WHY I RESIGNED AS MINISTER OF POWER- BART NNAJI SPEAKS
programme of the power sector, President Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday in Abuja
accepted the resignation of one of the key members of his cabinet, Professor
Bart Nnaji as Minister of Power, with immediate effect.
The president was said to have decided to accept the resignation, following
Nnaji’s admission that companies linked to him had submitted bids for one of
the successor companies created from the unbundling of the Power Holding
Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
However, speaking to THISDAY Tuesday night on his decision to leave the
cabinet, Nnaji said he opted to resign in order to save the privatisation and
reform programme from those who might want to use ulterior motives to bring
down the programme.
Nnaji said he had met with the president Tuesday afternoon, during which he
(president) informed him (Nnaji) that he was using his company as a proxy to
buy shares on behalf of the president in Afam power station through the
privatisation process.
On hearing this, he informed the president that rather than drag him (Jonathan)
and the entire process through the mud, he would prefer to resign but reminded
the president that he had brought it to his attention two weeks ago that a
company he owned was part of a bidding consortium that had submitted bids for
Enugu Distribution Company.
Nnaji explained that there have been all sorts of efforts to bring him down
since his appointment as Special Adviser to the President on Power and later
power minister, but decided Tuesday that it was best to leave rather that allow
fourth columnists to mar the entire process.
“It is a huge conspiracy to scuttle the programme, but rather than drag the
president and the programme down, I decided to tender my resignation,” he said.
On what would become of the reform process on which he had worked so hard, the
former minister said he had managed to put the power sector on track and all
key reforms in place, adding “it would be difficult to derail it right now and
I hope it would proceed as planned.”
When asked if the independent power company he owns, Gemetric Power, would
withdraw from the consortium bidding for Enugu Disco, Nnaji said: “As far as I
am concerned, the bid is still alive.
“I know that they set up a new committee to re-evaluate the bids, but I don’t
know if the process will still be fair after what has happened.”
However, sources in the presidency told THISDAY last night that Nnaji had no
choice than to resign, because had he failed to do so, he would have been
sacked by the president.
The president, THISDAY learnt, was said to have been very disappointed that his
power minister, who should have known better, had gone ahead to bid for Enugu
Distribution Company, despite the Code of Ethics of the privatisation process
which bars staff of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and members of the
National Council on Privatisation (NCP) from buying shares in companies being
privatised.
“The president had made up his mind by this morning, so if Nnaji had not
resigned, he would have been sacked,” explained sources in the presidency.
Participation by two companies linked to Nnaji in the power privatisation
process had compelled the NCP to cancel the technical bid evaluation process
conducted for Afam and Enugu Disco last week.
The NCP, after its meeting last Friday, had announced the results of the
technical evaluation conducted for the 25 bids it received last month for the
six generation companies (Gencos).
From that process, seven bidders were said to have successfully met the cut-off
mark of 750 and above during the technical evaluation process and were
prequalified to have their financial bids opened on September 25.
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