Intense lobbying, rancour, internal wrangling and division within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have caused the delay in the nomination of ministerial nominees for the replacement of ministers of defence and power that were dropped by President Goodluck Jonathan.
This is in addition to the pressure being mounted on Jonathan, who is believed to be finding it difficult to make a choice on the names submitted to him as possible nominees.
The situation, it was gathered, was further worsened by the leadership of the PDP that are pursuing different interest groups, as well as supporting different nominees from those being proposed by the governors of Kebbi and Enugu states were the two ministers that were dropped hail from.
It was also gathered that the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, has equally commenced lobbying for a ministerial position and is believed to be eyeing the Defence portfolio even when his Ogun state ministerial slot is presently filled.
In Kebbi state, the nomination of Brig-General Bitrus Boka Ushe is vehemently being opposed by the PDP leadership in the state that have denied his membership of the party, arguing that his nomination did not receive their blessing.
In the same vein, the nomination of a replacement for former power minister Bart Nnaji, who was forced to tender his resignation last week, is equally causing ripples in Enugu between Governor Sullivan Chime and some other party chieftains from the state.
While the internal wrangling continues, the national leadership of the PDP, led by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, is believed to have lost control of the situation owing to the various interests members of the party executive are pursuing.
The development, coupled with adverse security reports on some of the names that were presented to Jonathan, may have contributed to the decision of the presidency to further delay the presentation of the nomination to the Senate on September 18, 2012 when the upper legislative chamber is expected to resume plenary from its annual recess.
In the meantime, Jonathan said yesterday that the ministerial nominees for defence and power ministries would be submitted for screening and confirmation to the Senate on September 18, 2012.
Jonathan, who announced this yesterday in Abuja while reconstituting the Presidential Task Force on Power and the Presidential Action Committee on Power, said the nominees were ready and that the federal government was only awaiting the resumption of members of the Senate.
The Presidential Action Committee on Power meets twice monthly and is chaired by the President with Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo as deputy.
Other members of the committee are the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Head of Service of the Federation, Chief of Staff to the President, Attorney General of the Federation, Minister of Finance, Minister of Labour and Productivity and Minister of Power.
Others include Minister of Petroleum Resources, Minister of National Planning, Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Personal Adviser to the President on Performance Monitoring, Director General of Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE), Director General of Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), Group Managing Director of NNPC and the Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
The Presidential Task Force on Power is chaired by Engineer Beks Dagogo-Jack, with Rumundaka Wonodi, MD/CEO of Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading PLC, CEO of Transmission Company of Nigeria, CEO of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, and CEO of Ugheli Power Plc as members, while the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Dr Dere Awosika, will provide the secretariat for the committee.
Speaking at the reconstitution of the committees, the President said the resignation of Professor Nnaji halted the meeting of the Presidential Action Committee on Power.
According to him, “Before this time, in terms of power, we were meeting every two weeks. There were two committees on power but we stopped meeting because the former Minister of Power was the head of the technical team and when he moved across, we have not been able to meet. But Nigerians are happy with government because power is getting steady and I don’t want us to relapse.
“Definitely, immediately the National Assembly comes back, especially Senate, we will clear the two vacancies that we have. They will get cleared and place people accordingly so that the Minister of Power will come up. But, in the interim, the Minister of State, Power, is holding on to that.
“But whether the Minister of Power comes or not, we want to reconstitute the two teams because Nigerians will not be happy if we relapse and I believe that as we progress from now till December, if Nigerians can go home in December and do their parties without generators and can drive to their states without gutters on our roads stopping them, I think the rating of government will improve. So, we must work hard to get to this level.”
Jonathan assured that henceforth, there would be only one captain in the power sector ship as against the previous arrangement where Minister of Power and the Special Adviser on Power had power tussle.
He said: “We have done it this way because the other time when Nnaji was the Chairman, the Secretary was my SA, so there were a lot of conflicts between two of them because they say two captains cannot drive a ship. This time around we just want one captain and others will work with him.
“When we look at the team anybody that does not fit in we will begin to weed off. The team, already is working but we are only formalising it today so that everybody knows the leadership. If they continue to work very hard and when the minister joins them I believe that we will continue to improve and Nigeria will know that we will not relapse.”
Source: Blueprint
