Last Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari fired the erstwhile Minister of Power, Mr Sale Mamman, in what he said was a move to ‘’strengthen weak areas’’ in his government. Emmanuel Addeh writes that while the former minister’s tenure remained largely uninspiring, there’s the need for his replacement to hit the ground running with less than two years to the end of the current administration.
Just like the election of his former boss raised the hopes that a new Nigeria was in the offing, Mamman’s appointment to oversee the beleaguered power sector was greeted with much enthusiasm.
The expectations were higher, given that he was taking over from the current Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola, who many thought was seriously overburdened with two critical ministries, a development that perhaps tamed his much-talked-about uncommon capacity to deliver.
Reclusive, rarely seen, rarely heard, Mamman soon began to unravel, or to put it aptly, just refused to unravel in spite of all the initial high aspirations, fuelled by his boss’s promise to finally give Nigerians reliable electricity supply.
With no clearly marked achievement in two years and no communication where they probably existed, Mamman will arguably go down in history as being the only head of a ministry who literally left Nigerians in the dark as to his plans and goals from when he took office till when he was given the red card a week ago.
Unwarranted Bickering
Like schoolboys, Mamman sought to, as put by his Media Aide, Aaron Artimas, “whip the agencies into line” because each of them were claiming autonomy.
The “sacking, unsacking and resacking” of a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET), Marilyn Amobi, was one of the running battles he had with his lieutenants.
The former minister also had brushes with the former Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr Usman Mohammed as well as a former Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Damilola Ogunbiyi, who he indicated were constituting a wheel in the cog of the progress of the power sector.
Added to that, there was a major disagreement between the minister and the ministry of finance over whether he had the power to remove the head of NBET, which is under the ministry of finance. These unwarranted bickering consumed a lot of the energy that would have been channelled to providing Nigerians electricity.
As reticent as he was, Mamman never failed to denigrate his predecessors. For instance, in responding to his critics who raised questions over his qualification to head the all-important power sector, Mamman said last July that people like one of his predecessors; Prof. Barth Nnaji would have transformed the ministry if performance was based on paper qualifications.
In addition, he claimed that he inherited a chaotic sector from his predecessor, Fashola, who’s now overseeing the works ministry.
Nigeria’s Electricity Supply
In one of his rare appearances on television, 63-year-old Mamman countered Nigerians who constantly complain of erratic supply of electricity, insisting that the entire country now enjoys between 18 to 24 hours of power everyday.
Mamman, who spoke in an interview with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) maintained that President Muhammadu Buhari administration had improved the infrastructure in the power system in the last five year even when Nigerians were living in utter darkness.
But his position ran contrary to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), which coincidentally, released a statement at the time, listing the lack of electricity as Nigeria’s biggest challenge.
Not a few Nigerians thought it was an insult for the minister to barefacedly tell them that power supply to their homes had become stable even when it was obvious that it was far from the truth.
The minister disclosed that some power plants had been completed by the current administration, which he said would further get better with the coming of Siemens AG, a German company into the system.
He said: “The President has come out with Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) to ensure that all infrastructure is improved. So, many substations are now in place across the country. We have improved the 330 KVA, which is the highest voltage in the country.
“We have also improved the 132 substations. Kashimbilla has been completed which is 40mw. We have reached up to 70 per cent of Zungeru in Niger. One of the biggest projects, the Mambilla, which has been lingering for over 40 years, has commenced.
“We have finished the feasibility studies, the land and area survey and waiting for contractors to mobilise to site. We have improved our services. Before this government, they gave light less than 10 hours a day, but today I can tell you that we give light from 18 to 24 hours in a day.” Not a few Nigerians took that statement with a pinch of salt.
Inchoate Mambilla Project
Having hailed from Taraba, stakeholders expected the erstwhile minister to make some headway in the over four-decade Mambilla hydropower project, located in the state. But till he left last week, most of the issues hampering the project remained unresolved.
Originally conceived in 1972, the capacity of the project was increased to 3,050MW in 2012 and has practically been put on hold due to administrative and legal issues.
Set up to comprise four dams and two underground powerhouses, having 12 turbine generator units in total, as part of the plans to solve the perennial problem in the power sector, Mambilla is expected to be Nigeria’s biggest power plant.
In addition, it is expected to produce approximately 4.7 billion kWh of electricity a year and will generate up to 50,000 local jobs during the construction phase.
Over 40 years later Mamman said that under his superintendence, the federal government had finished the feasibility studies, the land and area survey and was waiting for contractors to mobilise to site as well as commencement of payment of compensation to host communities in Taraba state.
Just when everyone thought the project was gradually taking off, Sunrise, the first contractor for the project resurrected, flaunting documents that it said entitled it to some form of compensation for alleged breach of contract, came into the picture.
Accusing the government of defaulting on a $200million settlement agreement it entered with the company, Sunrise contended that the deal was supposed to make it relinquish all claims to the $5.8 billion project, which has now been revised.
A $200 million deal brokered by the ministry of power and the ministry of justice to settle the matter out-of-court has also met with a brick wall as the $2.3 billion project continues to remain in the doldrums.
Siemens Deal Forgotten?
With the noise that heralded the signing of a deal with Siemens AG of Germany last year, one would have thought that government would keep the same energy in the execution of the agreement. However, enthusiasm has long waned with no further information concerning the project.
The agreement, which was meant to be implemented in phases was expected to see the upgrading of 105 power substations and the construction of 70 new ones.
Under the deal for which the government had made an initial N8.6 billion commitment, about 3,765 distribution transformers will be installed and 5,109 km distribution lines will be built with a potential generation capacity of over 13,000 mw as opposed to the current transmission of 4,500mw.
In phase one, 7gw was expected to be achieved between then and end of 2021, with the upgrading of transmission and distribution of the TCN and Distribution Companies (Discos) expected to contribute an additional 2gw.
For phase two, the government said that 11gw will be achieved between 2021-2023, with full use of existing generation and last mile distribution capacity, while the phase three will see the achievement of 25gw between 2023-2025 with appropriate upgrades and expansion in generation, transmission and distribution.
But since the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the payment of €15.21 million (N6,940,081,465.20) offshore and N1.708 billion onshore as part of Nigeria’s counterpart funding for the power deal, not much has been heard.
The deal also involves Siemens’ support for the regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), towards improving metering in the electricity industry in the country.
Funding without Impact
In a note marking his one year in office, Mamman stated that the federal government had secured a cumulative sum of $6.150 billion for the funding of various capital projects in the power sector.
He said that as a market in transition, the sector had been experiencing teething challenges, adding that due to lack of infrastructure, the sector was unable to effectively utilise its generation capacity of over 12,000MW and incurred over N254 billion as the cost of unutilised capacity.
