Former Minister of National Planning Commission in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, has revealed how politicians and officials in the administration jostled for shares in the power generation and distribution companies (DisCos) that were privatised in 2013.
The Minister during the administration of Jonathan made the revelation in Abuja on Thursday, at the 26th October Lecture of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, (NSE).
Usman said government officials, who ordinarily should have been neutral in the privatisation exercise, were however guilty of foul plays, and used their positions to leverage their interests in the exercise secretly.
The former minister said at the NSE lecture, which was delivered by its former president, Mustafa Shehu, that most of the transaction principles often included and followed in the privatisation of Government’s assets were side-stepped during the sale of the power assets to private investors.
According to him, the outcome of the power privatisation was heavily influenced by political considerations against economic or technical capacities of the eventual preferred bidders.
He said, “If you look at all these DisCos and Gencos, unfortunately, some of us saw it that time; but there wasn’t much we could do, because of the rush and the political thing it had become. There is in each and every one of them at least one or two ‘big masquerades’.
He further said: “That is not how to do privatisation. You don’t sell because of some people who are in the Government, but because they have demonstrated the expertise; and a lot of people rushed into it because they think electricity is like telecoms without even understanding the industry”.
Usman, who expressed disappointment over certain development in the country, said Nigeria lacks implementation and not planning.
