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By Josiah Agoro.

We are aware of a trending video in which distinguished Senator Ned Nwoko, representing Delta North Senatorial zone in the National Assembly, during a courtesy visit to the Ndokwa Neku President General, cast several aspersions ranging from alleged financial impropriety and alleged refusal of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to provide a whopping sum of N35 billion to reactivate the Okpai Power Plant, as a result of his decision to service outstanding loans inherited from his predecessor, to the selfish, lopsided nature of development in favour of Delta Central.

While we do not wish to join issues with the Distinguished Senator, especially since he is a member of our Party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, we however would like to make some clarifications on the state of the Okpai Power Plant for the information of Deltans and the general public.

1. The Okpai Independent Power Plant is the first of its kind built by an oil company in Nigeria. It consists of an integrated cycle electric generation plant with 480 MW of installed capacity, which uses associated gas that was previously flared.

2. The Power Plant, with various phases and units, is owned 60 percent by the NNPC Limited with ConocoPhillips and EniPower each holding 20 percent equity at the start. From the project plan, the Phase 1 of the Okpai Power Plant commissioned in 2005, by President Olusegun Obasanjo, was structured in such a way that the power generated would be sold to the PHCN under a 20- year purchase agreement, while 50 megawatts of its output should be reserved for communities within 50 kilometres radius of the installation.

3. Also, by the design and business plan, the power generated is transported directly to the National Grid through the side of the River Niger to serve the FCT and about eight other States in the country, without a step down in Delta State in which it is hosted.

4. At the time of the plant’s commissioning in 2005, it generated only 480 megawatts of electricity, but was later upgraded to provide a functional 930 megawatts of electricity with another order and understanding to increase the power supply to host communities from 50 megawatts to 100 megawatts. This extension would include host community beneficiaries from the entire Delta North Senatorial District of Delta State.”

5. A widely published report about the plant indicated that it is not being utilized in full capacity because the owners have “been unable to sign any power purchase agreement (PPA) with Nigerian Electricity Bulk Trader (NBET), which would have been able to encourage the evacuation of the power through the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to distribution companies.”

6. Going forward, Hon. Nnamdi Ezechi, current member representing Ndokwa/Ukwani Federal Constituency, briefed the House of Representatives in a motion titled: A MOTION ON THE NEED TO INVESTIGATE THE ABANDONED OKPAI INDEPENDENT POWER PLANT PHASE 2 PROJECT IN OKPAI-OLUCHI, DELTA STATE, that while the expansion of the project was commenced in 2017 and has attained almost 90 percent completion, it seems to have been abandoned by the contractors, Saipem Contracting Nigeria Limited and Agip Oil Company, resulting in the dilapidation of the infrastructure.

7. The House was also told that there is ambiguity surrounding the project’s contract amount, casting doubt on accountability and transparency in its execution and this, coupled with the reluctance of the operators of the plant to push aggressively for the PPA due to the instability and fluctuation associated with the National grid, as well as the suspicion that distribution companies are rejecting power, led the House to initiate an investigation, early in 2024, the report of which has not been publicly declared.

8. It would be recalled also that Senator Ned Nwoko himself, in March this year, sponsored a motion titled: “Need to address the unexplained delay in Electricity Step-Down of Okpai Independent Power Plant” and the Senate, after its mandatory consideration and adoption of the motion, subsequently mandated its Committee on Power to investigate and equally take action to resolve the delay in the distribution of 100 megawatts of electricity to communities in Delta North Senatorial District.

9. Nwoko, in his motion, had submitted after the introductory premise and passages, that: “To enhance its electricity supply, the Transmission Company of Nigeria awarded a contract worth approximately N4.2bn in 2021 for the construction of a 132KV Double Circuit Transmission Line. However, to date, there have been unexplained delays in executing the contract project.”

10. Senator Nwoko further stated that despite the Presidential pronouncement in 2005 and the upgrade of the Okpai Plant to 930 megawatts, the people of Ndokwa nation and the entire Delta North Senatorial District continue to lag seriously behind in the supply of electricity. “This is the case even though the Okpai Plant hosts several oil companies in its vicinity, including Nigeria Agip Oil Company, Sterling Exploration and Energy Production Company, Energia Limited, Midwestern Oil and Gas Limited, Pillar Oil Limited, Chorus Energy Limited, and more,” he posited.

11. The Red Chamber, acting on Senator Nwoko’s submissions, equally urged the Federal Ministry of Power and Transmission Company of Nigeria to step down the electricity generated as agreed by the Okpai Independent Power Plant to ensure it benefits the communities in Delta North.

12. This action by the upper chamber of the National Assembly was a follow up on the resolution of The House of Representatives to investigate the abandonment of the $38.7 million NNPC – NAOC Joint Venture Okpai Independence Power Plant project Phase II, which mandated its Committee on Power to investigate the abandonment of the project by Saipem Contracting Nigeria Limited (SCNL) and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), the two contractors handling it.

13. It is also a fact that, neither the NNPCL, the Federal Government, the Minister of Power, the multinational equity partners nor even the National Assembly have made any concrete and categorical statements on the way forward, in the Okpai Power plant matter.

14. Of course, It was also widely reported that Senator Nwoko, aside from visiting the Okpai Power Plant project site to see things for himself, equally visited the Minister of Power and the Managing Director of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to seek their intervention in the prompt delivery of the project, which has the potential of supplying light to the whole of Delta North. It, therefore, appears from demands made by the Senator in the video, that he didn’t get a favourable response from the officers of the Federal establishments.

16. This may arguably translate into the reason why he has subtly but dangerously attempted to blackmail and bait Governor Sheriff Oborevwori into doling out the humongous sum of N35 billion to reactivate the power plant.

17. Let us equally add here that Senator Ned Nwoko has also visited the Ogwashi-Uku Dam project, which started about 18 years ago to find out how best to remove the bottleneck and ensure its prompt delivery; a matter he promised to revisit in the viral video.

18. This present situation of confusion, uncertainty and ambiguity which surrounds the Okpai Power Plant, is the scenario under which Senator Ned Nwoko is demanding that Governor Sheriff Oborevwori should provide N35 billion for the contractors and he has even taken the robe of a businessman by suggesting and offering to provide contractors who are already waiting in the wings to take up this matter and who will subsequently recover their money through billings once the power plant becomes fully functional.

19. We have refrained from joining issues with Senator Ned Nwoko for the singular reason that he is a top member of the Peoples Democratic Party and since his representation of the good people of Delta North Senatorial zone in the Senate, is sponsored by the PDP, many see his aggressive, “fearless” comments against the leadership of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, as a deliberate and calculated salvo to create the erroneous impression that there is a possible breaking of ranks and subterranean conflict of interest within Delta State PDP. But nothing could be farther from the truth.

20. To set the records straight, Senator Ned Nwoko participated fully in the State PDP Congress, which ushered in a new team of Party Executives and though he has been noticeable ‘missing in action ” in some other party activities which have taken place in both Delta North and Aniocha North, his immediate Constituencies, many have attributed this absenteeism to his very busy schedule, including the unrelenting crusade for the realization of Anioma State and also his commendable medical advocacy for the eradication of Malaria, both of which are very laudable projects.

21. The fact that he even admitted to the Ndokwa Neku leader, that he was mandated to move the motion for a vote of confidence on Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s performance and administration, at the referenced expanded caucus meeting of the State PDP, in Government House, Asaba, (which he eventually did anyway, after ‘speaking his mind’ to the gathering, according to him), further speaks volumes for his central role and recognition in the PDP Family.

22. There is nothing wrong with suggesting a pragmatic, holistic approach, rather than this typical Nigerian syndrome of throwing money at every real and perceived problem, towards addressing and resolving the Okpai Power Plant debacle. For the avoidance of doubt, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori has exhibited an admirable penchant for embracing, with astute advisement, every progress idea to enhance Delta State in the actualization of the M.O.R.E Agenda.

23. That is why the N35 billion lobby pitched to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori by Senator Nwoko, looks provocative and inciting as it sounds, will be addressed and appraised critically going forward, even despite the irreverent comparisons about FAAC allocation to the State, with what other States receive and even the invoking of such unguarded ethnic tantrums about how Governor Sheriff Oborevwori has developed Delta Central more than the Delta North, even when he knows that this is a deliberate obfuscation and being economical with the truth.

24. One can easily understand the possessive passion which often drives the Senator towards achieving whatever he sets his mind to, but what Senator Ned Nwoko has undoubtedly done in that video, is to attempt to muck-rake the kind of frontal, divisive, verbal attack, deploying so early in the day, the underhand gambit to tarnish the immediate past Delta Governor for obvious political reasons, cast aspersions on the alleged financial handicap of the present Governor occasioned by debt-servicing of loans inherited from his predecessor and invoke the age long, well worn, but still provocatively inciting ethnic sentiment, on a Governor from his own party, in his own State, who has not even spent up to two years in office.

25. We need not resort to a chronicling of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s numerous delivered and ongoing projects in Delta North, which have all been widely reported in the public, just to disprove the obvious mischievous and misleading marginalization narrative that Senator Nwoko has opted to invoke, for the sheer purpose of presenting his lobby favourably in the eyes and ears of those who will be the direct beneficiaries of a fully functional Okpai Power Plant.

26. As for those putting forward the argument that there’s nothing wrong in State governments embarking on federal projects, they need to be reminded that there’s an existing caveat from the Federal which deals with refund of payments to States who undertake such projects.

27. It would be recalled that former Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, had on several occasions, widely reported in national media and the public domain, directed that due to reports that State governments inflate the cost of repair works carried out on federal roads, and by extension, other federal projects), States should desist from such interventions as the Federal Government would not offset such expenses.

28. According to him: “For anybody who wants to intervene on federal roads, you must first ask for permission and if you don’t do so, you have broken the law and you cannot break the law to please people. We understand that your citizens need the road but you cannot do evil to please them. So, I am using this opportunity to repeat that no State government should intervene on federal roads until we have finished payment of the debts we inherited,” the minister had said.

29. His then counterpart, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had equally confirmed a Federal Executive Council directive in 2020 that: “Henceforth, if any State takes on federal government roads, it will not be paid. They will not get any refund. Even if you want to pay from your own pocket, you will still need the permission of the federal government and it will be supervised by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.

30. And to further emphasize on this policy, then President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, publicly rebuffed then Governor Nyesom Wike when he rejected a request made by Rivers State for a refund for the construction of some federal roads in the State.

31. Tinubu, who spoke while inaugurating the Rumuokwuta-Rumuola Flyover in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State told Wike openly that: “The 12th flyover and the demand you made for refund, I owe you nothing. It is your road. You can’t chuckle at me and make a demand. You are the one living on this road. I commend your effort. You have to lobby me to collect it.”

32. Those who are conversant with the actions and pronouncements of a leader who, with one dramatic statement, removed fuel subsidy and plunged Nigerians and Nigeria into an agony of suffering and hardship, will tell you that it would be foolhardy to advise any State governor to embark on the completion of a Federal project, whether it is roads, power plant or dam for that matter, without first lobbying Mr. President and getting firm assurances of reimbursement before undertaking such an intervention.

33. So we are left to ask the pertinent question, did or has Senator Ned Nwoko lobbied President Tinubu to get approval for intervention and assurances that whatever monies spent on the project would be reinbursed? Or is he just playing to the gallery with this outlandish and exaggerated suggestion?

34. Even if the State government were to guarantee the financial facility for the contractors, who will then supposedly recover their monies through billings once the project is functional, the legal and bureaucratic bottlenecks, which Nigerians know, are usually involved in extricating a project of this nature and magnitude from the Federal Government and joint venture partners, are sufficient to seek cast iron assurances rather than embarking headlong into it.

35. The fact, however, remains that things must be done properly in accordance with contractual specifications, defined responsibilities, rules of engagement and the recognized status of partnering authorities in the original MoU, no matter how attractive and altruistic an alternative suggestion may appear. If this is what Senator Ned Nwoko is indirectly suggesting via his bizzare and totally unnecessary outburst and aspersions in the viral video, then it will be worth exploring.

36. There is certainly no doubt whatsoever, that Governor Sheriff Oborevwori is working very hard to deliver the MORE Agenda to Deltans and will not be blackmailed into commiting humongous funds for a project mired in ambiguity and uncertainty.

Governor Sheriff Oborevwori is working and Deltans are seeing it.

 

■ Josiah Agoro is a public affairs commentator and analyst.

[20/09/2024]