Senators declare war as AfDB, World Bank set to run Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)
Unionists protest deal, say it’s unacceptable
From Fred Itua, Abuja
FRESH war is imminent between the Federal Government and the Sen- ate over Presidency’s plan to offer the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to borrow $174 million from the African Develop- ment Bank (ADB).
Senators were angry for offering the TCN as collateral which means the bank would run the main government power transmission agency for an initial six months. Under the agreement, the AfDB would deploy three of its staff to Nigeria to manage the TCN.
This is even as the National Union of Electric- ity Employees (NUEE) are opposing over the removal of TCN Chief Executive Officer, Abubakar Atiku. Protest by members of the NUEE disrupted activities at the Abuja head office yesterday.
The protest was the union’s reaction to an al- leged order by Minster of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola asking Atiku to hand over to a new management. The decision to replace Atiku, it was alleged, was over who will manage the over $364 million World Bank loan to be injected into the power sector.
A source said: “Part of the loan collateral, is to hand over the management of TCN to AfDB. He said AfDB will, in the process, deploy three staff to manage TCN for six months in the first instance.
“The ADB will termi- nate and remove the entire management of TCN even when they are just midway into their tenure. “Under what arrangement will the Federal Government cede the entire critical national asset to ADB even when Nigerians are grappling with energy crisis?,” the source said.
He said the Senate is also interested in knowing whether the government can push aside a manage- ment that was legitimately instituted just because the country wants a loan.
The source asked whether “giving of loan entitled AfDB to grab the manage- ment of TCN especially when it is a loan Nigeria will repay.”
The source said the Senate will also want to know whether Nigeria is not entitled to AfDB loan, noting that the “implication is that there is lack of faith between Nigeria and the bank which the country is a major donor.
“The Federal Govern- ment has already made huge allocation in the 2017 budget estimate. Is it now wise to hand over such funds to TCN to be man- aged by AfDB appointees,” he said.
According to him, the Senate learnt that the AfDB plans to second to TCN were economists and not technical staff. The source said information available to the Senate showed that one of the persons the AfDB plans to second to manage TCN was a junior staff in TCN, who studied Account- ing.
“The Senate is therefore, insisting that the status quo must be maintained, failing which the Senate, as an institution, will not have anything to do with handing over a national asset when it has not been privatised,” the lawmaker noted.
At the TCN headquarters yesterday, the NUEE spoke of a letter signed by the Per- manent Secretary of Min- istry of Power, Mr. Louis Edozien and addressed to the Minister of Finance and attention, Director, Inter- Economic Relations, the Permanent Secretary states: “Request for the second- ment of Mr. Usman Gur Mohammed from African Development Bank as the transitional Chief Execu- tive Officer of Transmission Company of Nigeria”.
Edozien referred to the letter from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Power as he said, “I refer to your letter dated January 19 conveying the approval of the African Development Bank(ADB) in respect of a request authorised by the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria for the secondment of Mr. Usman Gur Mohammed as an Interim Chief Executive Officer of Transmission Company of Nigerian (TCN) for a period of 12 months.
“Accordingly, he is by copy of this letter requested to resume for duty on Wednesday, February 1, which date his appointment will take effect.
The union, however, frowned at Atiku’s removal as they claimed that it did not follow due process.
They also faulted Atiku’s planned replacement, as they stated that the new CEO position in TCN would be beyond Principal Man- ager, therefore, not qualified to head the company.
Chairman of NUEE, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter, Comrade Wisdom Nwachukwu, said the new man approved
to manage the TCN was
an Accountant, therefore, not qualified to head the company. According to him, TCN is a technical company and should be managed by a reputable Engineer.
Nwachukwu alleged that President Muham- madu Buhari had asked the ministry to put a hold on the replacement of Atiku, but the ministry may be pushing forward to ensure Atiku’s removal.
Members of the union, who had congregated in one of the open fields were asked to return to their offices with a promise that they should wait for further directives from the national secretarial.
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