by Emmanuel Onwubiko

The process of selling off publicly owned electricity power plants built at a huge cost and later sold at ridiculous amounts to some persons in the private sector allegedly linked with all the privatisation exercises since the last 14 years, is less than transparent and indeed violates relevant sections of the  constitution including but not limited to section 16(2)  (c).

Those who are concerned about the systematic killing of the two anti-graft institutions by top governmental officials for their selfish reasons may not be wrong after all. Reason: the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), is reportedly broke and  cannot pay huge bills owed to some private solicitors that  handle its court cases.

On the other hand, the ICPC which is more or less a toothless bulldog has almost been grounded to a virtual stop largely due to leadership inertia and incapacity  to wage war against corruption.

Painfully, the challenge facing these strategic, publicly funded anti-graft agencies coincided with the period in which large scale cases of corruption and economic crimes manifested among public office holders especially in the electricity sector that is currently enmeshed in widespread allegations of underhand dealings in the ongoing privatisation and sale of publicly-owned electricity power firms to some private business persons drawn largely from suspected fronts of top government officials.

Apart from the electricity power sector, another segment of the nation’s economy entangled in corruption and large scale economic crimes is the pension scheme especially the Nigerian Police’s pension scheme totaling over N32 Billion. The prosecution of the suspects  by the EFCC at various Federal High Courts is moving at a snail-speed.

In spite of all these cases, my attention will dwell extensively on the process of  selling various electricity power plants to private buyers.

One question that has yet to be answered is why these two anti-graft institutions seem incapable of handling some of the corruption cases before them. Secondly, facts emerged that the power firms were reportedly sold by the current government for N404 billion even when collectively these plants gulped N3.2 trillion of taxpayers money to fix back to optimal functional shape.

Why should government sell off these vital electricity power plants at ridiculous amounts after injecting huge public funds to revive them.Those public companies now sold were among the 18 successors of the now moribund Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

PHCN was broken up in a privatization process that is aimed at ending the debilitating power shortage in the country, Daily Trust reported that at least N3.2 trillion (about $20 billion) has gone into several power reform programmes in the past 14 years.

The PHCN was split into six power generation  plants, 11 distribution and one transmission company. All the generating and distributing firms were sold for a combined total of N$2.5 billion (about N404 billion).

A House of Representatives inquiry in 2008-2009 found that at least 15 billion dollars had been spent in the power sector most of it allegedly misappropriated.

The question to ask is: were the rules governing privatization followed?

In his book entitled “Privatisation and public good: The rule of law challenge”, Dr. Sam Amadi had as far back as  2008 warned that “regulation is one process of ensuring that something close to a perfect market exists after privatisation.”  He argued that regulation helps to overcome the dangers of privatisation, including that privatisation may become a process of creating a monopoly or entrenching an unfair market power”.

The process of selling off publicly owned electricity power plants built at a huge cost and later sold at ridiculous amounts to some persons in the private sector allegedly linked with all the privatisation exercises since the last 14 years, is less than transparent and indeed violates relevant sections of the  constitution including but not limited to section 16(2)  (c). This section  provides that “the Nigerian state shall direct its policy towards ensuring that the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of few individuals or of a group”.

Also, section 15(5) of the Constitution provides thus; “The Nigerian State shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power”.

In the present case  of privatisation of the power plants, there are clear and present dangers that under the table dealings took place but sadly the anti-graft agencies that ought to wage war the anti-corruption war are busy with administrative lobbying of the Executive and the Legislature for increased funding.

 

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