Segun Atanda/
After absorbing jabs from former President Olusegun Obasanjo, President Muhammadu Buhari hit back today asking for explanation on how $16billion was spent on power project between 1999 and 2006 without any visible result.
“Where was the power after a former president claimed to have spent $16 billion on the project?” the President asked while receiving the Buhari Support Organisation led by the Comptroller-General of Nigerian Customs Service, Hameed Ali, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Obasanjo, in a swift reply later in the day, described the allegation as false.
The power project was done during the Obasanjo administration, and it has been described as a mismanagement of public funds by observers and civic groups.
The House of Representatives in 2008 described the $16 billion spent on power by the Obasanjo government as a colossal waste.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had in 2016 also urged the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria at the time, Walter Onnoghen, to immediately appoint an independent counsel to investigate the allegations of corruption in the spending of the $16 billion by the Obasanjo government.
Obasanjo, who supported Buhari in the build-up to the 2015 general election, has been attacking him over alleged poor performance in office.
A statement from Obasanjo’s media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, made the following clarifications: “It has come to the attention of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, apparently without correct information and based on ignorance, suggested that $16 billion was wasted on power projects by “a former President”. We believe that the President was re-echoing the unsubstantiated allegation against Chief Obasanjo by his own predecessor but one.
While it is doubtful that a President with proper understanding of the issue would utter such, it should be pointed out that records from the National Assembly had exculpated President Obasanjo of any wrong-doing concerning the power sector and has proved the allegations as false.
For the records, Chief Obasanjo has addressed the issues of the power sector and the allegations against him on many occasions and platforms, including in his widely publicised book, My Watch in which he exhaustively stated the facts and reproduced various reports by both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which conducted a clinical investigation into the allegations against Chief Obasanjo, and the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Review of the Recommendations in the Report of the Committee on Power on the Investigation into how the Huge Sums Of Money was Spent on Power Generation, Transmission And Distribution between June 1999 and May 2007 without Commensurate Result.
We recommend that the President and his co-travellers should read Chapters 41, 42, 43 and 47 of My Watch for Chief Obasanjo’s insights and perspectives on the power sector and indeed what transpired when the allegation of $16 billion on power projects was previously made. If he cannot read the three-volume book, he should detail his aides to do so and summarise the chapters in a language that he will easily understand.
In the same statement credited to the President, it was alleged that there was some bragging by Chief Obasanjo over $16 billion spent on power. To inform the uninformed, the so-called $16 billion power expenditure was an allegation against Chief Obasanjo’s administration and not his claim. The President also queried where the power generated is. The answer is simple: The power is in the seven National Integrated Power Projects and eighteen gas turbines that Chief Obasanjo’s successor who originally made the allegation of $16 billion did not clear from the ports for over a year and the civil works done on the sites.
Chief Obasanjo challenges, and in fact encourages, anybody to set up another enquiry if in doubt and unsatisfied with the EFCC report and that of the Hon. Aminu Tambuwal-led ad-hoc committee.”
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