Barth Nnaji: The Modern-Day Energy Reforms Champion

By Benjamin UDODIGBO

Barth Nnaji

When in June 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan announced his choice of Prof Barth Nnaji as the Special Adviser on Power, applause trailed the appointment because it was one of those rare round-peg-in-a-round-hole moments in Nigerian public administration. Across a broad spectrum of Nigerians, it was generally agreed that Prof Barth Nnaji’s acceptance to serve was indeed a demonstration of the kind of love for country that only true patriots possessed. He promptly reported for duty, rolled his sleeves and got busy with the mandate he was given.

 

For the records, his appointment came on the heels of a rock-solid suitability and qualification for the office, having served as Nigeria’s Minister for Science and Technology in the past. Bartholomew Nnaji, the Nkanu, Enugu State native, is a distinguished professor of mechanical engineering at the Universities of Massachusetts and Pittsburgh in the United States of America. There is no gainsaying that he is a renowned global expert in robotics engineering. With degrees in physics, industrial engineering and operations research, and honours as varied as United States’ Secretary of State’s Distinguished Public Service award 1995, Fellowships of Institute of Industrial Engineers and Nigerian Academy of Sciences, he is as much sought-after in the United States of America as he is in Nigeria, his home country.

In demonstration of his belief in and unalloyed faith in the Nigerian project, he envisioned, initiated and founded Geometric Power Limited to complement the power generation needs of dear fatherland. This indeed is a practical attestation to his oft-stated policy of ‘walking the talk’ as opposed to luxuriating in the ambient comfort of easier climes thousands of kilometres away while throwing jibes at the government of the day.

The job of advising the President on power is indeed one of the most challenging in the country, not only because it interfaces directly with the aspirations of every Nigerian to have regular electricity supply in order to stimulate our industrial transformation, but also because it contends with one of the most potent bastions of corruption in the country. It was this same bulwark of corruption that stood in the way and made nonsense of the clearly-stated mission of our very own Bola Ige to deliver steady electricity to Nigerians within six months of assuming office as Minister of Power and Steel in 1999.

In Prof Nnaji’s own words, “The President said that we should go and drive the Power Reform Act, to see electricity Power Reform Act 2005 implemented and in doing that, we are to work with various agencies of government responsible for that.” He was also charged along with other members of the task force to fast-track power improvement in the short term, and fully address power delivery in the long term. His team and himself have already dug in and are carrying out the President’s mandate, but a motley crowd of malcontents including agents of the old order, generator and candle importers, diesel marketers, ‘general contractors’, and indolent staff of PHCN have vowed to ensure they do not succeed because of a rabid fear of becoming redundant. What this tribe of traducers fail to grasp, however, is that with the quantity of resources at their disposal, they could afford to invest in power generation, distribution or even marketing. And having keyed into the national aspirations of the country, they become patriots.

The good professor was accused of not being fit for the office, being an operator of an independent power plant (IPP). Perhaps upon realising that his participation as a stakeholder in the industry prepared him adequately with the requisite information and skills needed to drive the reform agenda (after all when you need a surgery to be done, you seek a surgeon and not a physician), they have suddenly changed their swansong to the fact that his Geometric Power Limited is yet to take off. The question is, how patriotic can a man be to please Nigerians? The man decides not to allow for a clash of interests since his job at the moment involves monitoring and regulations, and the detractors are already in town!

Discerning Nigerians, however, are not lost on the true mission of the critics. President Goodluck Jonathan has taken his time since inauguration to studiously seek and assemble a crack team of able and capable Nigerians to drive the goals of his administration. The campaigners only desire to hurt the prospects of this brilliant reformer in place of another business-as-usual fellow so that PHCN will remain the market place it has always been.

At this very crucial time in our national development, President Goodluck Jonathan must be encouraged by well-meaning Nigerians not to give in to any attempts, overt or covert, to intimidate and derail his desire to completely reform the economy starting with the power sector, a task which he has already started but needs to actively pursue now in the spirit of continuity and consistency. In this connection, Prof Barth Nnaji is most suited to drive the power sector ambitions of the new administration. This is one appointment for which Nigerians in due time will remain very grateful to Mr President.