Ndudi Elumelu, chairman house committee on power
It was long in coming but has been foretold in the media. Repeated attempts were made to scuttle the search for truth in relation to epileptic power supply that prevailed in Nigeria for years and possibly destroy its architects. When the House of Representatives through a resolution of the House, decided to conduct an investigation into Power Sector Reforms of the previous administration from 1999-2007, it was clear that monumental corruption scandal are bound to be unearthed and powerful individuals indicted in view of the billions of dollars spent with only darkness instead of light to show for it. And that was how it turned out.
Under klieg lights, the Hon. Ndudi Elumelu led House Committee on Power unearthed monumental corruption with millions of naira collected by contractors with no work done. Over invoicing and breach of due process were also discovered while mismanagement in project execution was noted. Of course, Elumelu and his committee stepped on powerful toes with a war chest of cash to rubbish not only the reports of the committee but also to impinge on the characters of those behind the investigation and the legislative body as an institution. The goal was to remove wind from the sails of the House over sight function geared towards good governance and anti-corruption. When the manipulations/half truths of the principal actors in this seamless corruption saga did not yield any result with a possible damning verdict on powerful individuals, the guilty parties quickly got a news magazine to raise an allegation of N100million bribe against the Elumelu Committee. Of course this had the effects of stalling the presentation of the committee reports to the House in plenary for consideration as well as casting aspersion on the report and the House. The matter was referred to the House Ethics and Privileges Committee for investigation and the committee found that allegation to be baseless and false but the allegation had served its purpose.
The traducers of power probe now decided to take the battle of sweeping the revelations of the investigations under the carpet to the leadership of the House through the allegation of corruption in the purchase of Peugeot 407 cars for House’s Committee oversight function. The distractive antics that this allegation brought to the House further delayed the presentation of Elumelu’s report. All the while, those who soiled their fingers in the power reform that deformed the sector allegedly vowed to mobilize funds to ensure that the consideration of the report is rail roaded to funeral dirges of the report and its subsequent burial.
And from what we saw on Live NTA coverage of the consideration of the report, with some members going as far as arguing that there was no report to even consider in spite of the report having been procedurally tabled and circulated among members, it becomes clear that vested interests indicted by Elumelu’s committee has gone into overdrive to ensure that Elumelu’s “baby and bathwater” is thrown out. Indeed, some perceptive observers described the situation as akin to “burying the report alive”. It took the agitated intervention of Bankole to salvage the report as he called for an executive session where the House decided to set up a seven man Review Committee headed by Hon. Aminu Tambuwal to review the Elumelu Committee report. The committee which submitted its reports about three week ago was reported to have recommended “saving the baby while throwing away
the bath water” of Elumelu’s report in an attempt save the report and the image of the House.
But even this was not to the linking of those who contributed by omission and commission to our parlous power situation. The week the Tambuwal report was to be considered allegations surfaced against Elumelu in relation to the contract awards for solar power projects in the 2008 Budget. Without doubt, the allegations by EFCC may just be the machination of a cabal in the power sector out to get Elumelu at all cost as the only thing one can deduced from available information is breach of Due Process Regulations in the awards of contracts. The case of corruption has not been established as funds for the project, now frozen by EFCC are still intact, with some of the projects completed in record time with only 15% mobilization.
What can one deduce from the present travail of Elumelu? From all the above the Elumelu affairs from the investigation marks a defining moment for good governance. While some forces thrown up by the activism of Bankole – led House of Representatives are bent on good governance and changing the way we do things through its oversight function, a reactionary clique bent on holding the nation hostage to perpetual mis-governance, throwing the nation into physical and literal darkness are fighting a rearguard action. The reactionary forces are ready to blackmail persons and institutions championing change.
This is how one sees the travail of Elumelu which is intended to rub off and constrain the Legislature from championing change. The negative effect of this is that it would dampen the enthusiasm of people like Elumelu and institution to embark on the challenging task of addressing problems of our nation inflicted by a microcosm of few selfish elites.
Kelechukwu Ibeneme, 30, Adetokunbo Ademola crescent, Wuse 2 Abuja.
Every Nigerian wants to change Nigeria, but no Nigerian wants to change. It is a shame that we have never had credible leadership in our country since independence. Our leadership has no human face, but full of ego and power to justify corrupt practices. In any case, it is obvious why it is difficult to minimize corruption. The problem is our government and its leadership at all levels. The power problem is the same as health, legal and judiciary, banking, police, just name it. How these problems will play out, only time, the healer of ills will tell.
This seems to be 50-50. I would not entirely say it was a case of witch hunt for these members because they stepped on power toes in the cause of this power probe. To me, they shd have realised the sensitivity of the issue at hand, and therefore extreme caution should have been taken in order not to fall into baits set for them. However, everyone is innocent until found guilty, whoever accused must prove and let the law takes its course, thats it.