The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has expressed fear that the resignation of the Power Minister, Prof.Barth Nnaji may scuttle the power reform programme.
The chairman of MAN on infrastructure, Mr. Reginald Odiah told LEADERSHIP that the sudden resignation of Nnaji may lead to the total reversal of the privatisation programme given that the alleged conflict of interest as seen in the former minister’s role may be viewed as lack of transparency in the power reform programme.
Odiah noted that if the government did not find a proper replacement for the former power minister the whole privatisation process may ‘run into trouble’. According to him, the labour crises in the power ministry is enough to slow down the privatisation programme. Moreso, he said that the? disagreement over the bid process? by those who claimed they were sidelined from the GENCOs and DISCOs. He said that these factors may have painted the picture that the entire power reform process lacked transparency.
This lack of transparency was echoed weeks back when some stakeholders kicked against the bidding process being done by BPE and had demanded that the reform process be reversed.
They had told LEADERSHIP that the process that led to the announment of the successful bidders was not satisfactory. According to them, the government still has a lot to work out concerning the power sector.
‘There are issues that government needs to look into, there are so many invested interests in government, they are the ones that are now trying to hijack the power sector. The government needs to do something about it,” they said.
The resignation of Nnaji has been alleged to be his interest in the companies that bidded for Enugu DISCO and Afam power plants. Both Geometric Power and Eastern Electric Limited have links to the firms that had interest Enugu DISCO and Afam.
The MAN boss noted that Nnaji’s interest in the power sector from the beginning as the owner of Geometrics Power was bound to clash with his position as the power minister even though he had resigned from the Board of Geometric Power and transferred his shares to a blind trust.