₦airaland Forum

Nigerians will experience a week-long electricity rationing that will put the country into darkness for the period. This will be the longest period in recent years that the country would be faced with blackout.
The development is coming few days after the Federal Government declared that its hand-over of the assets and facilities of PHCN including generation and distribution plants to private firms was successful.
The authorities had explained that the problem was due to the loss of 400 megawatts following repair works being carried out by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), the major suppliers of gas to the power plants particularly Afam VI Power plant.
The management of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in a statement in Abuja yesterday said there would be a reduction in generation output by 400mw, from today to Saturday, November 9, 2013. According to the statement, “this is due to the Shell Petroleum Development Company’s (SPDC) scheduled maintenance work on Okoloma gas plant supplying gas to Afam VI Power Plant, thereby leading to the shutdown of the power plant, resulting in nationwide power rationing.”
It explained further that the shutdown of Afam VI power plant became necessary to allow SPDC inspect and carry out routine maintenance work on the Okoloma natural gas station in Afam, Rivers State, to ensure its technical integrity.
“Maintenance work on Okoloma gas plant, SPDC revealed was important to guarantee continuous and uninterrupted supply of gas to Afam VI for power generation into the national grid.”

Fourteen months after his sudden exit from President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet, ex-Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, on Friday opened up on the “powerful interests” he claimed forced him out of office.

Nnaji accused unnamed generator and diesel suppliers as well as sundry government contractors in the power sector of being behind his sudden resignation from office.

Nnaji, who is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Geometric Power Limited, however, took glory for the successful handover of the successor companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria which took place on Friday.

The former minister spoke at Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State, where he delivered the institution’s 5th Convocation Lecture entitled: “Towards a Sustainable Value System for Economic Growth.”

He said the conclusion of the privatisation of the power sector would not have been possible without the initiatives he introduced and solid foundation he built right from the time he was Special adviser to the President on Power and later minister of power.

He said he was particularly happy that despite the fact that the people behind his travails moved to “hack me down” the Power Sector Reform Roadmap he initiated became a success story.

Nnaji said, “When I came in as Special Adviser on Power to the President and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power, I said we should take this power issue as an act of parliament and implement it to the letter.

“When you hear of the Power Sector Reform Road Map, it is the plan for the implementation of a law for the reform of the power sector and we did not go outside of that as we pursued it vigorously and boosted investor confidence.

“I’m pleased that today(Friday) is the physical handover of all the generation and distribution companies to private sector. I’m very proud of this rigorous plan and discipline and the follow through.

“But this success story came with all manner of challenges. Some people were trying to hack me down and it was just tremendous.

“We had challenges from generator suppliers; diesel suppliers; people in government benefiting from having to award contracts and even the contractors themselves and all manner of people – they were all calling for my head.

“But we were able to go to the point of no return and this is a credit to Nigeria.”

He lamented that Nigeria is one of the most corrupt countries in the world and urged the graduating students to join the movement that will cleanse the nation of the menace.

He said, “Ask yourself, ‘How can I be a part of doing something great that significantly and positively impact my society?’ ‘How can I balance living well and doing good deeds?

“Go out there and be a shining example of what Nigeria and Africa can give to the world. Become part of the movement that will drop Nigeria from the list of the most corrupt nations of the world.”

The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Isaac Adeyemi, while delivering his opening remarks, noted that the Nigerian economy cannot grow in a situation where corruption thrives with impunity.

He called for a well articulated and sustained value system adding that no individual, organisation, society or nation grows beyond its value system.

He added, “I’m also persuaded to resonate the question, ‘What is wrong with Nigeria? Why can we never do things right or do the right thing?’ The simple answer lies in our wrong value system.

“How can the economy grow in a country where corruption thrives with impunity; where pubic officers are liabilities rather than being assets to economic growth and are never held accountable for their deeds?”

President Goodluck Jonathan may have placed the embattled Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, on “tactical suspension,” findings by The PUNCH have revealed.

A reliable Presidency source said Jonathan decided on the “tactical suspension,” hours before the signing of the Bilateral Air Service Agreement between Nigeria and Israel on Monday.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation, Mr. George Ossi, had on October 24 told the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation that Oduah led a Nigerian delegation to Israel to sign the BASA.

The House committee is probing the purchase of two bulletproof cars at a whopping N255m price by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority for the minister.

Our source explained that it was the ‘tactical suspension’ that made Jonathan to direct the Minister of State (1) for Foreign Affairs , Prof. Viola Onwuliri, to sign the agreement instead of Oduah.

When asked by one of our correspondents what ‘tactical suspension’ meant, he said, “Oduah will not be allowed to attend public functions that will have the President in attendance until the three-member committee set up to investigate the matter turns in its report.”

The source, who said he did not know whether the “tactical suspension” order had been formally communicated to the minister, stated that the step became necessary in order to dissuade Nigerians who hold the opinion that the President was shielding Oduah.

In what seemed a corroboration of the “tactical suspension,” the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, insisted that Jonathan would not associate with or shield anybody found to be corrupt.

He insisted during an interview with one of our correspondents on Tuesday, that the minister did not travel to Israel on the entourage of the President.

“Did you see them (Jonathan and the minister) together in Israel? The President will not associate or shield anybody found to be corrupt. That is why he set up that panel because he will not want to act based on media reports,” Gulak said.

Shortly before our source and Gulak spoke, the Presidency said the BASA was signed by Onwuliri because it was a matter bordering on foreign affairs.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, in an exclusive telephone interview with one of our correspondents, argued that there was no politics involved in Onwuliri signing the agreement on behalf of the government.

He said Nigerians should not reduce the matter to “the politics of political appointees who are all ultimately birds of passage.”

The President’s spokesman said Oduah did not only attend the signing ceremony but was also involved in framing the technical details of, and in preparing the agreement along with her Israeli counterpart.

He said it was when that was done, that the Foreign Ministries moved in at the level of G2 diplomacy.

Abati added, “The groundwork (for the agreement) was done by the Ministry of Aviation hence the involvement of the Aviation Minister, but this being a country-to-country agreement, more or less a treaty, it had to be signed by the Foreign Affairs Minister.

“It is also the convention in diplomacy to pair ministers. The Israelis brought their Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, so we did the same. There was no politics involved and there is no doubt that it is within the provenance of the Foreign Ministry to sign agreements on behalf of the country.

“Let me add that BASA is about countries entering into an agreement.

“It is not about individuals. We must avoid the ridiculous temptation to reduce something that will promote good relations with a friendly nation to the politics of political appointees who are all ultimately birds of passage.”

When asked if the embattled minister was under “tactical suspension,” Abati replied, “She (Oduah was actually in attendance at the signing of the BASA . As I said, she was involved in framing the technical details of, and in preparing the agreement along with her Israeli counterpart. That done, the Foreign ministries moved in at the level of G2 diplomacy.”

Meanwhile, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party said on Tuesday that it was worried by the bulletproof car scandal.

Like, Gulak, it assured Nigerians that whoever was found culpable would face the law because it (PDP) would never condone any form of graft.

The party, however, wondered why the opposition All Progressives Congress was going into a frenzy over the scandal when its “governors and leaders have been involved in bulletproof car deals more scandalous than those in the Ministry of Aviation.”

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP said its position on corruption was unambiguous.

A part of the statement reads, “The position of our great party on corruption is unambiguous and our zero tolerance for corrupt practices abounds in practical examples.

“To us as a party, the accusation of corruption in the Aviation ministry is a big worry. It is for this reason that the President and the leader of our party has set up a panel to investigate the matter while the National Assembly which we also lead has stepped in.”

It frowned on the ethnic dimension which comments and street actions on the issue had taken and advised “ethnic lords, jingoists as well as lynch mobs “ to realise that biased sentiments could hardly achieve an objective basis for establishing the culpability of the public officers involved in the matter.”

The party then went for the jugular of the APC , saying it (APC) was not different from a white washed tomb.

The PDP described the APC as a stinking sepulchre and the headquarters of corruption in Nigeria.

It said, “This is a party whose leaders relish in stinking miasma but artfully turning a blind eye to it.

“They however go megaphonic when other political parties are involved.

“Hardly can you point at any of its leaders without a heavy baggage.

“In fact, the governors and leaders of the APC have been involved in bulletproof car deals more scandalous than those at the Aviation ministry but this is conspicuously missing on the sermon list of these false evangelists of good governance.”

It wondered why the trial of the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, for acts of corruption, had yet to be discussed by the APC leadership.

The PDP further contended that the stench of corruption oozing from the concession of the Lekki Toll Plaza and its debilitating effects on the electoral fortune of APC was the reason the Lagos State Government allegedly retrieved and paid off the firm that built the road.

The police in Enugu State have nabbed four ritual suspects for abducting, beheading and cutting the private parts of a five-year-old boy’s before dumping him in water tank.

This arrest is contained in a statement signed by Mr Ebere Amaraizu, the Police Public Relations Officer, in Enugu on Friday.

Amaraizu said the victim, Promise Osakwe, was abducted by unknown persons at his home town in Aninri on Oct. 11.

The deceased body was later found in a water tank, without the head, and the private parts.

The suspects from Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State were nabbed in connection with the crime.

In a related development the police have successfully rescued one Chinenye Onyia of Udi in Enugu State form the grip of kidnappers.

Onyia was earlier reported by the husband as having been allegedly kidnapped by unknown persons on Oct.16, and was rescued in Gboko, Benue.

The police gathered that the victim had been staying with the said James Terkula in Gboko “on a self arranged kidnapping” under the guise that the husband had not been taking good care of her.