts a square peg in a round hole.

I think Fashola is over estimated. Granted he made differences in Lagos but there is still too much rot to qualify as having had a sterling performance during his tenure as governor. The only way he can make substantial progress in these 3-in-1 he has to run as a minister is prevail on Buhari to lose the party/tribal/religious tendencies and allow him free rein to hire professionals with excellent track records to work with him as well as the minister of state. These professionals will then serve as specialised heads of each of the 3 units (Power, Works n Housing) and report directly to him as chief coordinator.

It is important to note that Nigeria is primary and this one-upmanship about PDP and APC doing it better than the other will keep dragging us back. If leaders cannot recognise this then it is time to go the way of regional autonomy or split ways completely. We simply cannot continue like this!

Cluelessness at its peak period!

na wa o. so to give 3 perm secs target and do weekly meeting after giving them money is now super human.anyway not una fault. not everyone is called to lead.no be 24 ministries Buhari de run. why can't fashola manage 3.

trying times ministers?
my able minister, i dare you to conduct a general survey and you will know how trying it is for all Nigerians