Why Prof. Bart Nnaji resigned as Minister of Power

From THISDAY Live,
In a move aimed at salvaging the reform and privatisation programme of the power sector, President Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday in Abuja accepted the resignation of one of the key members of his cabinet, Professor Bart Nnaji as Minister of Power, with immediate effect.


The president, who in a press statement by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, thanked the former minister for his services to the country and wished him well in his future endeavour, was said to have decided to accept the resignation, following Nnaji’s admission that companies linked to him had submitted bids for one of the successor companies created from the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

However, speaking to THISDAY Tuesday night on his decision to leave the cabinet, Nnaji said he opted to resign in order to save the privatisation and reform programme from those who might want to use ulterior motives to bring down the programme.

Nnaji said he had met with the president Tuesday afternoon, during which he (president) informed him (Nnaji) that he was using his company as a proxy to buy shares on behalf of the president in Afam power station through the privatisation process.

On hearing this, he informed the president that rather than drag him (Jonathan) and the entire process through the mud, he would prefer to resign but reminded the president that he had brought it to his attention two weeks ago that a company he owned was part of a bidding consortium that had submitted bids for Enugu Distribution Company.

Nnaji explained that there have been all sorts of efforts to bring him down since his appointment as Special Adviser to the President on Power and later power minister, but decided Tuesday that it was best to leave rather that allow fourth columnists to mar the entire process.

“It is a huge conspiracy to scuttle the programme, but rather than drag the president and the programme down, I decided to tender my resignation,” he said.

When asked if the independent power company he owns, Gemetric Power, would withdraw from the consortium bidding for Enugu Disco, Nnaji said: “As far as I am concerned, the bid is still alive.

“I know that they set up a new committee to re-evaluate the bids, but I don’t know if the process will still be fair after what has happened.”

However, sources in the presidency told THISDAY last night that Nnaji had no choice than to resign, because had he failed to do so, he would have been sacked by the president.

The president, THISDAY learnt, was said to have been very disappointed that his power minister, who should have known better, had gone ahead to bid for Enugu Distribution Company, despite the Code of Ethics of the privatisation process which bars staff of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and members of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) from buying shares in companies being privatised.

“The president had made up his mind by this morning, so if Nnaji had not resigned, he would have been sacked,” explained sources in the presidency.

Participation by two companies linked to Nnaji in the power privatisation process had compelled the NCP to cancel the technical bid evaluation process conducted for Afam and Enugu Disco last week.

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