For A Mess Of Porridge …Powerful Nnaji Quits, Crest-Fallen

President Jonathan And Barth Nnaji

For a country, where public office holders hardly
contemplate quitting office, no matter how unsavoury the indicators to do so
may appear, the resignation of former Power Minister, Prof Barth Nnaji should
naturally evoke public discourse. And has. But how kindly or harshly posterity
will judge him and his works remains as uncertain as power supply in Nigeria,
the man met.

From Nnaji’s perspective, his resignation last Tuesday was
to save the noble reforms he pioneered in the sector, especially the
controversial privatisation process of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria.
The impression was that given his commitment to the high ideals, geared towards
addressing in a lasting manner, the fluctuating fortunes of Nigeria’s epileptic
power sector, the last he would ever do would be to allow his personal
interests to truncate the plausible ends Nigerians expect.

Unfortunately, the same he sought to avoid was what he did.
Aware of the Code of Ethics of the privatisation process which precludes staff
of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and members of the National Council
of Privatisation (NCP) from buying shares in companies being privatised tempted
by the sweet aroma of extra mess of porridge for the future, Nnaji had gone
ahead to bid for Enugu Distribution Company.

That, and the participation of two companies also linked to
Nnaji in the power privatisation process had resulted in the cancellation of
the technical bid evaluation process by the NCP, earlier conducted for Afam and
Enugu Disco, a forthnight ago. That meant, had Nnaji’s links with the affected
companies not leaked and the bids eventually went their predictable way, as
surely as they were headed, Nnaji would have benefitted in immeasurable ways
and at the same time remain minister to superintend the  nation’s power sector as moderater,
participant and judge all weaved together.

So, did Nnaji quit to avoid the imminent disgrace of being
relieved of his portfolio by the Presidency? Yes. Essentially, Presidency
sources had sufficient information of Nnaji’s double shoots and had perfected a
sacking plan before last Tuesday’s resignation.

But Nigerians must give Nnaji some credit, not merely for
his discretion to quit when the loud ovation stood the risk of waning but his
pedigree, his drive and his resilience in effecting positive changes in a
sector that had defied all known revival.

Nnaji, 51, was born in Enugu State and holds a Doctorate in
Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
state University in the United States of America. Prior to his appointment, he
was a major private sector player in the power dormain, as founder of Geometric
Power Limited (GPL), a pioneering Independent power producer that built the 22
MW Emergency Power Plant in Abuja and is rounding-off an integrated power plant
in Aba, Abia State.

Initially, driven by a sense of national service and
non-partisanship in the running of the power sector, Nnaji, from his earlier
appointment as the President’s Special Adviser on Power and later Minister,
resigned his position  from GPL board and
transferred his shares to blind trust.

So, how fabulous is the expected windfall from the
privatisation process to push one as upright as Nnaji, to ignore the often
conflicting rules of governance, rules several others disobeyed and left or
still retain their positions-super-rich, still political relevant and indeed
untouchable? What indeed could force Nnaji to break the bizarre rules: ‘ Look,
but don’t touch, Touch but don’t eat; Eat but don’t swallow?

Of course, not many in Nigeria ever kept or keep such rules.
Not even one of Nnaji’s kind tried and opted to resign to keep honour and
self-pride intact. Nnaji has, but more because of his rich pedigree than the
minor error in judgement, is the perfectionist being judged harshly?.
Ordinarily, can anyone in government throw the first stone of condemnation and
still remain intact after a probe based on same mundane rules?

Here’s a man, appointed in 2010 by the president to head the
taskforce to reform the power sector, a sector even former President Olusegun
Obasanjo confessed to failing to address on account of lack of funds and oil
companies’ conspiracy. Obasanjo should have said clearly, he couldn’t because
of the dreaded powerful forces behind the generator business, which yearly
frustrated positive actions in the public power sector.

Under Nanji’s watch, a blueprint designed to end the chronic
power shortages in the country revealed that the Federal Government needs to
fork out $10billion annually for the next one decade for the power sector
restoration. This is in a country where, thanks to the generator mafia,
individuals spend $13billion a year to fuel generator sets, according to
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) estimates reported by ThisDay Newspaper last
week.

But under his brief watch, Nnaji’s Power Ministry which met
2,800MW of power delivered to the national grid, slaved to make sure that
available capacity hit 5,400mw this year and as at June already 4,400 mw, which
explains the relative difference  in
electricity supply in recent times, as against the near perpetual black-out.

With that improvement, the Federal Government succeeded in
effecting an electricity tariffs review, to make the sector more attractive to
private investors and also supervised the establishment of the Bulk Trading
Company of Nigeria among other market structures necessary for the reform of
the power sector (ThisDay Wednesday, August 29, 2012)

With that conducive atmosphere created for private
investors, Nnaji was naturally tempted to look beyond his years in government,
himself a major private sector player, with very impressive records, prior to
his appointment. With such high credentials and perhaps his burning desire to
see to the success of the privatisation process, Nnaji might have felt the urge
to participate in the bid for the acquisition of the Enugu Distribution Company
Limited, but in apparent violation of existing rules of privatisation, ‘Look
but don’t touch, Touch but don’t eat, Eat but don’t swallow.

To Nnaji’s credit, even if dismissed as after-thought, the
former Minister being a member of NCP before the consideration of the report of
the evaluation had informed the council that O&M Solutions of Pakistan, a
member of one of the consortia bidding for Afam had worked as a  contractor for Geometric Power Limited,
Nnaji’s company. According to media report, the consortium, in which O&M
Solution has a stake is Skipper Nigeria Limited, which also submitted technical
and financial bids for Afam on July 17, 2012, the deadline set by the Bureau of
Public Enterprises (BPE) for submission of bids for the Gencos.

Nnaji, it was also reported, also notified the NCP that
Geometric Power has a minority stake in Eastern Electric Nigeria Limited, which
had also submitted technical and financial bids for Enugu Distribution Company
Limited on July 31,2012.

The former Minister did not end there. He went further to
inform the council that owing to his position, he had notified his boss, Mr
President of the company’s bid for Enugu Disco, explaining further that
although he had interest in Geometric Power, he had since resigned from its
board and transferred his shares to a blind trust.

For these interests of the minister and against the rules of
engagement, the council decided to cancel the technical evaluation that had
been conducted for Afam and disbanded the evaluation team. That is how Nnaji
lost on both fronts- his treasured office and security of his private interests
in life, out of public office.

But Nnaji deserves our sympathy, even commendation for his
honour to expose his personal interest willingly, in belief that the high
technical qualities his conglomerate parades would be of immense benefits to
the country beyond the reforms, only, it was against the rules of engagement.
Expectations were that he should have weighed all options; remain a referee or
resign and become a participant and not live in both worlds.

Unfortunately, what has ended a brilliant public carrier has
been a norm in governance, where, National Assembly members influenced choice
of contractors, some remotely theirs, to execute constituency projects upon
which they fed fat. It is  the same game
that regularly  saw big contracts going
the way of friendly contractors with huge benefits to the awarding authorities,
while, the nation suffered the pains of shuddy project delivery, even outright
abandonment. Many of these were public knowledge but no president before
Jonathan summoned the required political will and courage to act, apparently
because of the caliber of influential citizens behind the scams.

That is why methink Nnaji deserve our respect for finding it
necessary to quit and let the privatisation process flow to its desired
plausible ends  and not be tainted by questions
on his personal desires and appetites, often driven by fears of the unknown.
Now out of office, Nnaji should renew his bids and let his competence,
capabilities of his conglomerate and his technical antecedent speak for
themselves. And let the new council judge.

My Agony is that many of those now sitting in judegment over
Nnaji will fail, if placed on similar morality test, based on the rules of look
but don’t touch, Touch but don’t eat, Eat but don’t swallow, while in office.

Soye Wilson Jamabo