In the Grandiose Parlor…

Barring any major hitch, should Nigerians be expecting up to 14,000MW of electrical supply by the end of 2013?

This appears to be one of the mid-term goals of the Prof. Bart Nnaji-led Presidential Task force on Power, as the Roadmap for Power Sector Reform was launched yesterday. The projected capacity will boost current supply by more than 500%.

I’m very impressed the task force has a website, a very decent one for that matter: http://nigeriapowerreform.org. The executive summary of the power reform is available for download (PDF).

I just read Businessday’s story on the expected 6000MW promised by the government this December, and how Nigerian policy makers have begun consultation with Germany, India, Malaysia on alternative energy sources, excerpt:

In what appears as the Federal Government’s inability to meet the 6,000 megawatts target by end of December, it is seeking the assistance of the governments of Germany, India and Malaysia in the adoption of renewable energy including solar, coal and wind for the country.

I chuckled. Continue reading…

I’m not sure I reading right, Someone needs to tell me this is a belated April fools joke.

Guardian newspaper reports online: Consultant admits bias in power probe report:

The expert, Chinedu Ibekwe, who wrote the report of the Ndudi Elumelu probe panel, stunned the seven-man committee set up by the House to look into contentious issues on the authorship and technicalities in the report, when he said that he was subjective in packaging the over 200-page document for the Committee on Power and Steel…

Ibekwe, who appeared before the new committee agreed to injecting prejudice in carrying out the assignment after losing bids to handle contracts with different company names…

Ibekwe said he was disheartened that none of the numerous companies he propped up for the contracts was chosen, adding that the only one that got the nod of Federal Government to implement the Oben/Sapele gas pipeline contract in 2006 was later pulled out of site on the orders of former Minister of State, Power, Ahmed Abdulhamid…

I’m stunned, stupefied, astonished!!!

Many were elated when the Nigerian House of Representatives decided to investigate the stalled power multi-billion dollar project initiated by former president Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007. The House did its investigation — many of the sessions were broadcast live to Nigerian homes, the investigators even visited the sites for the projects to see things with their eyes. The House closed its investigation and worked on its report.

The report — several months after it was finished and submitted to the House leadership — was up for debate earlier this week. It didn’t go well, unfortunately.

234next.con reported what happened, here are some excerpts:

The report of the committee, which it presented to the House in October last year, came up for debate for two days last week after numerous postponements.

During the debate, most members spoke against the consideration of the report amid rowdiness. While some members wanted the debate halted, others said events had overtaken the recommendations of the report.

It was, however, gathered that members, particularly those of the Peoples Democratic Party wanted the report rejected following the intervention of the party leadership.

If any is in doubt who the supposed representatives of the people serve, the answer should be clear now.

Rather than settling down to examine the contents of the report, the House decided to elect another committee to examine the report written by another committee!

When will the redundancy stop? And when will Nigerians be free from the antics of the few lazy, self-centered buffoons we call Representatives and Senators?

A state executive refuses to not see lapses in judgment then reverts to spin the truth. Only in Nigeria Excerpts from ThisDay (Agagu blasts Elumelu over power probe report):

More controversies continue to trail the House of Representatives Committee report on the Power Sector Probe as one of those indicted, Ondo State Governor Olusegun Agagu, has faulted the report, saying the committee’s chairman, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, played to the gallery.

He also said Elumelu-led committee ignored all the necessary documentary evidence presented by him and deliberately went ahead to indict him.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja yesterday, the Chief of Staff to the governor, Chief Femi Agagu, who said he was mandated to speak on behalf of the governor said: “The panel got it wrong because it failed to take into consideration all documentary evidence that we placed before it, all attesting to the fact that all the contractors who took up jobs were dully registered with the CAC.

“From what we have read in the newspapers, the panel did not say that Agagu perpetrated fraud during his tenure as Minister of Power and Steel. It only concluded erroneously that the governor awarded contracts to unregistered contractors.

“If the Committee had had it in mind to do a thorough job and was not interested in playing politics, it would have verified all the claims made by the governor with the Federal Government, after all documents do not lie.

“We thought that with the explanations the governor gave the Committee members even when they visited him in Akure, Nigeria would eventually be treated to an unbiased report from its investigations. We were wrong.

“The committee got so desperate after failing to establish its initial suspicion against the governor and so decided to just find a fault with someone to give an impression that it had caught somebody at least. We see this as playing to the gallery and this is not good for our democracy.”

Governors Olusegun Agagu (Ondo) and Liyel Imoke (Cross River) are two of the three governors drafted into the Power Emergency Implementation Committee to monitor the investment in the power sector. As from July, the federal government will start spending some $4 billion USD on power plant projects nationwide.

If you are thinking as I did, you will wonder why those men.

The two governors were former OBJ ministers, who managed the power projects from 2000 to 2008. Those projects, the nation later discovered – thanks to House of Representatives probe – are a cesspool of corruption. This blog and several others discussed the House probes then, see: Nigeria deserves to be in darkness and Obasanjo waived due process to fast-track power projects.

Just when I was getting enthusiastic that the president will be different and capable of thinking out of the box; the inclusion of these men is a downer.

It shows it’s still business as usual in Nigeria, where the same old incompetent hands get recycled. Since the federal government has remain stuck in its old ways of doing things, it is no surprise that the label “federal” has become a synonym for “failure”.

How can the nation attain fresh and desirable outcomes when it keeps making the same mistakes over and over again?