Minister of Power’s resignation: The generator republic in Nigeria has strike again.

The breaking news in the evening of yesterday was the resignation of Power Minister, Prof. Barth Nnaji. Barth Nnaji first took office in 2010 as a Special Adviser to the President on Power and also, the Chairman of Presidential Task Force on Power. His outstanding performance in this line of responsibility gave him the ministerial job he resigned from yesterday.

It was noted however, that his style of administration, professionalism and integrity attracted international investors to the Nigeria’s Power Sector, leading to numerous signing of agreements with global players such as America’s General Electric (GE), and Germany’s Siemens, each with a worth of $10billion in addition to many others. Under his watch, generation of power increased to about 4,477.7 mega-watts earlier in the month, in partial fulfillment of the expectations from the Electricity Power Sector Roadmap launched in Lagos on August 26, 2010.

It will interest you to know that this is the first time a minister is resigning from office under a controversial circumstances since the inception of President Jonathan’s administration.
I can’t speak for other states in the federation, but in the city of Abuja where i stay, the instability of power supply in my neighborhood has been a thing of pain for a very long time. Power supply has been on a sharing scale for over 2 years, but for two weeks now or there about, there has been steady power supply. Same has been recounted by many others in within the city and other satellite towns.

The battle Prof. Barth Nnaji faced while in office is a hypothetical paraphramism why this country will never advance past the current state. When a good man/woman comes out to work, many mediocres in the helm of affairs who no longer have thinking cells will stand to be a bottle-neck. From the day one of his appointment as the minister for power, he has had a running battle with electricity workers unions(The National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE). Few hours after his resignation, the General Secretary of the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies, SSSAEAC, Comrade Abiodun Ogunsegha said he and the entire workers of PHCN were extremely happy. The General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, Comrade Joe Ajaero also said they have been calling for his resignation and that today, he and the entire union members were all happy.

The thing i do not understand is, what are these people happy about? They are happy and glad for fact that Nigeria which ought to be leading the way in Africa has been suffering from numerous setbacks due to corruption and inadequacies. I have said it before and will say it again, i don’t care whether or not a political office holder steals money, as long as he does a quality job. A lot of accusations have trailed the former minister, including that he indirectly sought to acquire the PHCN successor companies through firms that have links to him. I personally consider this and its like to be a flowchart to dent the credibility of the power sector reform and privatization process of Prof. Barth Nnaji.

I know that any individual who will stamp his/her feet to see to the end of epileptic power supply in this country will be fiercely fought by the so-called big boys in the generator business as well as their paid staff in top government offices. President Goodluck Jonathan said the people of Nigeria should wait and enjoy the dividends of his administration come 2013, we are waiting Mr President.