As usual, this is all the GEJ Government is about. Making excuses and shifting the goal post simply to protect the interest of 'awon boys' who all got together unanimously to 'endorse' Mr. president. Some of us warned that absolutely nothing, favouring the masses, will work under GEJ in so far as he was backed and endorsed robustly by every single AGIP and ruinous hand in Nigeria.

Jonathan, because of political desperation, accepted a 'poisoned chalice'. He is now simply too compromised to work against the interest of those holding Nigeria back. Little wonder Nigeria is stagnant today.

Where, for example, is the PIB ? If this is a President who respects Nigerians, the PIB would have been delivered after the end of the strike that took Nigerian lives - especially given that the leaders of the Upper and lower house are from Mr. President's Party. Instead they set up a silly committee to waste more of Nigeria's wealth and disguise how they cannot pass the PIB because the bigs boys in our executive and legislative arms have chopped millions of dollars to frustrate the passsage of the bill. Another wasted 4 years with enemies of the masses in charge. What a shame.

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82302:investors-may-pull-out-as-intrigues-delay-reforms-in-phcn-&catid=1:national&Itemid=559

Investors may pull out as intrigues delay reforms in PHCN
THURSDAY, 05 APRIL 2012 00:00 BY OBIORA ADUBA AND SULAIMON SALAU NEWS - NATIONAL
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AFTER repeated assurances and promises of achieving new power generation targets and reasonable level of electricity supply without success, officials of the Ministry of Power and the privatisation agencies are shifting the goal-posts as the blame game continues.

At the root of the current relapse in the reforms is the usual bureaucracy, protection of personal interests, and failure to issue appropriate legal documents to selected bidders for the succession power generation and distribution firms.

But local and foreign investors, who had mobilised resources to buy into the 17 succession companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), are developing cold feet to the exercise after the Federal Government shifted the privitasation of PHCN from March 2012 to October 2012.

The investors, who are already counting their losses to the sudden change of date, The Guardian learnt, are looking elsewhere and other sectors to stake their funds.

Only last weekend, the government fired some power firms’ chief executives over the persistent crisis in the sector.

Some officials of the Ministry of Power, who spoke with The Guardian on the sloppy implementation of privatisation of the PHCN, attributed it to the selfishness of some key figures in government and electricity workers over fears of job loss.

They also cited sabotage in the current national outages, adding that the recent sharp drop in generation had brought to the fore the implications of the delay in the power sector reforms.

Other industry players claimed that the lull in the reforms had dampened the enthusiasm of investors, who had submitted bids for the PHCN succession firms.

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), which recently reviewed its timetable for the privatisation of PHCN, set the announcement of the preferred bidders for the successor companies unveiled by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) for on/or before October 23, 2012 from March 12, 2012 earlier fixed for the scheme.

The power road-map commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan had fixed mid-2012 for the completion of the privatisation of the distribution companies.

The new timeline shows that the BPE would issue revised legal documents to the bidders on March 30, 2012 while April 20, 2012 is the deadline for receipt of comments by bidders on the legal documents. The distribution and issuance of final bid documents is on May 11, 2012 while the deadline for submission of technical and financial bids is July 31, 2012.

The new arrangement shows that evaluation of the technical bids would take place between August 14 and 28, 2012 while the NCP will approve the results of the technical evaluation on/or before September 11, 2012. The deadline for the shortlisted bidders for the companies to submit their letters of credit is September 18, 2012 while October 2, 2012 is for shortlisted bidders for distribution companies. The NCP approval, it was learnt, will pave way for opening of financial bids of the shortlisted investors. The BPE had at a conference with the Federal Government in November last year attributed the delay in the scheme to the need to address concerns raised by power industry officials.

But government sources said the revised timetable was due to delay in the issuance of revised legal documents to bidders for the successor companies. Also, stakeholders in the sector feared the delay could lead to other extraneous factors that could lead to the death of the entire process.

A source in the Ministry of Power admitted that the prolonged process had done more harm to the system, claiming that some officials in the public sector were determined to scuttle the process due to their selfish interest.

[b]Besides, the delay is said to have increased the bidding firms’ costs, some of which are allegedly pulling out of the process.

An industry analyst told The Guardian that the transaction had become very expensive to the firms that participated in the bidding process.

He said: “The investors are worried about the delay because they spend more money on logistics relating to the transaction. For example, hiring consultants would cost nothing less than N100,000 monthly and you know what this amounts to if the process becomes elongated. At the end, the profitability will be jeopardised and people will think Nigeria is not serious.”

Besides, he said the process is keeping the members of staff of PHCN in limbo, hence the several actions that might likely scuttle the exercise.

“The more you delay, the more the pressure in the system and they will kill it to the bone. You would recollect that the government recently said they have generated over 3,000 megawatts (mw), this has been pulled down now, showing that inefficiency is returning to the system,” he said.
[/b]
The National Chairman of Coalition of Residence and Business Association of Nigeria, Abayomi Daudu said: “Power supply is abysmally low, and I suspect sabotage. Electricity is the lifewire of any economy, and we cannot continue like this. I think there is more to it than we can see.”

The timetable announced by the BPE’s Acting Director for Electric Power, Mr. Ibrahim Baba Gana, in November 2011, had put the deadline for submission of bids for the generation companies at January 30, 2012 while the deadline for the submission of bids for distribution companies was February 13, 2012.

In a letter to the prospective investors, Baba Gana had said the measure was to address the concerns raised at the Transaction and Industry Review Conference.

He said: “In view of the foregoing, we have been working diligently to create a bankable package of transaction and industry documents based on your feedback. Specifically, we have been working with other agencies such as the Federal Ministry of Power; Federal Ministry of Finance; Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC); Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN); Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria (GACN); Nigeria Gas Company (NGC); Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET); and the World Bank to amend and harmonise the key industry documents, namely, MYTO (Multi-Year Tariff Order) 2, Transmission Use of System Agreement (TUoS), Connection/Interface Agreement (CIA), Gas Sale and Aggregation Agreement (GSAA), Gas Transportation Agreement (GTA), Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), and Vesting Contract.”

BPE spokesman, Chukwuma Nwokoh, told The Guardian that the reforms backed by Electric Power Sector Act of 2005 was stalled until President Goodluck Jonathan came to power.

According to him, “everything is in place now as we are working according to international best practices.

“As we all know, PHCN has no audited account yet even with the severance entitlements, there has not been any good resolution. There are so many other documents that need to be protected to make the privatisation fair and clear,” he said.

As at last weekend, an alleged acute gas shortage and other infrastructural challenges had led to about 1,000 mw drop in the national grid.

The Ministry of Power said five power plants were affected by the gas challenges, which had loss 977.5 mw.

The stations are Olorunshogo National Integrated Power Plant (337.5mw), PHCN in Olorunshogo (152mw); Sapele Power Plant (112 mw); Geregu Power Plant (276 mw), and Ughelli Power Plant (100mw).

The plants need 270 million standard cubic feet of gas daily to produce optimally.

Useless Government

This government is realy not serious about power. If they are, why would they budget over #300m on this years budget for the fueling of the generator at the presidential villa? All they do is, one step forward then they take two step behind.

too bad.

Almaiga: This government is realy not serious about power. If they are, why would they budget over #300m on this years budget for the fueling of the generator at the presidential villa? All they do is, one step forward then they take two step behind.

My guy read the first page of the thread below to see why Nigeria is not working. When so-called educated men are e.j.a.cu.la.t.i.n.g over absolutely nada, then you know the nation is in trouble because it is those who are educated who should see beyond the propaganda to demand real value and effective leadership.

https://www.nairaland.com/842409/phcn-divided-liquidated-fg

When I tried to show them what is terribly obvious, it is the usual "Gbawe hates GEJ".


I don't hate GEJ but commonsense and pragmatism, for those not myopically blindsided by ethnic jingoism, will make Nigerians realise that GEJ is likely to fail in all sectors critical to the progress of the common man. We all saw how all the AGIPs and ruinous hands who have destroyed this nation , over many decades, join together harmoniously to endorse GEJ. What that implies, for those who don't fool themselves, is that there will always be convenient 'hindrances', "cabals" and "saboteurs" preventing good things happening for Nigerians. The President is somehow powerless to do anything.

This will carry on till GEJ finishes his term and ends up stupendously rich like OBJ, IBB et al while Nigerians get nada. Till today, no fan of GEJ has explained Jonathan's insane decision to hand over our refineries to the home of grand corruption (NNPC) for 24 months. I have told folks my own theory and Nairalanders will be surprised when it comes to pass. GEJ is simply stalling till when he can sell our refineries to his buddies like Dangote and Otedola for pittance. It will be like owning an oil bloc. GEJ will forever get 'royalties' from his pals. It is how Nigeria works and indeed OBJ tried to do precisely that till Yar Adua reversed his sale of our refineries to Otedola and co.

Power is no different. Nnaji is wasting his time. A good man he may be but his oga is in bed with the very folks who are frustrating Nnaji's effort.

AGIP scheming , all the way to involvement of our top executives and legislators, is why the PIB is not passed till date. The major oil companies find it very easy to bribe our useless and hideously self-serving leaders.

As I always say, Nigeria is going nowhere while we continue to elect those who cause the problem into positions where they will pretend to want solutions but are scheming mercilessly against Nigerians in the background. A classic example of such a person is David Mark.

When those with 10 oil blocs, huge generator importation concern and massive fuel importation businesses queued up behind GEJ, how can we expect to see the PIB passed or refineries working or even our power woes alleviated appreciably?

Surprisingly, all members of GEJ's fan club are missing from this thread.

We all know GEJ made too many pady pady with the supreme cabal in Nigeria b4 he could access the seat of power. As usual he will try to give Nigerians the impression that the power reform is progressing as expected and there is no cause for alarm but in reality the man is helpless and has little or no real control of the ship called Nigeria. I pity those who chose to follow and believe Gej blindly because he is their brother . . . by the time GEJ is through, all the progress-in-any-region-cometh-by-a-son-of-that-region-assuming-power or He-is-the-Messiah notion should be put to rest.

sheyguy: We all know GEJ made too many pady pady with the supreme cabal in Nigeria b4 he could access the seat of power. As usual he will try to give Nigerians the impression that the power reform is progressing as expected and there is no cause for alarm but in reality the man is helpless and has little or no real control of the ship called Nigeria. I pity those who chose to follow and believe Gej blindly because he is their brother . . . by the time GEJ is through, all the progress-in-any-region-cometh-by-a-son-of-that-region-assuming-power or He-is-the-Messiah notion should be put to rest.

Same here. That is precisely what is killing Nigeria. The PDP will put a 'Voltron' in charge to assist its constant milking of Nigeria. Subtly, and behind the scene, the machination will begin about powerful "cabals" and "saboteurs" preventing the President delivering. It was the same with OBJ and Yar Adua. Meanwhile, who, except GEJ's bigoted brothers (ala Dokubo-Asari et al) and blind ethnic jingoists, will not know that it is mainly members of the PDP who are indeed the "cabal" and "saboteur" holding Nigeria back?

Do we not see how the PDP are killing Nigerians with Boko Haram while it is also a PDP President, Defense Minister and other Party members pretending to be looking for solutions to end Boko terror? Is that not a classic example of an evil party deliberately causing all the problems yet deceptively offering itself as the solution?

Let the forum note I have said it. The only thing that will increase and improve massively will be the bank account of GEJ and his "na our time" pals. Tompolo is on his way to becoming a billioniare. Dokubo-Asari will also be stupendously rich as well. General Boyloaf et al are the 'nouveau rich' who will be tomorrows powerbrokers. Leadership , as PDP conceives it, is about classic disenfranchisement of everyone perceived as outsiders (most Nigerians)in a crude "winner takes all" recourse to crass feudalism. In 2015, I fully expect all Nigeria's problem to be the same or worse.

Should I be surprised? No man!

Sometimes, if i read stuff like this about my country ...i weep and i wonder when my people are going to wake up from their long sleep

Coverdales: Sometimes, if i read stuff like this about my country ...i weep and[b] i wonder when my people are going to wake up from their long sleep[/b]

As long as ethnic,sectional and religous bias continue to play a big part in how the average Nigerian makes decisions, we will always get the likes of GEJ 'packaged' crudely for us as 'solutions'. In reality, the elites and owners of Nigeria have just simply delivered the President that will allow Nigeria to continue working in favour of a very small percentage of leeches who remain above the law and do/steal as they please.

A crude but effective way of perpetuating a pseudo royal hegemony over a peasant class. I.e, always find a 'king' who will rule in favour of the small elite-class preventing real progress by enjoying a hideously subsidized existence at the expense of the general population. Issues, inevitably, have now moved to the next and natural stage - making excuses for the failures of a man touted as "transformation" when all in his CV screamed "mediocrity" and "clueless political jobber". Despite the promises of GEJ, power supply has dropped while , through leadership of the FEC, he has personally approved gazillions of Naira for power contracts since becoming substantive President.

http://www.punchng.com/news/jonathans-power-sector-reform-hijacked/

Jonathan’s power sector reform hijacked

APRIL 7, 2012 BY EVEREST AMAEFULE AND FIDELIS SORIWEI 37 COMMENTS



The plan of President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure stable electricity supply to Nigerians may have been hijacked by opposing interest groups in the power sector.

Investigations by our correspondents have shown that the crisis between workers in the sector and the Minister of Power, Prof. Bath Nnaji, is delaying the power sector reform.

Other problems, which have remained intractable, include inadequate supply of gas and water, as well as the slow pace of the privatisation of the sector.

It was learnt that there are other entrenched interests militating against Jonathan’s objective of giving uninterrupted power supply to Nigerians.

The minister, it was learnt, is dealing directly with the President on the issue of privatisation of the PHCN and not through Vice-President Namadi Sambo, who is the chairman of the National Council of Privatisation.

The ministry source said that the VP was not comfortable with the situation.

A national newspaper (not THE PUNCH) had on Thursday reported that 17 investors, who had mobilised resources to buy 17 succession companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, were developing cold feet.

Their reaction, it was reported, was connected with the Federal Government’s shift in the date of the privatisation of the PHCN from March 2012 to October 2012.

The President had, during the inauguration of the roadmap for power sector reforms on August 26, 2010 at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, promised that Nigerians would enjoy stable power supply as from 2012.

He had said, “By God’s grace, by December 2012, Nigeria will not only celebrate one day of uninterrupted electricity supply, but we would celebrate one week, one month and so on of uninterrupted electricity supply.”

But in spite of the President’s promise, electricity supply had in the last one year dropped from 3,600MW to 3,200MW.

It was learnt that the crisis between workers and the minister led to the sacking of three directors in the sector.

It was also learnt that the lay-off of the directors had become counter-productive and might delay Jonathan’s power sector reform.

But in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Thursday, the minister, who listed inadequate gas and water supply as the major setbacks to the power sector, insisted that the directors had to go for the sector to move forward.

The minister, who announced the sacking of the power chiefs, had on Monday explained that the move was part of the measures to achieve the FG’s desire for increased power generation and distribution in the country.

The power chiefs, who were sent on compulsory retirement, were the Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, Mr. Akinwumi Bada; the Market Operator, Mr. Uzoma Achinanya; and Executive Director, Human Resources at the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, Mr. Olushoga Muyiwa.

It was learnt that Achinanya was recommended to Jonathan for appointment as minister of power by the Cross River State Governor, Liyel Imoke, who was also a former minister of power.

The minister did not hide the fact that the sacking of the electricity chiefs had to do with alleged acts of sabotage against the ongoing reforms in the power sector.

He had said, “A few persons are internally trying to tinker with the system. We are dealing with them. We are going to vigorously pursue any hindrance to supply and clean up the system.

“There are some people who do not want progress in the country. We need to manage these issues. We are making adjustments in the management of the 18 successor companies and the PHCN.

“There will be a major adjustment. We have no choice than to do this so that the country can move forward. The quality of management is essential in moving the sector forward. We cannot continue to have swings in power. We want this to change.”

[b]But a highly-placed source in the ministry of power said the sacking of the trio would not add to the planned improvement of the electricity profile of the country.

The source said the sacking was a wrong move as it attracted widespread interpretations and concerted opposition from key players in the sector.

It was being claimed that the three power chiefs were laid off because they were objective and were also prevailing on the minister to ensure that the process was not rushed but carried out in stages.

Also, the source said that the sacking of the three power chiefs would lead to litigation as it was in violation of their terms of engagement.

The three PHCN top shots were said to have been laid off without any prior query and in a manner that violated the conditions guiding their contract with the government.

The source stated, “To me, the sacking of these people is a wrong move; the people are objective and they have been telling the minister, please, let’s do this thing in stages; let’s be strategic but he doesn’t want any criticism.

“He is accusing them of sabotage. Do they generate electricity? And you know, they have a contract of employment; they were not given any chance to defend themselves.”
[/b]
The source said the sacking had affected the prospect of an easier resolution of the labour issues surrounding the privatisation of the PHCN.

Investigations showed that the incident had prepared the groundwork for the management of the corporation and the electricity workers to forge a common front to resist the FG.

The source said the implication of the sack was that it had created tension in the PHCN cadres.

It is believed that with the present situation of things at the PCHN, it would be difficult for the FG to effectively handle any emergent industrial crisis in the sector.

But when contacted, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice-President, Mr. Umar Sani, denied it, saying the VP and Nnaji had a smooth relationship.

Sani stated, “There is nothing like that. The Vice-President and the minister have a smooth relationship.”

Justifying the government’s action on the directors, Nnaji said the sack followed the due process.

He denied sacking them for giving him good advice.

He said, “If that is what they say, so be it. People usually like to defend themselves. There is no person you will retire that would not give you excuses. I cannot take issues with them.

“We want the sector to move forward and move forward. Nigerians want electricity and we are going to give it to them.

“I have a long history of working with the best people right from the United States. I’m not the person that can sack a person that is doing well. I work with the best people and I defend them.”

He denied circumventing due process in any dealing in the power sector.

“We are absolutely following due process. The President insists on it. The VP insists on it. The FG is absolutely following due process,” he stated.

Nnaji said the drought in the northern part of the continent along the Fouta Jallon area affected the hydro plants in the country and had reduced the generation capacity of the plants by half.

On gas, Nnaji said, “Gas is a major impediment because investment had not been done for quite some time in both the gathering and transportation of gas.

“While we had moved ahead in the development of power plants, the gas is not there. But we must find a solution to the problem. We cannot be held hostage by gas.

“We are working together with the Minister of Petroleum Resources to address this problem. We cannot be held hostage by gas which we have in abundance.”

But the Secretary General of the National Union of Electricity Employees, Mr. Joe Ajaero, argued that the sacking of the electricity chiefs could not have been in relation with electricity generation.

He described the action as a move to deceive the President about happenings in the power sector.

He said, “They cited power degeneration as the reason for the sacking, the market operator, who allocates power, the GM, Human Resources, and the CEO Transmission, have nothing to do with generation.

“The power situation in the country has been a generation problem; Kainji was shut down, there was no gas to plants. It was a problem of generation. If you talk of the Benin explosion, if there is no supply in the creeks, supply would be down. The machine that got burnt was manufactured in 1964, how do you now link it to the man there?”

Ajaero called on the President and other key players in the sector to ensure an objective assessment of the power sector in order to determine whether power generation had increased under him or not.

He said that rather than improving, electricity generation had dropped from 3,600MW to 3,200MW under the minister, stressing that what was happening in the country was manipulative distribution of available megawatts.

Ajaero, who disagreed with the minister’s comment that the FG might come up with a voluntary package for workers in the sector in the event of a breakdown in negotiations, said that such a package would be taken as a bonus from the government outside of the pending issues under the negotiation.