2013 privatisation faulted
In an interview with The PUNCH, the National Coordinator of All Electricity Consumers Forum, Adeola Samuel-Ilori, condemned the 2013 power sector privatisation while saying the cabals in the power sector are more powerful than those in oil and gas.
According to him, when the idea of privatisation was proposed by the administration of Goodluck Jonathan in 2012, the expectation was to see the sector blossom without committing Nigerians’ money to it. However, he said the foundation of what he called the ‘contraption of monopolistic privatisation’ was faulty.
Every step along the privatisation process was faulty since the forum cardinal points to the exercise by the then BPE DG in the person of Dr. Mrs. Bolanle Onagoruwa. Chief among the four were capital layout and technical know-how. It was emphasised in her droplets that those two must not be compromised, as that’s the premise on which the success will be laid. But all was jettisoned, and the largesse was shared among the cronies, and here we are. Hence, the foundations of what you see now were laid, and the roller coaster of unpleasant experiences followed.
“I make bold to say that none of those given the license by the NERC then was qualified, as none possessed either capital layout or technical know-how. The only man with birthed experience who would have been given on merit was Prof. Berth Nnaji, who incidentally was the Minister of Power at the time and resigned his position so as to qualify as the law demanded but never got it. Rather, a businessman, Emeka Offor was awarded the Enugu distribution company that covers the franchise area of both the South-East and South-South axis. The experience of the services provided is better experienced than imagined,” he stated.
Samuel-Ilori added that the government, which pretended to be aloof, later retained 40 per cent equity and left it in the hands of the DisCos, who had 60 per cent without prerequisite experience in the business.
“It’s a result of this that led to the collapse of many of the DisCos, with only four remaining in the hands of their initial investors while seven are back with a government agency like AMCON for insolvency or bankruptcy with owed banks acting as receivers. The only solution is to recover our assets from them and let the government reverse the ownership, run it, and/or invite fresh investors with all the expected indices as genuine businessmen to run it.
“Some of the GenCos that also went through privatisation are also back in the hands of the government. So, what are we still doing with such unprofitable privatisation, playing ostrich to the teeming masses bearing the brunt of their misadventures and shrewd business practices?
“I will suggest that we recover the business into government coffers, run it or reprivatise it to serve the real purpose of privatisation like we witnessed in the communication sector and let there be light,” he submitted. *Punch newspaper interview on the state of power sector in Nigeria and way forward.*
