• Home
  • Anti-Corruption
  • Fact-Check
  • Economy
  • National
    • Government
  • Security
  • Features
  • State
  • Event
    • PR Nigeria Award
  • E-Paper
Search
  • Home
  • About
  • Adverts
  • Contact
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
PRNIGERIA PRNigeria News
PRNIGERIA PRNIGERIA
  • Home
  • Anti-Corruption
    • ICPC Secures Conviction of Rector for Running Unaccredited Degree Programmes

      Engr Abba Babagana Dalori

      Engr Dalori Forfeits Galaxy Hospital, Petrol Station, Properties & Cash

      Chinese nationals jailed in Lagos

      Court Jails Nine Chinese Nationals for Cybercrime in Lagos

      ASUU

      Tackle Corruption, Institutional Decay – ASUU Charges FG

      EFCC Arraigns Bauchi Accountant General Over N8bn Fraud as Court Sentences…

  • Fact-Check
  • Economy
    • Customs Partners US Mission to Prevent Expanded Visa Ban

      Nigeria Customs Partners China on Smarter Ports, Officer Training, Reforms

      Comptroller General Nigerian Customs Bashir Adewale

      Customs Moves Against 223 Importers in N379bn Permit Breach

      Bashir Adewale Adeniyi Customs Boss

      How Customs is Tightening Borders to Stop Illicit Cash Flows –…

      Customs boss, CGC Bashir Adewale Adeniyi with NAFDAC DG Professor Moji Adeyeye

      Codeine, Tramadol Worth ₦20.5bn Seized as Customs-NAFDAC Cooperation Deepens

  • National
    • Beyond Hoes and Sticks: The Power of Education for Peace in…

      Nigerian Air Force Welcomes 30 New Helicopter Pilots, Commissions Upgraded Facilities

      National Blood Service Agency

      FG Pledges Stronger Support for Blood Services, Seeks Scalable Interventions from…

      Tinubu’s Government Unveils Multi-Sectoral Initiatives to Boost Northern Region’s Development

      DCG Olumode Samuel Adeyemi

      JUST IN: Tinubu Appoints Olumode Adeyemi New CG of Fire Service

    • Government
      • Beyond Hoes and Sticks: The Power of Education for Peace in…

        National Blood Service Agency

        FG Pledges Stronger Support for Blood Services, Seeks Scalable Interventions from…

        Tinubu’s Government Unveils Multi-Sectoral Initiatives to Boost Northern Region’s Development

        Minister of State for Agriculture, Dr Aliyu S. Abdullahi,

        FG Redesigns Agricultural Curriculum to Empower Youth

        Prof. Attahiru Jega, Co-Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Livestock Reforms,

        FG Unveils Livestock Blueprint to End Herdsmen-Farmers Crisis

  • Security
    • Nigerian Air Force Welcomes 30 New Helicopter Pilots, Commissions Upgraded Facilities

      DCG Olumode Samuel Adeyemi

      JUST IN: Tinubu Appoints Olumode Adeyemi New CG of Fire Service

      Troops Neutralise 6 Terrorists in Coordinated Operations Across Borno, Recover Firearms

      Police Officer

      Police Nab Woman Linked to Murder of Pregnant Nurse, Mutilation in…

      Coordinated Security Efforts Making Nigeria Safer Under Tinubu’s Administration – NSA…

  • Features
    • Okello Oculi

      Okello Oculi: A Pan-Africanist Asteroid Burns out Forever By Is’haq Modibbo…

      Leon Usigbe

      Death, you can’t be Proud of this By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem 

      Tinubu’s Plateau Gambit – Yilwatda, 2027, and the Return of the…

      Ozumi and a recipient of a wheelchair

      Wheels of Hope: How a Simple Gift is Reshaping Lives at…

      Late Ex-President Muhammadu Buhari and Mansur Liman

      “Buhari: A Blunt, Honest Leader Who Laughed at His Own Predicament”

  • State
    • Beyond Hoes and Sticks: The Power of Education for Peace in…

      National Blood Service Agency

      FG Pledges Stronger Support for Blood Services, Seeks Scalable Interventions from…

      Tinubu’s Government Unveils Multi-Sectoral Initiatives to Boost Northern Region’s Development

      Troops Neutralise 6 Terrorists in Coordinated Operations Across Borno, Recover Firearms

      nipr logo

      NIPR Slams Fake News Peddlers over Alleged Lafia Flyover Collapse

  • Event
    • Founder Image Merchant Promotion Ltd, Yushau Shuaib, Nigeria Customs CG, CGC Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and the IPRA representative during the 2024 GWA awards in Belgrade, Serbia

      IPRA Celebrates 70th Anniversary, Hosts 2025 Golden World Awards in Ghana

      IMPR Interns

      Unpacking Dr. Fatima Binta’s NIPR Vision: A Candid Chat with PRNigeria…

      Dr. Ahmadu Fatimah Binta

      Beyond the Clinic: Dr. Fatimah Binta Reveals PR’s Impact on Medicine

      FGC Yauri schoolgirls

      Kidnapped FGC Yauri Schoolgirls Defy Odds, Graduate with Distinction from Top…

      Super Falcons wins WAFCON Trophy

      VON Apologizes for Erroneous WAFCON Report, Cites Possible Security Breach, Identifies…

    • PR Nigeria Award
  • E-Paper
Home Government Power Sector Privatization: Power Ministry Refutes Daily Trust’s Lead Story
  • Government

Power Sector Privatization: Power Ministry Refutes Daily Trust’s Lead Story

By
Hakeem Bello
-
June 3, 2016
Fashola
Works Minister Fashola

Babatunde-Fashola-001As Minister, I inherited a Power Sector where Government interests had been LEGALLY sold…- FASHOLA

The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Wednesday debunked the Daily Trust’s lead story of same day quoting the Minister , Mr Babatunde Fashola SAN as saying that the nation’s Power Sector was illegally sold.

The alleged statement, according to Daily Trust, was made on Tuesday at the Senate public hearing on electricity tariff where the Minister was alleged to have told the Senate Committee that as a Minister he inherited a Power Sector “where government’s interests have been illegally sold.”

In a statement, his Special Adviser on Media, Mr Hakeem Bello, distanced the Minister from the alleged pronouncement saying in all presentations before the Senate Committee, the Minister never used the word “illegally” to refer to the privatization of the Sector by the Federal Government. Rather, and this can be verified by a playback of the video recording of the session, the Minister in his opening remark at the session noted,

“ …As  Minister, I inherited a Power Sector where Government interests had been LEGALLY sold…”

According to the Statement, the Minister in tracing how the country got to this point referred to the Privatization Law made in 2005, “The people of this country through their parliamentarians made a verdict in 2005 when you passed that law that things must change, the law was passed in 2005 and the process was completed in 2013, I wasn’t here, some of you were here, if the process is bad where was the oversight”.

The Statement also quoted the Minister as telling the Senate, “I will commend to this Committee the Report of the House of Representatives that investigated the matter. I will also commend to you Sirs, some of the Reports that have been made by the Senate Committee on Privatization. The basic reason for the passage of the Power Sector Reforms Bill that was passed in 2005 is that we all know that the government was not doing its business well”.

It  stated that in apparent defence of the Law, the Minister also told the Senate, “These decisions were taken before any of us was here. If it was working why change it, who were the people that were employed to make it work, it was our employers in the TUC and other unions, and if they complain that the dam was not working and the power plant was not working, that was why they were hired”.

And describing the Power Sector Reform Law as “a great law”, according to the Statement, the Minister, who had made reference to a question by one of the Senators as to when the results of Privatization would be seen, had reminded the Senate Committee that the privatization exercise would be three years old in November this year, citing the example of the Communication Sector that was privatized over ten years ago which benefits were still evolving.

It quoted the Minister as saying, “Let us reflect back to a sector that we have privatized like this before, were the results this outstanding three years after we passed the GSM reforms? As we speak today some people can still not afford the GSM; some are going to buy tomorrow. When the GSM kicked off, they did not kick off in Abuja, they opened first in Kano, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Aba, that were commercially viable, those were tariffs being set for those who could pay for it.”

Read Also:

  • Beyond Hoes and Sticks: The Power of Education for Peace in Arewa
  • Nigerian Air Force Welcomes 30 New Helicopter Pilots, Commissions Upgraded Facilities
  • FG Pledges Stronger Support for Blood Services, Seeks Scalable Interventions from NBSA

The Minister, the Statement also quoted, told the Committee that three years was hardly enough to expect any significant results from the exercise adding, “But I have been here for a year and less and I think that this system can work , India has done what we are doing, China has done what we are doing, Mexico has done what we are doing, Brazil has done what we are doing and South Africa ,they went through all of these hiccups and I think we should inform ourselves before we jump to some conclusions really. If we cancel this privatization, what do we go back to, what are our choices”.

“If other nations have been through this and have survived, I think we must resolve to do what it takes to make it work”, the Statement also quoted the Minister as saying, asking the question, “Is three years enough? ECN was created in 1953; … I don’t know that time, but the truth is that in those 63 years how many people did ECN meter so as to expect that same number can be metered in three years, so we must look at this in a context”.

Also debunking the allegation that the Distribution companies were yet to make a significant investment in the sector, the Minister had said, “We have a challenge and I think it can be overcome, people have made statements here that are not correct and they may mislead you saying there are no investments in the sector. Just on Monday the United States through its Power Africa Initiative granted support in the region of $9 million for technical advisory capacity to the same DisCos trying to build efficiency, it is one thing to condemn all the DisCos but to say shut down the business, where is that taking us”.

Some other remarks which the Minister made at the event, according to the Statement include the following; “People have said the DisCos, it is possible that some of them do not have the technical capacity, it is possible that some of them do not have the financial capacity, there were institutions here when those decisions were being taken, I wasn’t here but I have decided to stop clinging to the past and move on, how can we help those who are weak, how can we support those who have technical deficiency?”

“In terms of regulation, we are moving from a period where there was no NERC and therefore, the Ministry was the be all and end all to the period where we have to create a private regulator.  Just like you have the NCC in telecoms, NERC is the NCC of power and it will take time also. Everybody is learning, we have had to reconstitute the traditional departments in the Ministry of Power in order to create departments that respond to what we now have.

“I come from a view that you don’t sanction a people unless you have given them all the tools to work. Governments, ministries, departments and agencies are owing these people, there are also debts; tariffs were set on assumed level of power supply, government has not delivered on that power supply, so the fundamental assumption of performance are also not there.

“Government cannot deliver on that power partly because the fuel for that power is being punctured; it’s like leaking the fuel of your own generators, we cannot insist on performance. We have no moral right to sanction them if we have not kept our side of the bargain. But we are insisting on performance, we have asked them to submit their audited accounts for the last 3 years, some have done so while others have not done so, we have started a ranking system, ranking safety, ranking performance, ranking collection to create competition as a basis for sanctioning performance, so that the rules of the game are clear from the beginning.

Describing the Daily Trust report as unfounded and misleading, the Statement enjoined newsmen to always endeavour to clarify their facts before going public , pointing out that the media department and indeed other officials of the Ministry were always ready to answer questions and clarify any issues concerning the Ministry.

HAKEEM BELLO

SPECIAL ADVISER,

COMMUNICATIONS

TO THE HON. MINISTER

VISIT OUR OTHER WEBSITES
PRNigeria.com EconomicConfidential.com PRNigeria.com/Hausa/
EmergencyDigest.com PoliticsDigest.ng TechDigest.ng
HealthDigest.ng SpokesPersonsdigest.com TeensDigest.ng
ArewaAgenda.com Hausa.ArewaAgenda.com YAShuaib.com
  • TAGS
  • Babatunde Fashola SAN
  • Daily Trust
  • Ministry of Power
  • Works and Housing
Previous articleReport For CCT activities in the year 2014 and 2016
Next articleFG Directs Banks To Suspend Retrenchment
Hakeem Bello
Hakeem Bello
https://prnigeria.com
PRNigeria is the pioneer Press Release Distribution agency in Nigeria. A member of image Merchant Promotions limited, PRNigeria encourages individuals and organisations to be more transparent in their information management. with dedicated Editorial staffs, the PRNigeria ensures that information provided on its platforms are timely, factual and authoritative Read more at: //prnigeria.com/about/
Facebook Twitter

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Beyond Hoes and Sticks: The Power of Education for Peace in Arewa

National Blood Service Agency

FG Pledges Stronger Support for Blood Services, Seeks Scalable Interventions from NBSA

Tinubu’s Government Unveils Multi-Sectoral Initiatives to Boost Northern Region’s Development

Minister of State for Agriculture, Dr Aliyu S. Abdullahi,

FG Redesigns Agricultural Curriculum to Empower Youth

Prof. Attahiru Jega, Co-Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Livestock Reforms,

FG Unveils Livestock Blueprint to End Herdsmen-Farmers Crisis

Saidu Ahmed Alkali,

FG Completes 135 Roads, Launches 216 New Projects in Northern Nigeria

Troops Neutralise 6 Terrorists in Coordinated Operations Across Borno, Recover Firearms

nipr logo

NIPR Slams Fake News Peddlers over Alleged Lafia Flyover Collapse

Tinubu Offers Automatic Jobs, Gifts N250k to 210 Ex-Corpers

Alhaji Ahmed Maiyaki, Commissioner of Information, Kaduna State

Kaduna Governor Appoints Strategic Communicator, Ahmed Maiyaki as Information Commissioner

Okello Oculi

Okello Oculi: A Pan-Africanist Asteroid Burns out Forever By Is’haq Modibbo Kawu

Coordinated Security Efforts Making Nigeria Safer Under Tinubu’s Administration – NSA Ribadu

LEAVE A REPLY Cancel reply

Log in to leave a comment

Recent Posts

  • Beyond Hoes and Sticks: The Power of Education for Peace in Arewa
  • Nigerian Air Force Welcomes 30 New Helicopter Pilots, Commissions Upgraded Facilities
  • FG Pledges Stronger Support for Blood Services, Seeks Scalable Interventions from NBSA
  • Tinubu’s Government Unveils Multi-Sectoral Initiatives to Boost Northern Region’s Development
  • FG Redesigns Agricultural Curriculum to Empower Youth
  • Home
  • About
  • Adverts
  • Contact
© 2020 PRNigeria. All Rights Reserved.
Latest News
Beyond Hoes and Sticks: The Power of Education for Peace in ArewaNigerian Air Force Welcomes 30 New Helicopter Pilots, Commissions Upgraded FacilitiesFG Pledges Stronger Support for Blood Services, Seeks Scalable Interventions from NBSATinubu's Government Unveils Multi-Sectoral Initiatives to Boost Northern Region's DevelopmentFG Redesigns Agricultural Curriculum to Empower YouthFG Secures China Funding to Fast-Track Kaduna–Kano Rail CompletionFG Unveils Livestock Blueprint to End Herdsmen-Farmers CrisisFG Completes 135 Roads, Launches 216 New Projects in Northern NigeriaJUST IN: Tinubu Appoints Olumode Adeyemi New CG of Fire ServiceTroops Neutralise 6 Terrorists in Coordinated Operations Across Borno, Recover FirearmsPolice Nab Woman Linked to Murder of Pregnant Nurse, Mutilation in Anambra NIPR Slams Fake News Peddlers over Alleged Lafia Flyover CollapseTinubu Offers Automatic Jobs, Gifts N250k to 210 Ex-CorpersKaduna Governor Appoints Strategic Communicator, Ahmed Maiyaki as Information CommissionerCustoms Partners US Mission to Prevent Expanded Visa Ban
X whatsapp