Fashola denies saying power assets were illegally sold

Ministry of power, works and housing, on Thursday debunked a lead story published Wednesday by Daily Trust quoting Babatunde Fashola, the minister, as saying that the nation’s power sector was illegally sold.

The alleged comments, according to Daily Trust, were made on Tuesday at the senate public hearing on electricity tariff, where the minister was alleged to have told the senate committee on power that as minister, he inherited a power sector “where government interests have been illegally sold.”

In a statement released Thursday, Hakeem Bello, his special adviser on media, 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 power 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 remarks at the session, noted that…As minister, I inherited a power sector where government interests had been legally sold,” the statement read in part.

According to the statement, the minister, in tracing how the country got to this point, referred to the privatization law made in 2005, noting that “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.”

It further 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.”

Also, describing the power sector reform law as “a great law,” 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.

The statement also quoted the minister explaining that “three years was hardly enough to expect any significant results from the exercise adding, “but I think that this system can work…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?”

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.”

 

YANGE IKYAA