President Umaru Yar’Adua yesterday criticized former president Olusegun Obasanjo for wasting over N1.2-trillion ($10-billion) on the energy sector between 2000 and 2007.
Yar’Adua who said his administration was wary of investing more money on the energy sector stated the huge amount of money spent on the sector by Obasanjo’s government did not make any impact on the revitalization of the sector.

Full story here

http://www.businessdayonline.com/national/2071.html

Question is, what r u going to do abt it Mr President?
R u going to probe the ex gaffe?
R u going to declare ur promised state of emergency now or continue the accusation route whilst common Nigerians keep suffering basic amenities.
R u gonna help bring the state of power in our great nation from the dead.
R u going to let the good for nothing politicians keep enriching their respective pockest whilst forgetting the people's vote that got 'em there.

First of all stop twisting the story, Yar Adua never accused Obasanjo of anything, he just said he has not see result from $10 billion use for the power sector.

First of all it show President Yar Adua does not understand how this sector works. In power sector you can not get immediate result, like a 24 hours result. First you have to build the power station. It takes at least 3 years to complete. Then you need to build transmission lines another at least 1 or 2 years, So on the average 4 to 5 years.

Look I have study Yar Adua from afar. And i would tell you he is scared to spend money, At least he has help grown the external reserve to 50 billion dollar, Can you imagine if IBB was president. We would have zero dollar external reserve. We know what IBB and his boys would do. They would get there and chop all the money. Yar Adua has to understand that the power sector is investing for tomorrow. he can not get the result in 24 hours. I believe to a point, I may be wrong, that Yar Adua is an Ijebu man with money. So that is a good thing. So he should be able to manage the fund well. He should learn to trust himself, because we are beginning to trust him with our money to a level.

He should really spend another $5 billion on power generation. we would see result in 4 to 5 years. President Yar adua has to trust me on this. If he award the contract to God fearing people , who would not steal the money but execute the project, Yar Adua govt would be fine. It did not take 24 hours to build Rome. Yar Adua should take $5 billion from the external reserve and put the money in building power generating station. NOTE power generating station. Electricity would change our life. If his fear is that the money would be wasted. and he does not trust anyone. If he can trust me, I would come home and help him. President Yar adua should know. He only can make and break Nigeria electricity .

Getting electricity 24 X 7 would bring about 5 to 10 million jobs into the economy after may be 5 to 10 years.

2 It would increase Agric prodution in Nigeria. The building of reservoiur for food. So farmer can plant and store, their product.

3 better hospital service, equipment would work 24 hours. saving life at this hospital.

4 Nigeria would catch up in the banking sector, ATM , point of sale. real time payment.
5 better transport system.

I can continue for every with list. Yar Adua should invest in electricity. He has to trust himself , if he award the contract to the right people. He should not have any problem. But he award the contract to barawo, then what would he expect.

3 . Improve the telecommunication signal and better preformance.

Yar Adua claimed between 2000 and 2007 Seven good years!!!!! and Nothing has changed.

That is a total waste of money.

You can also tell us that the billions spent on refinery turn around maintenance in 1999-2000 would materialize in 30 years time.

Its amazing how people come up with excuse for OBJ's failed regime and the type of excuse you guys come up with are very comical indeed. If you cant see result of

money spent on power in 7 years then we should wait for 70 years for the result to come out

OBJ took billions of dollars in 1999-2000 and promised electricity by December 2001 7 years ago What do we have now? And he would come out with that big mouth

to say he was sabotaged!!!! Insult upon Injury

WE KNOW OBASANJO GOOFED ,BUT WHAT IS YARADUA TAKE ON THIS ISSUE.
STATE OF EMERGENCY SINCE AND WE ARE BACK TO SQUARE ONE .ABEG SOLDIER GO ,

@ Nigeria1.

you need to reevaluate you statements.

stop being biased and come up with something constructive.

I don't want to start analyzing your comments but all I would say to a greater extent in your post you are not being real.

10x.

"While we are targeting 6000MW by 2009, the $10bn invested in the sector between 2000 and 2007 has not translated into power generation, transmission and distribution, so we are exercising caution to ensure that any further funds to the sector would translate into production and delivery of energy to the ordinary Nigerian" - Pres. Yaradua.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=100465

BTW, the story is almost all the dailies today.
Sometimes, when dealing with a greedy/stubborn child (PHCN officials, contractors, gen suppliers etc) you may find it very useful to call his bluff and endure some inconvenience for a while to have a long lasting aolution to a fundamental problem.
It is instructive that Yar'adua's style is not fire brigade approach; plenty water, ad-hoc measures that makes for easy fleecing.
I understand that when Bola Ige and Agunloye were in the Power Ministry and making progress in getting to the root cause of the problem they were also blackmailed with nationwide power blackout. As expected OBJ panicked(?) and redeployed Ige's team. The resulting suffering is with us.

@nigeria1
2000 - 2007 is more than 24hrs by any standard. And with $10b spent OBJ has no excuse for making things worse for US instead of better.

why blame obasanjo soley. isn't it the job of the ministry of power/energy to make sure the money was used effectively. it's stupid to expect the president of a country to be directly involved in such cases.

Those figure are not correct, First the award of the power generationg station by former president Obasanjo is less than 4 years ago and most 90% of the so call money less than 4 years ago,  so 90% of the so called money were for the building of 10 thermal generating station. which is less than 4 years ago and most of them are still or under construction. Note that the so called project claim, have already been stop by President Yar Adua, because inside source claim none of the last 7 thermal project was constructed in the North, but where all for the Niger delta, who generating majority of the oil money.

Here is my question what is wrong in constructing power station in the niger delta?? where really the gas is,  why stop the project because they are not located in your own portion of the country. This is nonsense. If Nigeria need to change we have to think different and see all Nigerian as the same and site project where they should be and not based it on Zone. So people looking for useless excuse to cancel project should stop the nonsensse and stop been tribalist, Anyone that want power station should contribute too to the national cake. You want collect, you know want to contribute anything, who be fool?? Why have he not cancel any project or contract obasanjo award for project in the North Is that not tribalist?

I believe that It is wrong for the people offer this advice to the president , to give useless reason to cancel project based on tribalist reason. If those people should note that the south can gang up too against the president and have him remove. They should note that the Lower Niger Benue Region of Nigeria constitute nearly 60 % of Nigeria population and have 21 states compare with the Northern Niger Benue Region of Nigeria. Which is enough to remove the president using the law. We should get away from all this tribalist approach which have destroy nigeria so far, and move toward making the life of Nigerian better, either they are from the North or south.

Look , we all know that even while the North Niger Benue of Nigeria constitute less than 40 % of Nigeria , they have produce 85% the president of Nigeria. While the majority of Southern Niger Benue Region of Nigeria have not.  So even if anyone is to play tribalist it should be the people of the Southern Niger Benue of Nigeria who have been deprive for so long.


If they want to complain that non of the7 power generating  project was located in the North let them come and tell the world. And we have ENgineering reason why?.

Either the project is in the Niger Delta or the North it should not matter, why stop project because it is the Niger delta, no be Niger delta dey produce oil money??

please You can spend 1.2 trillion dollars and still nothing will happen.

OBJ Spent Money and Nothing Happened.

Yaradua is Afraid to spend money because of the thieves that call themselves Patriots.

You think Yar Adua can be the Engineer and Technician that will do all ?

You guys will make the same mistake OBJ Made and even begin to blame others like some do.

Let us take note OBJ NEVER blamed any other president.

A leader takes the Blame.

OBJ spent money the money was robbed.

The robbing machinery is where people you trust are now.

We are a fraudulent citizen that will worship theft.

The problem is this govt  is getting involve with too much negative thing. They should be talking of Tomorrow of Nigerian. No man sit in his past and make head way. Let talk about the future of Nigerian,  not what IBB or Abacha did in the past,  I don't care of what my grand grandfather did, I care about what i would do for my children.


Nigeria ONE.com

To say that OBJ did not blame any other leader is tomake ys look stupid and lacking in intelligence. Till year 2007 OBJ has always blamed whatever went wrong on long years of military rule. Please leave this beautification of OBJ to the Pope, abeg.

Now is the time to start probing OBJ.

He should be called to account for his deeds when in power.

EFCC and ICPC should to invited to investigate him.

If $10bn was invested on power generation alone,it should be yielding about 10-15,000MW by conservative estimates in the case of gas powered stations.

Obviously,all the investment wasn't exclusively in power generation but I used the above scenario to place matters in perspective.I don't know the exact breakdown of all the expenditure but we sure haven's much in results.

Granted,such investment doesn't entail quick outcomes but we are talking about investments dating back to 2000.In the meantime,the power situation has barely improved.

But how can the reasonable response be to withhold any money seemingly for the sake of it.
Considering the parlous state of the energy sector. he had better get a move on. . .or is it just an admission they lack ideas on how to fix the problem

Shouldn't need be the fundamental driving force for expenditure?

Look stop , this nonsense the ministry of energy never got $10 billion for the 8 years of obasanjo govt. Look this is just ethnics politics . and it is a shame the president is making himself been used by the same men who killed his brother under Abacha and gave Abacha advice how to run government and how to kill his brother are the only given advice. Not until they kill him. then he would know. All of this nonsense just because they want to control PDP. This may end the PDP.

I ask why on earth would the president be willing to waste 70 billion naira on the textile sector , which is more control by the North. but he is not willing to do the same for the power sector just because they would be located in the Niger delta. We all know that what affect the textile sector is general to Nigeria, Lack of power or electricity, I may ask, would the textile sector that this govt gave 70 billion naira use firewood to run their machines, when they buy it. 70 billion naira for the textile sector is a waste with electricity. 70 billion naira in the textile sector for the north is a waste of money coming from the Niger delta that this govt is refusing to invest in. If it is because of a ministrial appointment or board of director of a govt company, that President Yar Adua would give to me, he can take it an give it to someone else. I would rather speak the truth. I am NOT A YES MAN. My destiny is not in the hands of anyman but in the hand of God.

Nigeria ONE.com

The mistake the President men are making is that the 21 state of the Southern Niger Benue of Nigeria is unity, It is not like when they use to use the military to fight us. since independent the Northern Niger Benue of Nigeria have held on to power, Just 15 states, Have produced all of the rulers apart from obasanjo. ""While we the peopleof Southern Niger benue, who are people below the River Niger and River Benue were deprived of project. ""

Note the People of the Southern Niger Benue which live in the southern part of the River Niger and River Benue have 21 states and have not be President of the federal republic of Nigeria apart from Obasanjo nearly for 48 years, Do the People of the Southern Niger Benue have to fight for get their right.

While on earth would president Yar Adua want to take us back to this same story again. when we can move toward a better Nigeria. A nigeria with vision and hope, They at Aso rock should think clearly to avoid war in Nigeria. Peace is better than war.

nigeria1 has a point in that the money was not invested from 2000-date. The NIPP project kicked off in OBJs second term. Having said that, I don't think it is possible to say the investment has achieved it's intended purpose. Even OBJ admitted to this before he left office.

nigeria1:

The mistake the President men are making is that the� 21 state of the Southern Niger Benue of Nigeria is unity, It is not like when they use to use the military to fight us.� since independent the Northern Niger Benue of Nigeria have held on to power, Just� 15 states,� Have produced all of the rulers apart from obasanjo. ""While we the people�of Southern Niger benue,� who are people below the River Niger and River� Benue were deprived of project. ""

Note the People of the Southern Niger Benue which live in the southern part of the River Niger and River Benue have 21 states and have not be President of the federal republic of Nigeria apart from Obasanjo nearly for 48 years,� Do the People of the Southern Niger Benue have to fight for get their right.

While on earth would president Yar Adua want to take us back to this same story again. when we can move toward a better Nigeria. A nigeria with vision and hope,� � They at Aso rock should think clearly to avoid war in Nigeria. Peace is better than war.

I think it was during obj regime the FG provided l[i]oans[/i] to the textile indutry

I read the article and there is no mention that the money was not from 2000 as speculated. Just cause the public get informed of the start of a project in 2004 or during Obasanjo's second term does not necessarily mean that millions have not already been spent during his first term on the same project. Projects do not just come up overnight. More than likely, years are spent researching and collecting information and more. Unless you can provide solid information to back up the claim that the article/ your president is wrong in stating that this was from 2000, I suggest we focus more on the real issue rather than the bias plot which seems to be taking attention off the main issue. If Obasanjo had not actually started working on this electricity issue from back during his first term, that would actually be another bad mark on him considering the state of things in Nigeria, one would think that right from first term, he would have started working on the Power project.

1.2 TRILLION NAIRA is in question here, Not 100 Million Naira. In Nigerian money, that is a huge amount and the waste is unacceptable. I side with the president actually. Why release more money when you have not made sure that which was lost has been accounted for?? Do we need him to sink more trillions down the same hole?? Do we need him to continue in the same path as those before him without first dealing with the issue, wherever it is in the system first before he chooses to invest another trillion of Nigeria's money into the same project which has already cost us so much more in the past ??

the president said the money did not have much result, and that it would not make sense to pump in more money without a definite and stable project management arrangement,

“While we are targeting 6,000 mega watts by 2009, the $10-billion invested in the sector between 2000 and 2007 has not translated into power generation, transmission and distribution, so we are exercising caution to ensure that any further funds to the sector would translate into production and delivery of energy to the ordinary Nigerian”, he said.
In a tone that betrayed his bitterness over the expenditure without any discernible result, Yar’Adua said he deliberately decided not to put any money in the power sector in 2008 Appropriation Bill because he was wary of injecting funds that could end up not achieving the targeted result.

I see nothing wrong in the man saying it is time to take a step back, find out where things went wrong and then recover as much as can be recovered before we proceed to try again on this issue. I believe this is the only way we can go about actually fixing things in that country. The same people who cry foul now cause he is putting a hold on funds will be the same to whine if he were to have released funds from day one and had it all go down the Nigerian sink hole of corruption. What we need is to do things the better way, not continue to think that throwing money at issues will somehow make the underlying problems go away. This has not worked in decades, and will definitely not work now cause we want it to.


We should each spend some time reading the article to understand the point being made here. It is not about not wanting to put money in at all but wanting to make sure that we have a good plan in place that will actually succeed this time around before we start putting money into it. Last I heard, we have $50 billion in reserves and according to the article, we will need about $40 billion dollars to get the power situation up to 6000MW in 4 years. Do you not think it wise to make sure we have it all together before we make the leap to spend the money?? I thought the way of reason would be the best way to go for Nigeria.

I think Mr President is more analytical than Obasanjo - remember he is the first degree holder to become Nigeria's president!

Whoever that is defending this colossal waste is not only miopic, but advertises his ignorance. If four years is not enough to see the result of N10b in one of the three arms of the power sector (generation, transmission and distribution), then the project might have failed!

Yes, it might not have been completed but nothing is on ground to reflect the spending. You are constructing a world class stadium for instance and after four years, there are no beams/pillars in place? What are we talking about? So all the money/time has been spent on feasibility study or should we now call it sunk cost? Not at all! The power sector seems to have been hijacked by some moguls and cabals in this country and unless that root problem is confronted, there is still high risk of future failures.

Nobody can substantiate the claim that the president halted the power project(s) because they are not in the north; it however, may not be unfounded. But to my understanding and assessment, Yar'Adua is much more focused than his predecessor. You don't just impulsively release money without corresponding result - nobody has succeeded that way.

Peace to all!

I bet part of the money was spent on his daughter's phoney company. . . . remember there's a case at hand where Chief Dr. Mrs Iyabo Obasanjo Bello - aka Damilola Okanlawon esq. is answerable. I think the amount is some 3.2billion naira, rite. Now, that's a large chunk off 1.2 trillion naira.

A little bit of probing would reveal that part of that money was spent on building the all-new Hiltop Mansion at Ibara-Abeokuta GRA. Now we can see the light . . . . . at the end of the tunnel.

Nigeria1 is just trying to bring ethnic sentiments into this this goes beyond that. Infact North South thing has failed woefully.

OBJ is very daft and short of ideas.The fact is that he is the most corrupt leader we've had in a long time 1.2trillion and nothing to show.

Yet Iyabo keeps changing names to award contracts to herself.

The man that promised electricity in 2001, Spent 900million on Turn around Maintenance of refineries in 1999-2000 and non of the refineries is working how

many centuries do we have to wait for to see the effect of the money he spent?

Mariory:

[b]nigeria1 has a point in that the money was not invested from 2000-date. [/b]The NIPP project kicked off in OBJs second term. Having said that, I don't think it is possible to say the investment has achieved it's intended purpose. Even OBJ admitted to this before he left office.

Ah. . . . . there was no investment in the power sector by the Federal Govt between 1999 and 2004?

Not even OBJ will make the above claim

Ah. . . . . there was no investment in the power sector by the Federal Govt between 1999 and 2004?

Not even OBJ will make the above claim

When OBJ promised us light by December 2001 how did he hope to do it Guess it was by prayer and fasting and not investing millions of dollars.

You people , una go school. If you went to school, then you should know when a person is telling a lie. Check the federal ministry of finance website and find out If the ministry of energy got $10 billion in 8 years.

Look this govt because of lack of performance and have no vision in tha last 7 month, is spending is energy in negative thing. First they came up with Pastor Ghandi importing 10,000 cars into Nigeria, How possible. Then to another story.

Look Do a google search your self and find out how much this thermal station cost Nigeria. or would have cost Nigeria, since he cancel it, and he is still ADDing even the cancel Station to it. Obasanjo input to the Energy sector even including the 7 project to the Niger delta that this govt is claiming it is not worth building power station in the Niger Delta is less than $5 billion.

On this issue of wastful 70 billion President just approve last week for the Northern textile companies, Do a google check and you would find it. Again na firewood they would use to power their machines.

This govt is playing the ethnics card, And tribalism would get Yar adua nowhere. And to those satanic people around him that where involve in Killing of His brother that he call Adviser, In the name of Jesus. I come against you. And I ask the angel of heaven to punish you all.
Last warming stop playing ethnics politics just because of chairmanship position of the PDP. It would break up Nigeria. let see who go suffer , when they break up Nigeria, You are daring those whose heart have already made up on break up nigeria. Give them what they want. You dare them and you see, if this would continue. To him that have ears let him hear, what God is saying.


here is the link of Yar adua approve 70 billion for North textile
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=100049

dayokanu:

When OBJ promised us light by December 2001 how did he hope to do it Guess it was by prayer and fasting and not investing millions of dollars.

Maybe senility don set in with McKren.

Probably,he left Nigeria a long while ago. I remember the extra funding to revamp the power sector dates back to 1999,never mind 2000,under Bola Ige.

He is probably simply dating the investment to the start of the NIPP but the FG had already invested billions of dollars in the preceding years.

Was not Yar'Adua's supposed comments about the FG's total investment in the power sector and not just the NIPP?

Never mind that it sounds ridiculous trying to defend OBJ by effectively saying he did nothing about power between 1999 and 2004-what a defence!

Since we are reviewing as this govt claim what Obasanjo did, let also review others issue Obasanjo did like election 2007, since we can cancel all power project in the Niger Delta, let cancel the election . So that we cancel everything Obasanjo did,

here is the wasteful 70 billion to the textile below,





FG Moves to Revive Textile Industry, Approves N70bn

From Juliana Taiwo in Abuja, 01.10.2008



<Picture>Add To Favorites<Picture>Print This Article<Picture>Post Comment


The Federal Executive Council (FEC) held its first meeting yesterday and approved N70 billion intervention fund for textile industry.
The fund is to be sourced from the United Bank for Africa (UBA), with Nigeria Export Import Bank (NEXIM) authorised to negotiate the loan on behalf of the Federal Government for lending to stakeholders in the sector.
Briefing State House Correspondents after a nine hour meeting, Minister of Information and Communication, accompanied by Minister of National Planning, Sanusi Daggash, Ademola Seriki, Ibrahim Nakande and Magnus Kpakol, National Coordinator, National Poverty Alleviation Programme (NAPEP), said interest rate on the loan will be pegged on single digit, which would not be more than nine per cent, to make it easy for beneficiary to access.
The meeting, chaired by President Umaru Musa YarAdua, also gave councils ratification of the anticipatory approval granted NAPEP to access N7 billion macro credit from the MDGs Fund, for implementation of the poverty alleviation programme.
The Ministers said: The Federal Government is concerned about the down-turn in the textile industry and concerted effort will be made to revive this sector. Council today considered the textile revival fund established in council on May 16, 2007, and decided to address the problem of the industry along with other policy support initiatives.
It, therefore, approved that NEXIM should continue with raising the fund with the UBA Plc as the financial arranger for the N70 billion textile revival fund, for on-lending to the textile industry at a single digit interest rate."
Council rectified the presidential anticipatory approval already granted to NAPEP to access the funds allocated by MDG office for conditional cash transfer in the sum of N2 billion and micro credit in the sum of N5 billion.
Federal Executive Council was also appraised by a memo from Mr President, on the status on implementation of African Peer Review Mechanism in Nigeria(APRM), the flagship programme of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), for fostering good governance in member state of the African Union. The memo noted that Nigeria still lag behind and some constitutional amendment needed to be effected before it is properly PEER Reviewed by the Continental Secretariat. Therefore, Council today approved the set up of an intergovernmental implementation and monitoring committee, under the national focal point and comprising the Federal Government, state governments, corporate organisationa and the private sector.Also briefing newsmen, Minister of National Planning, Senator Sanusi Daggash, announced the councils approval of implementation plan of the Vision 20-2020.He said the council deliberated on the basic proposed framework for the vision, and considered the road map for its implementation, adding that the national plan, which is in the process of being developed, would be ready for launch by January 2009.

70 billion is more than the allocation to igboland in the last 7 month of this govt.

nigeria1:

70 billion is more than the allocation to igboland in the last 7 month of this govt.

I am going say this, this is to you an opportunity to open up and spew what you want without your actually doing some research to find out fact from fiction. According to the Ministry of Finance site there report from 2004 ( the oldest on the site) shows a substantial amount was invested in the power project. You might want to take time to read through the pdf report on this link http://www.fmf.gov.ng/budgetdetail.pdf .

Thank you for the information. It shows us, that it was only 54 billion naira, and most of the electrification where done in the North, nearly 70% from what i am seen, So 54 times 8 years, give you just around 400 billion,

nigeria1:

Thank you for the information. It shows us, that it was only 54 billion naira, and most of the electrification where done in the North, nearly 70% from what i am seen, So 54 times 8 years, give you just around 400 billion,

Maybe if you get off your tribalistic rant you would see that OBASANJO was the president in 2004 and the 54 billion you claim was spent the way it was was spent by him and not Yaradua. Now again, No where in the Pdf is it noted that the same amount was spent over 8 years period. The one pdf listed only spending for the year 2004. NOw you will have to check each year's report to actually get the figure on how much was spent in what year. Please read through and stop with the assuming already. If you have a tribalistic bone to pick in this case, I think you ought to start with Obasanjo who spent the money.