Ex-Minister Reveals How DISCOs, GENCOs Were Sold To Government Officials Under Jonathan

Former Minister of National Planning Commission in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, on Thursday revealed how politicians and officials in the administration jostled for shares in the power generation and distribution companies that were privatised in 2013.

The Minister in the administration of Jonathan spoke in Abuja at the 26th October Lecture of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.

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 sidestepped during the sale of the power assets to private investors.

He said the outcome of the power privatisation was heavily influenced by political considerations against economic or technical capacities of the eventual preferred bidders.

The ex-minister then linked parts of the challenges facing the sector to the alleged foul plays.

Usman, who did not mention names even when asked, said: “I was part of the power privatisation and I am not going to extricate myself.

“It is a collective responsibility and I am not comfortable with the speed at which we rushed that exercise.

“I was the first Director General of TCPC (Technical Committee of Privatisation and Commercialisation), which is the agency that started privatisation in this country in 1988.

“We had our office in Lagos and we did the first privatisation in this country.
“As at that time, we had the Code of Conduct that ensured that no member of the management or the board actually could buy any of the assets that we were selling.

“The electricity privatisation unfortunately was not handled that way.
“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 political thing it had become.

“There is in each and every one of them at least one or two ‘big masquerades’.
“That is not how to do privatisation.
“You don’t sell because of some people who are in the government.

“You sell 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.