Geometric power plant: I wasn’t involved in privatisation programme — Ex-SGF, Anyim

Former Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, has distanced himself from the obstacles that allegedly dogged the implementation of the 181mw Geometric Power Plant commissioned by Vice President, Kashim Shettima, in Aba, Abia State, last Monday, saying that as the SGF, his office had no role in the privatisation programme.

His assertion was contained in a statement he issued on Friday in response to allegations suggesting that he had colluded with other vested interests to prevent the owner of the project and former minister of power, Barth Nnaji, from keeping his promise of lighting up Aba.

The former senate president, while congratulating Nnaji for the successful commissioning of the project, lamented that a deliberate attempt had been made to impugn his reputation.

“I am convinced that the hireling believes that the more he throws mud at everyone, from the vice president, the Secretary to Government of the Federation, the Attorney General of the Federation, the D-G BPE, the Chairman (National Electricity Regulatory Council (NERC), in fact, the entire government, the more his pay,” he stated.

Anyim adopted the position already taken on the matter by the chairman of NERC, Dr Sam Amadi, who had also dissociated himself from the allegations.

However, he added: “In view of the above, my reply is essentially to state the facts for the records and to situate the meddlesome interloper properly.

“Accordingly, may I state just the following: It is my pleasure to congratulate Prof. Barth Nnaji for this landmark achievement as the geometric power plant is commissioned. This is more so because as Prof. Nnaji was starting the geometric power plant at Aba, I was also starting, in 2004, a multimillion-dollar ultra-modern sorghum malting plant at Aba and General Ukpo of, blessed memory, was building the Meridian Hotel in Port-Harcourt.

“As of then, these three projects were the most outstanding private sector projects east of the Niger and occasionally, we shared experiences of our challenges. At that time, none of us was in government. To the glory of God, the three projects have all succeeded.

“I think it is necessary to educate this hireling on how government works. Because if he is knowledgeable, he would have known the following:

“That the privatisation programme was under the office of the Vice President, and privatisation of the power sector was led by the Ministry of Power and until the last segment of the programme, Prof. Nnaji was the Minister of Power.

“That the office of the SGF had no role in the privatisation programme and, in particular, would not have had any need to interfere with the privatisation of the DISCOs under the control of Professor Nnaji.

“The hireling would have known that I had enough on my hands as SGF and by nature do not interfere with the work of anybody talkless of a parastatal that is not under my supervision.

“It is important to note that NERC, which Sam Amadi led, was under the Ministry of Power, not the Presidency.

“As a way of putting the record straight, let me adopt the following clauses from Dr. Sam Amadi’s reply:

“‘Prof Barth Nnaji was the Minister of Power from 2011 to 2013 when the process for privatisation was completed. He was only removed just before the winners of the bid were announced. Throughout the relevant period of privatisation, Professor Barth Nnaji was Minister of Power and had de facto control of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that executed the privatization process. He chaired the Presidential Task Force on Power and was a key figure in the National Council on Privatisation making key decisions about privatization. The Director General of BPE, Bola Onaguruwa worked closely with him and generally under his control as Minister of Power.

“To the best of my knowledge, Prof. Bart Nnaji, as part of his business plan, intended to buy the Enugu Disco. There is nothing wrong with that. He is an entrepreneur whose entry into the power sector was first as a private power producer in a deal to supply power to the Abuja metropolis. Perhaps, based on the confidence that he would win the bid he neglected or forgot to separate the Aba ring-fenced area from the rest of Enugu Disco before he authorized the privatization of the entire Enugu Disco, including the Aba ring-fenced area. Later, when I confronted both DG BPE and Prof Bart Nnaji on why he failed to separate the Aba ‘ring-fenced’ area from Enugu Disco before authorising privatisation, they argued something to the effect that the Vice President opposed them. I have no proof of this fact.

“Professor Barth Nnaji organised a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to bid for Enugu Disco, including the Aba ring-fenced area. He set up a special committee of BPE and Ministry of Power officials to evaluate the bids for the discos. After the closing of the bid, his SPV was adjudged the winner of the entire Enugu disco, including the Aba ring-fenced area.

“After the evaluation and selection of Barth Nnaji’s firm as the preferred bidder, Chief Emeka Offor’s consortium petitioned on the ground of error. The Presidency empanelled a special committee chaired by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power. The Chairman of NERC, the DG of BPE and BPE consultants were members with a mandate to review the process. After reviewing the process, the committee agreed that Chief Emeka Offor’s consortium ought to win the bid after correcting the error. The NCP approved Chief Emeka Offor’s consortium as the winner of the bid and the preferred bidder.

“After the declaration of Chief Emeka Offor’s consortium as the winner, Bola Onagoruwa, the DG of BPE, wrote to NERC to cut off the Aba ring-fenced area from the Enugu disco area and reevaluate it for Barth Nnaji to purchase. NERC rejected that request because it would violate regulatory due process. You can not conclude a sale of a territory, and after the buyer has fulfilled the terms and conditions, you alter the sale. While he was the Minister of Power and supervised the privatization, Professor Bart Nnaji had the opportunity to demand the performance of the contract he had with the Federal Government to be given the right of first rejection to purchase the Aba ring-fenced area before privatisation. He did not do so, since he had reasonable expectations that he would purchase the entire Enugu disco. But unfortunately, he lost to Emeka Offor.

“It is important to note that throughout this period I never had any meeting with either Emeka Offor or Pius Anyim or any of Emeka’s Offor’s proxy in any form on the matter in dispute. There has been no moment in my multiple interactions with Anyim Pius Anyim as Secretary to the Government of the Federation that he ever sought my opinion or offered any opinion to me about the dispute over Aba power. Chief Emeka Offor never met me privately in my office or anywhere to discuss the matter with me.”

Anyim stated that as SGF, he had several parastatals under his supervision as SGF but “NERC was not one of them and Dr. Sam Amadi had no reason to be ‘beholden’ to me or take instructions from me.”

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