The first phase of the privatization
bidding processes has come and gone. Cash in dollars must be set to exchange hands
now between the Federal government and the winners of our assets. The bank managers
must be busy now as the permutation and combination begin to thrive. There were
murmurings in the air about who won this and who won that. Some said that some
people in the country were not supposed to be among the bidders in the first
place. There were allegations of manipulation in the bidding processes. Some
quarters would never agree with you that those power plants were never under
valued and sold if they were actually valued and valued right in the first
place. Some said the process was not opened enough for transparency and
accountability. It is a free world. Everyone must be allowed to talk. That is
the evidence of democracy.
Well, I think it is just
unfortunate that we have brought ourselves to this point as a people. Without
sentiment
and for the purpose of objectivity, I think every Nigerian has an
absolute right to bid for any national treasure once it is on sale by the
government as the 1999 constitutions dictate. So, the issue of suspected old or
current leader doesn’t come in here especially once he is not yet convicted or
barred by any competent court of law. And since we are not operating in the
jungle, every suspect remains innocent until he is proven guilty by the law
court. I am not saying some quarters were actually innocent, but, this is what
our democracy teaches unlike what we have in Asian countries. Can we now see why
we cannot eat our cake and have it at the same time? I think we need to work
with that assumption that everyone participated in the bid is qualified for now
so that we can move forward as a nation.
The questions are; what were the
actual values of those power plants? Were they actually undervalued as it was
professed by some quarters? Where there gimmicks in the process that gave room
for some quarters to become winners? What were the true roles of the Bureau of Public
Enterprises in this process? Except
among the elite, I do not think that lay man (which represents the majority of
the citizens) on the street wants to have anything to do with anything called
process or may be because he never understands how it feels to be carried along
in his government plans and policies in the first place. I believe what he
wants is just that thing called LIGHT in his room. I think he will only feel concerned
and challenge the authority once his electricity invoice does not commensurate with
his minimum wage as some are experiencing in the last few months. Of course
that protest will not hold water before the Nigerian government as long as
those guys in barracks are still ready to work.( The subsidy protest crowd at
Ojota in January can testify to this).
So we have come to that point in
our nation that an average man does not care about any process again but to
just see privatization taking its place in the power sector even if those
plants are allowed to go for a penny. The government and the PHCN board have
failed woefully in all ramifications to make power available in the country.
Therefore, they must be shown the way out. This new process must not be
frustrated as it was done under NITEL. In case you do not know, the
privatization process of NITEL was so bastardized and frustrated to the point
that NITEL became a worthless entity that no bidder was ready to venture into.
Today, nobody can publicly boast that he ever worked with NITEL. It was that
bad. The value of 51% stake of NITEL as at 2001, was bided by Investors International
of London Limited (IILL) for $1,375.5B.
Inability of IILL to complete its payment after the initial deposit of 10%
quashed the deal. Between 2001 and 2005, a lot of events had taken over. By the
time NITEL was brought up again for privatization in 2005, the best that
Orascom telecom of Egypt could present was $257M. The Federal government was
not happy with this and that terminated the bid. What a shame. Where is NITEL
today?
I do not think we should bother
much with who bought and who didn’t buy for now even though the process by
which our assets are sold must be key to us as a people, if the virus called
corruption must be thoroughly washed out of our bloodlines. So, I will suggest
will focus on what should happen after this privatization process. Will this
regime change brings about a change in power supply in our homes? Can we boast
of at least 20hrs power output if 24hrs is a tall order in an average home? How
long will it take the documentation process to be complete? Can these ones
build new plants that will increase the current output from 4800 Mega watts to
about 20000 Mega watts in the next decade? Will they build new power plants
that will increase output? And how long will the building projects take? I
think we should ask Presidents Jonathan these questions.
The issue of the labor must be
concluded as fast as possible. We have said it before that if President
Jonathan must borrow from the World Bank to clear their gratuity, he should do.
We need new hands here. If what the best PHCN could offer starting from the
days of NEPA is 4800 Mega watts in a country of over 150M people, then it is
high time we changed the baton. If South Africa with a population of about 70M
could boast of over 60 thousand mega watts, then we deserve more.
The government President Jonathan
must go beyond selling of plants. Because that alone cannot really deliver the
minimum mega watts we need to survive as a people. It can only bring efficiency
to the sector if thoroughly managed or else, what happened to Transcorp will be
a shadow of what will befall the nation. The major project here is the building
of new power plants. If licenses must be issued out free for investors to come
in as it was done in the telecom sector by giving them tax holiday, he should
do. This is what Nigerians are waiting for. Give us light. God bless Nigeria.
Thanks. You can make your comment if you have any. Pls like or share.
TUNDE ADENUGA
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