…As Mbah pushes for lower tariffs, speedy delivery

In a major boost to the state’s drive to expand electricity supply, attract clean-energy investments and provide more reliable power for homes and businesses, Enugu State Government has secured a $200 million investment for a 100mw solar power programme.

The investment, estimated at about N300 billion, was disclosed during a meeting between Governor Peter Mbah and a delegation from Eauxwell Nigeria Limited led by the Managing Director, Mr. Edwin Enwegbara, at Government House, Enugu.

The investment engagement, brokered through the state’s Climate and Development Investment Platform (CDIP) coordinated by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Climate and Sustainable Development, Prof. Chukwumerije Okereke, is the first major investment breakthrough facilitated by the platform established by the Mbah Administration to connect investors with government institutions, regulatory agencies and communities.

The Governor, while welcoming the investment, stressed that the state government’s interest went beyond attracting capital.

He insisted that the ultimate objective was to deliver reliable and affordable electricity to residents and businesses in the state at affordable cost.

“We want an electricity market that encourages competition and gives consumers the benefit of competitive pricing,” he said.

Governor Mbah said the tariff assumptions and financial model presented by the investors needed to be reviewed, emphasising the need to balance legitimate cost recovery by investors with electricity prices that households and businesses can afford.

“Cost recovery is important, but we must also ensure that the tariff is affordable to our people and businesses,” Mbah said.

He also called for a shorter implementation timeframe, pledging the state government’s support in removing bureaucratic and institutional bottlenecks that could delay delivery.

Speaking, Mr. Enwegbara acknowledged the need to strike that balance and said the final tariff would be determined in collaboration with the relevant electricity regulators.

He said that the proposed 100MW programme would deploy distributed solar generation, supported by battery storage, providing more dependable electricity for communities and businesses while also supporting productive activities, including agricultural processing, small businesses and other enterprises whose operations depend on reliable power.

Governor Mbah’s intervention comes against the backdrop of Enugu’s ongoing electricity-sector reforms and the state’s assumption of regulatory oversight of its intrastate electricity market.

The administration seeks to create a competitive electricity market capable of attracting further private investment.

Olufemi Akinyelure, Head of the Nigeria Electrification Programme at the Rural Electrification Agency, who joined the meeting virtually, explained the structure, objectives and implementation processes of the DARES programme.

The meeting had in attendance the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, who also chairs the CDIP Steering Committee; the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Osinachi Nnajieze; the Commissioners for Environment and Climate Change, Prof. Sam Ugwu; Trade and Investment, Dr. Sam Ogbu-Nwobodo; and Lands, Barr. Chimaobi Okorie; as well as the Special Advisers to the Governor on Project Delivery and Power, Ozurumba Afigbo and Joe Aneke, respectively, and the Chairman of the Enugu State Electricity Regulatory Commission (EERC), Mr. Chijioke Okonkwo.

Also on the Eauxwell team were the Director of Business Development, Mr. Kingsley Okenyi; the Head of Project Management, Mr. Lazarus Agu; and Project Engineer, Victoria John.

The meeting also addressed the separate Aninri electrification project.

Following the discussion, Mbah requested an urgent meeting with the President-General of the community and its traditional ruler to resolve the land-related issues and facilitate commencement of the project.

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

There is something deeply troubling about the latest public outburst by Asari Dokubo.

It has little to do with the legitimate demand that public contracts face scrutiny. Men like Tompolo are not beyond criticism, nor should they be. The real concern lies in the peculiar logic with which Dokubo has chosen to defend one figure while attacking others.

In a video now circulating widely, Dokubo alleges that the Olu of Warri and Dr Osahon Okunbo collect ₦2.7 trillion annually for pipeline surveillance. He then introduces ethnicity into the argument, suggesting that the two escape scrutiny because they are “Benin” and “Itsekiri”, while Tompolo is being singled out.

The question that follows is simple: where is the evidence?

Dokubo has produced no contract, no payment record and no documentary proof of any kind to substantiate this extraordinary claim. The Olu of Warri’s representative has publicly challenged him to produce the evidence.

A figure of ₦2.7 trillion is not a sum one casually introduces into national discourse and expects responsible citizens to accept on the strength of a speaker’s word alone.

If Dokubo has the documents, let him publish them. If he has the contract, let him display it. If he has evidence of payment, let him present it.

That is how serious allegations are made.

In the absence of such proof, what remains is an allegation dressed up as fact.

There is a more troubling dimension to the argument.

Dokubo appears to suggest that because pipeline surveillance occurs in the Niger Delta, contracts associated with it are somehow the proprietary entitlement of Niger Delta actors. That proposition should concern every Nigerian.

The Niger Delta belongs to Nigeria. Its oil belongs to Nigeria. The pipelines are national infrastructure. Contracts for protecting them are matters of public procurement, public accountability and national security.

They are not tribal dividends.

If a company from Rivers State is competent, let it compete. If a company from Delta State is competent, let it compete. If a firm from Edo, Abia, Lagos, Kano or Kaduna possesses the expertise, resources and capacity and wins a properly awarded contract, that should be welcomed as evidence that Nigeria remains a country rather than a collection of ethnic fiefdoms.

The idea that a contract is somehow “Niger Delta money” until someone from elsewhere secures it, at which point it becomes private enrichment, is a dangerous distortion of federalism.

It is precisely the kind of thinking that has kept Nigeria trapped in the politics of ethnic entitlement.

Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of the intervention is the attempt to drag the Olu of Warri into a commercial argument in which the monarch has not been shown to be the contractor alleged.

The Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse III, is married to Olori Atuwatse III, daughter of the late Captain Hosa Okunbo. Osahon Okunbo is Captain Hosa’s son. The family connection is a matter of public record.

But marriage does not turn a traditional ruler into a commercial contractor.

Being someone’s son does not make a businessman guilty of whatever detractors choose to allege against him.

That distinction is elementary.

Osahon Okunbo currently serves as Executive Director of Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited. Publicly available information indicates that PINL has been involved in pipeline infrastructure and surveillance activities, including the deployment of camps, vessels, drones and other assets along pipeline corridors.

That work should be scrutinised, as should every naira of public money and the performance of every contractor. But scrutiny is not the same as slander. An allegation is not evidence.

There is another question Dokubo should answer: If the real concern is the cost and effectiveness of pipeline surveillance, why does the argument repeatedly return to the ethnic identity of those involved?

Why does “Benin” matter?

Why does “Itsekiri” matter?

Why does “Ijaw” matter?

The only questions that should matter to the Nigerian taxpayer are straightforward: who received the contract, under what terms, for what amount, to perform what work, and what did the country receive in return?

That is the conversation worth having.

If a contract is inflated, expose it.

If a contractor has failed, expose the failure.

If public funds have been misused, let the appropriate agencies investigate and prosecute.

If procurement rules have been breached, pursue the evidence. But if all that exists is a video, an allegation and a theory about ethnicity, then one has not established corruption. One has established noise.

There is also something deeply distasteful about dragging a dead man into this quarrel.

Captain Hosa Okunbo died in August 2021. He cannot answer for himself, produce a document or challenge an allegation. That places an additional responsibility on those who invoke his name.

Captain Hosa was a businessman whose interests spanned maritime, transportation, logistics, agriculture, hospitality and security. At his death, tributes from across Nigeria recognised both his commercial achievements and his philanthropy.

His son has chosen to continue in business. His daughter is married to the Olu of Warri.

Neither fact constitutes evidence of wrongdoing. Neither fact grants anyone the right to convert family relationships into an ethnic conspiracy.

There is, finally, a curious irony in Dokubo’s intervention.

A man presenting himself as an advocate of the Niger Delta should be particularly careful about reducing the region’s legitimate grievances to a crude contest over who gets what contract.

The Niger Delta’s historical grievances are real. Environmental degradation is real. The failures of successive governments are real. The region’s demand for justice, development and a greater stake in the management of its resources is legitimate.

But those grievances are diminished, not strengthened, when they are converted into a doctrine that says public opportunity belongs first to one ethnic constituency and everyone else is an interloper.

That is not justice.

It is simply another form of entitlement.

Dokubo is entitled to question government contracts. He is entitled to criticise Tompolo’s critics. He is entitled to demand greater participation by Niger Delta businesses. He is even entitled to argue that pipeline surveillance should be organised differently.

What he is not entitled to do is manufacture certainty where there is no evidence and then dress the allegation in ethnic colours.

That is not agitation.

That is recklessness.

Nigeria has suffered enough from those who mistake volume for evidence, anger for courage and ethnic mobilisation for patriotism.

If Asari Dokubo possesses evidence that the Olu of Warri or Osahon Okunbo received ₦2.7 trillion annually for pipeline surveillance, he should produce it.

*Watch the Asari Dokubo video posted on Facebook via the link below:*

_*https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FJbNd2Gf2/?mibextid=wwXIfr_*

Let the documents speak.

Let the contracts speak.

Let the auditors speak.

Let the law speak.

But if he cannot produce the evidence, the responsible course is to withdraw the allegation.

In a country already strained by suspicion, insecurity and ethnic distrust, there are some accusations a responsible man should not make without proof.

This is one of them.

■ Sufuyan Ojeifo, is a journalist and publisher.

Just two days after the Nigerian Air Force lost 25 personnel in the tragic Ondo aircraft crash, another NAF helicopter on Wednesday made an emergency landing on a farmland in Makurdi, Benue State.

The incident occurred at Utur Tse-Igboji, Bar Council Ward, along the Welfare Quarters–Mopol 13 Ring Road.

According to eyewitness Stephen Ikpam, the helicopter reportedly developed a technical fault, forcing the crew to make an emergency landing.

Residents rushed to the scene to assist the officers on board.

All those on board reportedly survived and came out safely.