NIGERIA: 15 COMPANIES RECIEVE CERTIFICATES OF OWNERSHIP OF PHCN FIRMS

The Nigerian Government today, (Monday) in Abuja handed over share certificates and licences to new core owners of 15 of the 18 PHCN successor companies.

The ceremony, held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, was presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan with the Vice-President and Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation, Namadi Sambo, in attendance.

Despite holding the world’s ninth largest gas reserves, Nigeria only produces a tenth of the amount of electricity as South Africa for a population three times the size.

The Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) keeps the lights on for only a few hours a day, forcing those who can afford it to rely on expensive diesel generators that burn up billions of dollars from the Africa’s second largest economy.

Despite slow and costly progress, Jonathan’s effort to privatise the sector and draw in investment may be the best chance yet to unblock a major bottleneck to development. Improvements could be felt in 2-3 years, experts say.

“I congratulate our new owners who have taken over the engines and cables that are expected to drive not just the electricity industry but also the socio-economic well-being of the nation,” Jonathan said, after handing private buyers certificates of ownership at a glitzy ceremony in his villa.

It was eight years after a law passed to enable the process.

“To the Nigerian people, who have demonstrated such great patience and confidence, putting up often with darkness… I say better days are coming,” Jonathan added.

“We do not expect the sector to be revitalised overnight, but we can all look forward to a better time very soon as we have seen in the telecommunication and banking sectors.

“I am confident that the power sector will promise no less, knowing the calibre of those who are taking over.

“Today, we embark on a journey, a journey that will usher us to a destination of enduring gain and fulfilment,’’ he said.

Jonathan said the ceremony was a milestone in the nation’s journey from a public-owned and -operated electricity sector to an industry driven by private sector.

He commended the efforts of all stakeholders in the privatisation process for the transparent, fair and well-organised way they handled the process.

He urged the affected PHCN workers not to nurse a feeling of displacement, but to dwell on the tremendous possibilities that the revitalisation of the sector hold for the future.

Speaking in the same vein, Vice President Namadi Sambo said the event marked another major landmark in the transformation agenda of Jonathan’s administration.

He noted that at the inception of the programme, pessimists believed that the feat could not be accomplished.

The vice-president gave the assurance that the electricity market would be regulated in a manner that would promote growth and competitiveness.

“Electricity consumers are assured that their interests will be protected from over-pricing and poor service.

“It is important to stress that the role of regulation in a private sector-led electricity power sector cannot be overemphasised,’’ he said.

Sambo commended international development partners such as USAID, DFID, the World Bank Group and AfDB for keeping faith with the process.

Most bid winners were oligarchs connected to the political elite, like former military president Abdulsalami Abubakar, former military governor of Kano state Sani Bello and tycoon Emeka Offor, but with some recognised technical partners like Siemens and Manila Electric.

The privatised generating companies are Geregu Power Plc, Ughelli Power Plc, Egbin Power Plc, Kainji Hydro Electric Plc and and Shiroro Hydro Electric Power Plc.

The 10 privatised distribution companies (Disco) are located in Abuja, Benin, Eko, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kano, Port-Harcourt, Yola and Enugu.

The three PHCN successor companies that have yet to be handed over because of outstanding issues are located in Afam, Kaduna, and Sapele. They are expected to be sold soon.

Fixing electricity could reduce business costs by up to 40 percent, add 3 percent to GDP and cut the mass unemployment that fuels unrest seen in oil theft in the south and a bloody Islamist insurgency in the north, economists say.

Some $40 billion has gone into several power reform drives in the last 20 years, much of it wasted.

The PHCN was split into six generation and 11 distribution firms, all sold separately, for about $2.5 billion in total.

BRIGHTER TIMES AHEAD?

Private buyers for five generation companies and 10 distribution firms collected their share certificates and operating licenses from Jonathan during the ceremony.

The buyers will take physical ownership of the infrastructure next month, government officials said.

Nigeria is also planning to sell off 10 more newly built state power plants, all gas-fired, by next year.

That only six of these plants have been completed since President Olusegun Obasanjo first unveiled plans for them in 2004 shows how slowly electricity reforms are moving.

If competent buyers get the NIPP plants it could be a boost for foreign energy operators with latent gas reserves like Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron.

A lack of investment in the transmission network, which remains in public hands, poor gas supply and labour disputes still threaten to delay progress in boosting power output.

Nigeria’s government has agreed to pay off more than 14,000 workers at PHCN with a total of 384 billion naira ($2.4 billion), about what it got from the privatisation.

Jonathan said on Monday $750 million had been raised to help improve transmission, some funds coming from a Eurobond.

As well as selling off existing assets, more are planned. Nigeria signed a deal last week for Chinese state companies to build a $1.3 billion power plant. (PM NEWS)

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NIGERIA: PRESIDENT JONATHAN TO DELIVER 2013 INDEPENDENCE DAY BROADCAST

President Goodluck Jonathan will deliver a nationwide broadcast tomorrow, Tuesday, October 1, 2013, to mark Nigeria's 53rd Independence Anniversary celebration. The speech will comence at 7am.

More details after the broadcast.

June 12: IBB Finally Opens Up, Says He Gave Late Abiola N35m To Contest

Twenty years after he aborted what could have been a transition from military to democratic rule when he annulled the historic June 12, 1993 election that produced Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO)

GEN. BABANGIDA

Abiola as presumed winner, the leading actor in that epic episode, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd), has finally opened up on what actually transpired.

Often accused as being the Achilles heel of Nigeria’s democratic process, Babangida maintained a sealed lip on the mystery of what is today referred to as “June 12” as he refused to go beyond the fact that what was widely acclaimed as Nigeria’s freest and fairest election yet, was annulled by his administration thereby setting the stage for a series of events that has led the country to where it is today.

But all that is about to change as a book, “Ibrahim Babangida: The Military, Politics and Power in Nigeria”, written by one of the founding members of Newswatch magazine, Dan Agbese, may have pulled off the veil and given us a critical insider account into those dark, troubling days.

However, what most people might interesting but unbelievable is the claim that Babangida, popularly referred to as IBB, the man who annulled the election, had actually encouraged Abiola in every way possible to run.

According to the gap-toothed general in an interview published in the book, he supported Abiola “a lot, morally and financially in the campaign.” He said he gave the business mogul N35 million to help in the election.

He added that before Abiola entered the race, they both “talked of the pros and cons” of Abiola’s presidential ambition and when Abiola “eventually decided that he wanted to go (for it), I supported the idea that he should do it”, IBB said.

According to Babangida, he had wanted to make Abiola the chairman of the Transitional Council because he believed his friend “enjoyed tremendous political goodwill. His name was a household name. He had the international contact and Nigeria too had a very good chance of having someone like him heading that organisation.”

However, according to the book, this proposition was dead on arrival as some of Babangida’s colleagues in the ruling council opposed it. Instead, they agreed to accept him as a member of the council but not the chairman.

The former military president’s intention, according to the book, was to bring Abiola in as a member and ensure that he was elected as chairman by members of the Transitional Council.

The book further reveals that the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) had decided that the chairman of the Transitional Council should come from the South West where Abiola came from. But Abiola rather wanted Babangida to announce him as chairman “straight away.” He told Babangida that, that was how his family wanted it because they feared that the president might change his mind once he made him just a member.

“Left to me,” says Babangida, “I wanted to make him the chairman. Then he decided and blew it.”

The emergence of the two presidential candidates in that election was equally dramatic.

It followed the disqualification of 23 presidential aspirants. According to the book, IBB had regarded the 23 disqualified from participating in the presidential election, as the first 11 among the politicians jostling for power.  Their ban gave birth to a new set of political actors on the stage of the transition programme.

M.K.O. ABIOLA

“With the first 11 put out in the cold, there were few runners in the field. Two men easily emerged from the thin crowd of presidential aspirants. One was the billionaire philanthropist, Bashorun M.K.O Abiola, who nursed a presidential ambition going back all the way to the major financiers of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

“He intended to contest the presidential election on the platform of the party in 1983. The party moguls erected obstacle in the way. He quit the party and partisan politics altogether in 1982. He was affected by the ban on former politicians and public office holders and unsuccessfully challenged his ban at the tribunal. With the ban lifted, he joined SDP in January 1993 and was elected the party’s presidential flag bearer at its convention in Jos in March that year.

“The other man was Alhaji Bashir Tofa, who, like Abiola, was a national executive member of NPN. He was the party’s national financial secretary. He picked the presidential ticket of the NRC at its convention at Port Harcourt in March 1993.

“Both men were Babangida’s close friends”, the book says.

Babangida was not quite comfortable with this. He says he feared people would accuse him of manipulating the transition programme to favour his close friends. He even tried to discourage Tofa from contesting the election
“I told him (Tofa) in the presence of about 13 of his colleagues. I advised him not to seek for that election. I didn’t support him. He was not a winning candidate.”

According to the book, even the chairman of National Electoral Commission, Professor Humphrey Nwosu, had seen the conduct of the presidential election as critical to the entire transition programme and was on ground to see that it ended on a sound note.

But the storm was gathering, as the “National Defence and Security Council did not openly object to the two presidential candidates – Abiola and Tofa – but some elements in the military in cahoots with some of the politicians wanted to stop them from contesting the election.

“Several times the council, pressurised by these elements, came close to disqualifying the two men. Some members of the council felt that neither Abiola nor Tofa was fit to be president. They assailed Abiola’s character. Babangida recalls that “they never saw him as somebody who was morally upright or fit…”
“They tried to blackmail him as a government contractor to whom the government owed a lot of money and they didn’t feel comfortable that this would be their commander – in – chief.”

The book notes how providence smiled on the two presidential candidates and, according to Babangida, the council feared that “if we stopped it (the election), we would be in trouble again. What was paramount in our mind then was we wouldn’t like to be accused again of not wanting to leave office. So, we said let the bloody thing go on.”

The decision to “let the bloody thing go on,” was actually a fluke. The military, according to Babangida, believed “that we would have an inconclusive election. We thought we should be fair to let it run and when it became inconclusive, then we would take whatever action that we deemed necessary over a re-run or a re-election or something like that.”

The military, the book says, underrated Abiola’s clout, as his large followership rattled those elements in the military that did not like him.

“About a week or so before the June 12, 1993, presidential election, security reports indicated that Abiola would certainly trounce Tofa beyond dispute. He would win on the first ballot. The election would not be inconclusive. The report caused some jitters in military circle. What to do?”

The cabal in the military that didn’t want an Abiola presidency went to task on what line of action to take next.

The book talks about the infamous role played by former Second Republic senator, Francis Nzeribe, who came up with the military-should-stay campaign, which served as tonic for the government.

He formed the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), with Abimbola Davies as his second in command.

“Nzeribe went to Abuja high court on June 10 to stop the presidential election for alleged irregularities and corruption in the conduct of the SDP primaries won by Abiola. ABN alleged that Abiola used money to induce the majority of the delegates to vote for him.

“At 9.30pm on the same day, the court, presided over by Justice Bassey Ita Ikpeme, now deceased, threw the spanner into the works. She “restrained (NEC) from conducting the presidential election on the June 12, 1993.”

“Her judgment was the first major indication that the transition programme was under serious threat.  Nwosu tried to salvage it. He appeared before the NDSC on June 11 and put a strong argument in favour of going ahead with the election. He argued, quite passionately, that if the election was postponed, the election materials already on site would be compromised.

“NEC had enough protection under the decree to ignore Ikpeme’s ruling. But the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Clement Akpamgbo, had a different take on the issue. He did not support Nwosu’s position. Instead, he advised that the election be postponed in obedience to the order, NEC could then appeal and have the order set aside by a superior court.”

Credit: The SUN

PRESIDENT JONATHAN SAYS SEPERATION OF POWER IS BEING ADHERED TO.

President Goodluck Jonathan says the separation of power is near perfect in Nigeria and that the Judiciary has never been tele-guided by his administration.

Answering questions from a team of journalists in the Presidential Media Chat, Dr Jonathan said the judiciary has played a major rule in the fight against corruption. 

PRESIDENT G. JONATHAN

He advocated a review of labour laws to curtail the excesses of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and other labour unions.

While noting that the current ASUU strike may have been politicized, President Jonathan said his administration has always and will continue to improve standards in the education sector.

Dr Jonathan also urged all those wishing to contest the 2015 Presidency to go about their mission and avoid overheating the polity with speculations about his intention.

NASA TO LAUNCH 3D PRINTER INTO SPACE IN 2014

US space agency, Nasa says it intends to launch a 3D printer into space next year to help astronauts manufacture spare parts and tools in zero gravity.

It will be the first time a 3D printer has been used in space and could help reduce the costs of future missions. 

The device will have to withstand lift-off vibrations and operate safely in an enclosed space station environment. Nasa has chosen technology start-up Made in Space to make the microwave-sized printer.

Nasa is also experimenting with 3D printing small satellites that could be launched from the International Space Station and then transmit data to earth.

In August, Nasa successfully tested a metal 3D printed rocket component as part of its moves to reduce the costs of space exploration.