This is because we have it on good authority that a
frosty relationship between officials of the Ministry of Power and the drivers
of Jonathan’s power reform is making it difficult for them to work in ways that
would bring about the desired result.
Sunday Independent gathered that many factors such as mutual suspicion between the
Power Ministry officials and those of the Presidential Task Force on Power
(PTFP) have taken centre stage and seriously affecting their job specification.
One of the greatest problems is the alleged continuous
scheming of officials of the Ministry of Power who do not have the professional
and technical competence with regard to reform, but plot to ensure that power
agencies that are supposed to report to the PTFP and PACP do not do so for
pecuniary reasons.
And given the development, analysts are afraid that ominous
signs lie ahead except Jonathan moves quickly to address what looks like a
grand design to frustrate his power reform agenda.
Going by the recent development, it emerged at the
weekend that President Jonathan is under pressure to streamline the reform
process, telling those who bother to listen that he could not afford to fail in
his determination to fix the power sector before his tenure elapses in 2015.
Sunday Independent has it on good authority that the banana peels littered all over
the place in the Ministry of Power that hindered some of the moves made by
former Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji are still visible, a situation that
is throwing challenges to the newly constituted PTFP and Presidential Action
Committee on Power (PACP).
One inside source put it this way: “ The ministry
officials who do not have the capacity to continue with the power reform
because of the technicalities involved will not allow the President reformers
brought on board to do their work as independent actors different from the
bureaucratic way ministry officials do their things. If they continue to think
that members of the PTFP are part and parcel of their ministry then we are in
for bigger trouble and that to me is nothing but trying to frustrate the power
reform process.”
According to Sunday
Independent findings,
most of the agencies whose offices are key to the power reform plan have
allegedly been intimidated into preferring to deal with the Permanent Secretary
in the Power Ministry knowing full well that the Permanent Secretary does not
have both the technical and professional knowhow to, either assess their
performance or extract the needed commitment the way the PTFP would have done.
Some analysts however believe that most of the agencies
may as well be comfortable with the ministry officials as a way of wriggling
out of the close-supervision of the PTFP and PACP believed to parade men and
women with the technical knowhow on power matter.
Unconfirmed report also has it that part of the problem
which the government recently had with the Manitoba contract could be linked to
the anti-reform mentality of the power ministry officials whose underhand
officials allegedly colluded to kill the contract without a serious thought
about the impact on the power reform process of government.
A former aide to Nnaji told this newspaper that the
former minister fought several battles as chairman of the PTFP and as Minister
of Power because of the deep resistance he met in some senior officials who
have become used to the same old ways of doing things.
He, however advised that President Jonathan should use
his political will to restrict the Ministry of Power where it ought to belong
if he is still committed to his power reform programme and to hold those he had
recently handed over the power reform roadmap accountable to the success or
failure of the project after giving them the freehand to function.
“I can assure you that it would be embarrassing to the
President if by 2015 when he will be ending his tenure and there was nothing
substantial to show Nigerians on power despite the huge noise made about
reform,” he said.
When President Jonathan came on board in 2010 after the
death of former President Umaru Yar’Adua, he set up the PTFP as his power
reform driving tool to be closely supervised by another body – PACP – with him
as the main supervisor.
In setting up the roadmap for the realisation of the
projected reform milestones using the PTFP as the vehicle in August 2010,
Jonathan appointed Prof Nnaji due to his antecedents in the sector to head the
Task Force.
With the power reform roadmap which Nnaji and his team
developed, it was learnt that the President was at peace that his reform in the
sector would be achieved and soon too.
Sources said it was that awareness which also guided
Jonathan in his resolve to elevate Nnaji to the position of the Power Minister
where Nnaji was later to be confronted with other challenges posed by the
ministry officials, most of which bordered on lack of support for the power
reform.
According to investigations, the President’s reform
agenda ran into murky waters when, at the point of elevating Nnaji, the PTFP
was stepped down and all presidential mandates hitherto enjoyed by that office
retained.
A similar fate also befell the apex reform body, the
PACP, whose initial chairman was also elevated to the position of minister.
Even though the reconstituted PTFP board headed by
Engineer Bekimbo Dagogo-Jack is believed to be a move in the right direction to
re-rail the power reform process to its original route, there are indications
that Dagogo-Jack’s greatest headache still remains the bif forces in the Power
Ministry who understand little about how to make power marketable.
Efforts to speak with President Jonathan based on our
findings that he was recently concerned about how his Task Force – PTFP and
PACP – could work harmoniously with the Power Ministry to deliver on the
mandate of giving Nigerians enough electricity based on the implementation of
the power reform roadmap yielded little result as his spokesman, Reuben Abati
did not respond to our enquiries.
Also, Dagogo-Jack was said to be on official assignment
outside the country when Sunday
Independentcontacted his office just as nobody in the office was
willing to speak with this newspaper.
President Jonathan reconstituted PFTP and PACP in
September 2012, a month after the resignation of Nnaji
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