By Tony Edike
ENUGU — THE apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has condemned the threat by the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, that it would proceed on strike if Professor Barth Nnaji was appointed Minister of Power, saying it considered the threat misguided and brazenly unpatriotic.

The organization said in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Ralph Ndigwe, that it was of the view that only agents of darkness could afford to oppose the appointment of someone like Prof Nnaji as the Minister of Power.

He stressed that Nnaji’s appointment to head the Power Ministry would be the first time, since Nigeria’s independence, “that an Igbo-speaking Nigerian eminently qualified for the job will be entrusted with this critical assignment on which the much needed effective industrialization of our country entirely depends.”

Expressing satisfaction with the nomination of Prof. Nnaji by President Goodluck Jonathan, Ohanaeze said the over 60 million Ndigbo in Nigeria and abroad fully support the President’s patriotic and demonstrable efforts to move the country forward by ensuring steady power supply.

The statement read in part: “Millions of Nigerian citizens voted overwhelmingly for Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, in the April, 2011, presidential election because of his key promise to overhaul the electricity sector through, principally, privatization of 17 of the 18 Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, successor companies.

“It will, therefore, amount to sheer narcissism if a few labour leaders insist that their personal preference should take precedence over the sovereign will of the Nigerian people who voted overwhelmingly for electric power sector reform by voting for President Jonathan in the said election.“

Besides, it is not the right of any labour leaders to dictate to the president who should be appointed
a minister and who should not, and the portfolio to be assigned to each minister.

“ If President Jonathan, under whom professor Nnaji has worked in the last one year as the Special Adviser on Power and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power is obviously impressed with him and wants to make Nnaji the Minister of Power so as to more robustly translate the president’s vision of electricity development into reality, the least that should be expected from the public is cooperation.”

The Ohanaeze said that was unfortunate that despite PHCN’s calamitous and glaring failure as a state-owned enterprise which has paralysed Nigeria’s social and economic development, “the union of junior electricity workers wants the status quo in the power sector to remain, the statusquo of about 50,000 PHCN employees producing a mere 2,300Megawatts of electricity for 150m Nigerians and their businesses whereas private generating companies like shell, AES and Agip, with fewer than 1000 workers, constantly produce 1,1000MW.

“Worse, both the PHCN transmission and distribution networks are in a mess. The fuel-to-power arrangement has been a shambles also. All this means that the PHNC has been generating and supplying dissatisfaction,” the organization said.

The group added that it would cost the nation $10b annually in power sector investments for the next 10 years to generate 40,000 MW, the irreducible quantum of electricity required to make our economy a truly medium size one by the year 2020.

“This huge financial outlay is not available to the government, which is grappling with the challenge of other competing demands. In any case, there is little to show for the billions of dollars spent on the PHNC in recent times. All this makes a fundamental restructuring of the power sector a matter of national urgency.”

Ohanaeze, however, stated that it had confidence in the ability of Prof. Nnaji to drive the power sector reform having worked meritoriously as the Special Adviser to the President on Power and as Chairman of the Presidential Task on Power.

“He played a critical role in increasing the country’s quantum of power from 2,800MW to 4,000MW within only one year. His Road map for Power Sector Reform, launched by the President in Lagos on August 26, 2010, has helped restore confidence in the government’s ability to deliver the goods. “Indeed, no Nigerian matches Nnaji’s record in

Power sector development. The professor built in record time in 2001 the 22MW Abuja Emergency PowerPlant which was operated successfully for three years, as it supplied quality and uninterrupted electricity to Aso Rock, International Conference Centre, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Central Business District, Abuja.

“The 188 Aba Integrated Independent Power Project which he initiated is due for commissioning
early next year, despite such severe difficulties as security challenge in Aba . The whole country looks forward to the commissioning of this pioneering and path breaking project,” the apex Igbo organization stated.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/07/ministerial-appointment-ohanaeze-slams-phcn-workers-over-nnaji/