Will appointment of NERC commissioners stir the agency to life?

Pursuant to the nomination of suitably qualified Nigerians by Mr. President and the confirmation of the Senate, we gather to inaugurate as Commissioners of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)” with these words, Babatunde Fashola inaugurated six new commissioners for NERC.

The new commissioners are Sanusi Garba, an electrical engineer as vice chairman, Frank Okafor, an electrical engineer as commissioner. Others are Dafe C. Akpeneye, a Legal Practitioner, Nathan Roger Shatti, an Accountant, Musiliu O. Oseni, an Economist and Moses Arigu, a Scientist & Mathematician.

Babatunde Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing inaugurated the commissioners February 7, in Abuja and charged them to get on with the tasks at hand.

“They have been chosen in the manner prescribed by law; and I particularly welcome their arrival for many reasons, Fashola said. According to him, the reasons were, to provide stability in governance regulatory action and institution building to the sector and allow the Ministry to focus on policy; coordination and completion of ongoing Generation and Transmission projects.

While the tenure of the former commissioners ended in December 2015, the Federal government has dithered sending replacements, leaving Tony Akah, to act as sole administrator of the agency, albeit in acting capacity, an aberration to the law setting up the agency.

The Electric Power Sector Reform Act, 2005 stipulates that NERC shall have seven full time commissioners appointed by the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate who will assist the Chairman in dispensing his duties.

The EPSRA further mandated the President to designate one of the commissioners as chairman, who would be the chief executive and ac-
counting officer of the commission. Interestingly, in the spirit of section 40, sub section four of the EPSR Act, the Vice Chairman can act in the absence of the Chairman

“The Vice-Chairman shall per- form the Chairman’s functions wherever the Chairman is for any reason unable to perform them.”

This is important because the absence of a chairman and commissioners have stalled decisions in NERC and filling the vacuum that follows the departure of Sam Amadi has been difficult.

In October 2016, president Buhari forwarded the name of Akintunde Akinwande, a professor at the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department of Massachusetts Institute of Technol- ogy to the senate for confirmation but was unable to obtain clearance from his employers before he was due to be screened by the senate.