Abacha Loot: Redistributing Illegally Acquired Funds

By Kunle Uthman

On December 4, 2017 in Washington D.C, United States of America, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Ambassador Roberto Balzaretti, Secretary of State and Director of the Directorate of International Law and Rachid Benmessaoud, Country Director for Nigeria, the International Development Association, IDA,  signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MOU.

*Gen Sani Abacha

It was between the Nigerian Government, the Swiss Federal Council and the IDA  “On the Return, Monitoring and Management of Illegally-Acquired Assets Confiscated By Switzerland To Be Restituted To The Federal Republic Of Nigeria.”

APC Crisis: Oshiomhole Is Becoming A Problem, Not The Solution

By SKC Ogbonnia

The most compelling attribute of Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, the new chairman of our great party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), remains the doggedness in which he organized protests during the democratic regime of then president, Olusegun Obasanjo. But events thus far are revealing the hard truth: trade union activism is far from party leadership. This point is that, Oshiomhole, who was brought in to stave off crisis and lead the party to victory in 2019, is already becoming a problem, not the solution. 

*President Buhari and Adams Oshiomole

Recall that the first turmoil that greeted Oshiomhole’s chairmanship was the splinter group, the Reformed APC (R-APC). Instead of exploring meaningful avenues for peace at the time, the new party chairman heightened the crisis by attacking the group’s credibility. To Oshiomhole, the R-APC was inconsequential, boasting that the party would win in 2019 regardless. He went further to dismiss the group merely as a “counter force” against “President Muhammadu Buhari’s resolve to fight corruption.” 

Terrorist Herders: Open Letter To Gov Godwin Obaseki

By Sylvester Odion Akhaine

Your Excellency,

I chose this medium of an open letter to reach out to you because of the existential danger presently confronting the peoples of Edo State. It is no longer news that Nigeria has become an open killing field stalked by so-called Fulani ‘herdsmen’, a roving band of terrorists acknowledged by the Global Terrorism Index as the fourth most dangerous terrorist organisation in the world.

*Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State

The crux of the matter is that while every community in Nigeria is alive to this danger posed by this band of terrorists and have openly rejected penetration projects variously referred to as ‘cattle colonies’ and ‘ranches’ advanced by their sponsors who currently control the levers of power at the centre, the governing elite in Edo state has maintained felonious silence over their forceful occupation of Edoland and murderous activities within. It is possible that the silence is induced by honest ignorance of the dynamics of the activities of these terrorists on your part and therefore requires some enlightenment by a recourse to some aspects of our history. 

Between Jonathan, Buhari’s Cabinets, Facts Speak For Themselves!

By Reno Omokri

In a tweet he tweeted on January 9, 2012, the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, tagged Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala a “zero”. Not too long after, a nasty little child who was promoted by the same El-Rufai, tweeted that Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was ‘overrated’.

*Jonathan and Buhari 

The two characters aforementioned also spouted some of the vilest things about former President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, with the nasty little El-Rufai social media sidekick comparing then President Jonathan to a “dead pig” and referring to his wife as a “natural disaster”.

To say El-rufai threw decorum to the wind would be the understatement of the year. He insulted former President Jonathan while he was praying, calling him “stupid” and “lazy” as he prayed to his God. El-Rufai’s ill-brought up children also joined the fray and used some of the most uncouth language on the then President. And then it became the turn of LaiMohammed and his principals, Muhammadu Buhari and pastor Yemi Osinbajo.

It seemed they were in a competition to outdo themselves in a bid to cast aspersions on the person of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and his government. Clueless, useless, inept and incompetent were some of the choice words they used to describe either the then President or his administration. While campaigning in February 2014, then candidate Muhammadu Buhari said he ‘would not continue with the programmes and policies of President Jonathan’s administration, because to continue with the ideas of a government that does not have a clue signals danger’.

His deputy, Osinbajo accused the Jonathan administration of lacking ‘commitment’ and promised that their administration would do better. Not to be undone, Lai Mohammed called Dr. Jonathan ‘clueless’, “callous”, “insensitive” and “punch drunk”! All three of them promised to give Nigeria a better government and reverse the “rot” of the Jonathan years. Yet in three years of being in office, the Buhari administration has been unable to initiate, start and complete any project in three years. Where they met an economy that was growing at an unprecedented rate of 6.7%, they negatively turned the table and in six months, an economy that was officially cited as the third fastest growing economy in the world in 2015 and the largest economy in Africa, officially went into corruption!

Whereas, Nigeria gained 3 million new jobs in the last three years of Jonathan, we have lost 11 million jobs in the same period of review under Muhammadu Buhari. Do not look at me. Those figures came from the National Bureau of Statistics which is owned and controlled by the government Buhari heads! President Buhari, a man who claimed that then President Jonathan was weak on security has been faced with an ever increasing level of herdsmen killings.

There is a lot of press coverage over the fact that there has been 1,692 civilian deaths in Afghanistan in the first six months of 2018, which is the highest number in the war on terror to date. The sad fact is that this number is not up to the number of Nigerians who died in the first 10 weeks of 2018. Yet Nigeria is supposedly at peace while Afghanistan is at war!

Faced with these facts, you would expect the clueful Buhari to come up with strategies to stem the killings, instead, he had this to say: “There is nothing I can do to help the situation except to pray to God to help us out of the security challenges” (I am not making this up, Buhari actually said that). When bandits killed 34 people in Sokoto two week’s ago, the same President Buhari said Nigerians should be patient because ‘my security teams are cracking their brains’!

To think that this is the man who called Jonathan and his government clueless is so annoying! And to show you how jobless President Muhammadu Buhari is, he could not visit Sokoto State, where 32 Nigerians were killed by bandits, but he traveled to the Netherlands to attend the 20th anniversary of the International Criminal Court.

NO OTHER Head of State attended the anniversary other than Buhari! The man places no priority on his citizens’ life. How can he expect the world to value him when the world knows he does not value his own people? And the truth is that as long as Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressive Congress are in power, Nigeria is not going to make any real progress. I mean look at the people who make up the Buhari cabinet!

Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s minister for finance got her PhD in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On Thursday July 19, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter appointed Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to the board of Twitter. She also seats on the boards of Lazard, Gavi and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. President Buhari’s minister of finance on the contrary went to a London Polytechnic, seats atop a recessed economy and is accused of forgery. Now tell me who is CLUELESS between Jonathan and Buhari?

It is commonly said, show me your friends and I will tell you who you are. A good leader knows that he or she is a product of his or her environment so they surround themselves with the best people. This is a principle that Jonathan lived by. Can the same be said about President Buhari? A leader should surround himself with those who are on the same mission as himself. Looking at President Buhari and the people he has surrounded himself with, I am tempted to believe that the mission the President has chosen for himself is a mission to fail!

Ex President Jonathan’s former health minister is now a Professor at America’s Duke University. His former agriculture minister is now the President of the African Development Bank. His former finance minister sits on the board of Twitter, Gavi, Lazard and the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank. His communications minister is now the Chairperson of the global Alliance for Affordable Internet. All this is happening while President Buhari and his finance minister are still looking for their certificates!

Buhari’s Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Mounir Gwarzo, was fingered for high level fraud and was so incompetent that Nigeria’s equity markets kept shrinking under him. Compare this with Arunma Oteh, who tripled the net worth of our capital market to $150 billion and was so good at her job that she was appointed a vice president and treasurer at the World Bank. Now take all these in and again ask yourself who is truly clueless between Jonathan and Buhari? Back to Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, my response to him on his ‘zero’ tweet is as follows-Thank God Twitter, GAVI, Lazard and the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank do not think that Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a zero.

But the curious thing is that El-Rufai, who thinks that he is a hero, has not accomplished anything worthwhile as Governor of Kaduna state. He had saddled his state with debt, pays herdsmen by his own admission, while internal strife kills his own citizens. After six years, we now know who the real zero is. ‪As for Lai Mohammed, the man who told Nigerians that President Buhari’s achievements have ‘exceeded his promises to Nigerians’, Nigerians laughed when he launched ‘A National Campaign Against Fake News’.

This is like satan opening a church. Lai Mohammed and fake news are 5 and 6. They are Siamese twins! Lai should buy a mirror and arrest the person he sees there and by so doing he will reduce fake news in Nigeria by half! The truth is that when you compare and contrast Jonathan’s cabinet with Buhari’s cabinet, the facts speak for themselves?

-------------------

RELATED POST

Lai Mohammed: An Unmanageable Mistake!

Why Restructuring Is A Win-Win For All Nigerians

By Written by Ifeanyi Izeze

When the former Vice President and presidential hopeful on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, recently addressed the London’s Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), on the importance of strengthening the economic management system of the federating states in Nigeria, the major takeaway was that we have lived on a dangerous structural fault line for too long and pretended all was well.

Southern Nigerian Leaders: Advocates for Restructuring 

Though the former vice president used the auspicious opportunity of his speech at the Chatham House to harp on some of his economic programmes and policies as a presidential candidate, the emphasis was heavily on the ills of our defective federal system of government.

Bola Tinubu’s Breathtaking Hypocrisy

By Shaka Momodu

When last February President Muhammadu Buhari saddled the former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, with the task of reconciling all aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) across the country, I scoffed at the idea and stated then that it was a futile exercise. The reasons were not far-fetched: Buhari by his actions had no genuine desire at reconciling the party members; with Tinubu as the chief aggrieved member, leading such efforts was a misnomer because he needed to be reconciled with some of the party members. I predicted that by the end of his brief, the party would be more divided than before. 

*Bola Tinubu 

Barely two weeks after Tinubu’s peace committee was inaugurated, crisis rocking the Kaduna State chapter of the APC, took a turn for the worse after a building located in the heart of Kaduna city, belonging to a leader of one of the two factions, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, was demolished by the state government. Tinubu’s committee said nothing publicly about such intolerant behaviour on the part of the state governor. That it happened after Tinubu’s supposed reconciliation committee was set up showed the disregard party members had for it. 

Ndigbo On Nigeria’s Restructuring

By Okechukwu Anarado

Perhaps, excepting the imprints of the unruly events that started happening and later snowballed into the Nigeria’s Civil War in the late 1960’s, the portraiture of Nigeria today as a drifting democracy in black Africa has not been more appropriate and worrisome.

*Nwodo

Though the times and details of the conflicts might vary, the commonalities in the settings derive largely from the wanton destruction of lives and property by felons who first appear faceless, but whose identification soon exposes the troubling ineptitude of the nation’s authorities to either apprehend them or stem the raging tides of waste of lives, property and values which the culprits willfully unleash on their hapless victims.

Trafficking In Human Beings: How Companies Can Make A Difference

By Carlos López-Veraza Pérez

Identifying and prosecuting Trafficking in Human Beings (hereinafter, THB) is often very difficult because of the fear of the victims to testify in a criminal proceeding. Therefore, it is fundamental that there is cooperation among states, at all levels and with a holistic plan of action. However, we usually forget the major role that legal persons can play in combating THB, despite studies showing the importance of companies in this globalized crime. According to a report prepared by the Ashridge Centre for Business and Sustainability at Hult International Business School and the Ethical Trading Initiative, 77 per cent of companies think that there is a credible reason to believe that modern slavery occurs in their supply chains.

We cannot demonstrate the real data of the use of corporations to commit THB but it is clear that THB, by its very nature, it is often committed within company's activities and there are companies that are most at risk, such as industries involving agriculture, migrant workers or seasonal product cycles. Therefore, trafficking is a liability for all companies and that liability could be in many countries not only moral, but also civil, administrative or even criminal. For this reason, companies should be aware of the responsibility that they have in the fight against THB and the serious consequences for them if their employers or their managers are involved in this type of crime. Apart from punishment, they would suffer a huge non-material damage as a result of the process.

Nigeria: Restructuring More Urgent Than 2019 Elections

By Nwokedi Nworisara

Election is a function in the process arising from the structure. It is defined by the structure and serves as a vehicle to achieving the goal. Now when you have a wrong structure,a distorted goal emerges leading to a purposeless election which cannot further democracy no matter how you define it.

*President Buhari 

Before now I had called for restructuring before the 2019 elections to make its outcome meaningful. I called on the National Assembly to initiate bills to ensure true federalism before elections. I called for the states to join themselves along the three original regions in line with the 1963 Constitution.

Dangers Of Food And Water In Plastics

By Kayode Ojewale
Many Nigerians did not understand where the Agriculture Minister Audu Ogbeh was coming from when sometime ago he warned his compatriots against the use of cellophane in their food regime. He was speaking from a scientifically informed position we should align with for the good health of society.

The minister raised an alarm that Nigerians who are eating beans pudding (‘moinmoin’) cooked in cellophane (nylon) bags risk serious health challenge as the product is poisonous. According to him, cellophane bags contain large doses of dioxin that are harmful to health. Let me also add that liquid milk tin is also dangerous for packaging ‘moinmoin’ when cooking as leaching of chemical from the milk tin into the content will still occur. The healthy alternative for packaging or wrapping ‘moinmoin’ when steaming is the use of local green leaves which do not contain poisonous substances. These leaves rather add flavor, antioxidants and aroma to the ‘moinmoin’. 

President Buhari: A ‘Messiah’s Loss Of Appeal

By Godwin Ogla

We are not all endowed with the peculiar gift of clairvoyance like Nostradamus, the famed fourteenth century astrologer -cum- physician, who arguably foretold great happenings and events that would later shape centuries he could only imagine. But when an audacious attempt is made to do a post-mortem of a presidency that is yet to round off its first tenure, then, one begins to wonder whether such a presidency has crossed the Rubicon on policies with disastrous effects from which returning may be impossible or perhaps, difficult. Who would expect something good from an administration whose actions and inactions conjure pictures of hopelessness even in its final days?

*President Buhari 

There is a limit to the propaganda machinery any government in the world can set in motion to inveigle her citizenry into giving it their unalloyed support, if there is great gulf between actual falsehood and reality. It is only a matter of time before the propaganda messages being deployed to influence public opinions, metamorphosed into an uncomfortable jarring sound that must be turned off to prevent the people from losing their sanity. The once fervent converts have now taken a deep dive into the rivers of apostasy because in vain, have they laboured for the religion of change. 

The Nelson Mandela In Us All

By Claus Stäcker
Barack Obama praised Nelson Mandela as the "moral compass" of his political career long ago. Obama spoke about that at length while addressing fans at Johannesburg's cricket stadium during his current trip to Africa. For a five-figure sum enthusiasts could buy a seat at his dinner table to hear more. It remains to be seen just where Mandela's needle will point Obama.
Mandela was no saint.

*Mandela

Still, next to him every well-known personality shrank to size. Mandela exhibited equal respect for musicians and presidents, queens and prison guards. By the time he was released from prison, after 27 years behind bars, he had become a global brand, an idol the world over, a projection overladen with expectations. Suddenly, he stood there upon the world stage and he seized the opportunity. Unlike others, he had a vision and a moral compass, as Obama so rightly recognized.

Lessons From Thailand Cave Rescue

By Tayo Ogunbiyi

On June 23, 12 young footballers aged between 11 and 16 and their 25 year-old coach ventured into the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand after completing a session of football practice and became trapped when heavy rains flooded the cave. The boys and their coach who are all members of a local association football team were reported missing a few hours later and search operations began immediately.

However, attempts to find them were hindered by rising water levels within the cave system and no contact was made with them for about 11 days. The rescue effort expanded into a massive operation amid concerted global public interest.After great efforts that involved delicate maneuvering through narrow cave passages and mucky waters, British divers discovered the missing footballers and their coach to be alive.

Weep Not For Fayose, Weep For Nigeria

By Femi Fani-Kayode

“When Fayose won in 2014, the whole of Ekiti erupted with joy. In 2018 the APC “won” and all the streets of Ekiti are looking so gloomy. The people are sad because their will has been truncated”

— Adeolu Daramola

My friend and brother, Governor Peter Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state, is not infallible. He is not an angel and like every other mortal, he has his own fair share of faults, excesses and shortcomings. We do not agree on everything and neither do we always share the same opinion on matters of state and policy.

*Gov Ayodele Fayose 

I should add this: some of his friends are my sworn enemies and some of my friends are his, yet nothing and no-one can come between us. That is the nature of our covenant and deep bond which has its roots well above politics, which was borne through our shared love of the Living God and the Gospel of Christ and which was established and forged by the blood of Jesus. Our differences in terms of style and approach only brings us closer and serves to make our friendship stronger. And despite his regular displays of strong emotions, what a profoundly good and insightful man he is.

Joe Igbokwe’s Unprovoked Mockery Of The Judiciary

By Ebun-olu Adegboruwa

Some few minutes ago, Mr. Joe Igbokwe posted on his Facebook wall, a comment, to the effect that the Governor of Rivers State, Mr Nyesom Wike, the latter a lawyer and a member of the Body of Benchers, bought his way through the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

I was alarmed at such open declaration, given that I’m part and parcel of the Nigerian judiciary.

Consequently, I urge all lawyers, activists and lovers of the rule of law and due process, to join me to engage Mr. Joe Igbokwe on this rather reckless utterance.

Indeed, it is the height of indignity. By my last reckoning, Mr Joe Igbokwe is still a public servant, in Lagos State, the land of opportunities, being paid thorough our sweat and labour.

How can such a person paint the entire legal system of Nigeria with such conclusion as that one could buy judgment in the Supreme Court?

How To Stop Herdsmen Killings In Nigeria

By Luke Onyekakeyah

President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent statement urging Nigerians to be patient while his security chiefs are racking their brains to tackle the ongoing killings across the country puts the administration at a tight corner. The implication is that government has no strategy yet to deal with a deadly pogrom targeting innocent hapless folks across the country.

The president ought not to have made such statement as that would embolden the killers. How could you tell your enemy who is out to eliminate you that you are still racking brain to know how to tackle him? The statement is self defeatist and totally uncalled for. 

Nigeria: Kemi Adeosun’s Ungolden Silence

By Ray Ekpu

I have admired Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance, from a distance. She speaks English the way the Queen of England speaks even though she seems to add a bit of cockney accent to it. She is good with figures which I am not good at which is one reason I chose the writing craft as my life-long engagement. She shows competence, diligence, substantial eloquence and some level of transparency in her work. So I was thrilled to meet her on May 5, 2016 at the Chinese Restaurant, OPIC Plaza, next door to the Sheraton Hotel in Ikeja. 

*President Buhari and Kemi Adeosun

She was one of the four ministers that came to meet with the media chieftains of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN). They came to explain at a town hall meeting what the Federal Government had been doing – and not doing – since it took over the Aso Villa a year earlier. She displayed a gutsy performance and I thought she was a courageous young lady. I asked her, not entirely jokingly, whether she had a bullet proof vest because of her trenchant and frontal attack on tax evaders and avoiders and her extirpation of thousands of ghosts from the payroll of the Federal Government. Since then my admiration for her has remained high. 

From Buhari To Adeosun: The Ethical Question

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

The resolution of three episodes of corruption between 1999 and 2005 in the federal legislature and the executive arm of government under the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo had initially indicated the seeming gravitas of that administration.  But, to be sure, it was not Obasanjo’s persona or the magnitude of his philosophical swagger that gave fillip to the seriousness attached to the anti-corruption actions, which fatally extinguished the luminous epochs of some politicians and public office holders at the time.

*Kemi Adeosun 

The soberness, in fact, derived from the interplay of the unfortunate tomfoolery in government and the collective appreciation as well as interrogation by Nigerians of the universal concepts of good and bad or right and wrong that defined public perception of governmental interactions in the ecology of the nation’s prevalent cloak-and-dagger politics. The whiff of that political correctness had conferred on the administration a false garb of propriety in official conducts and public finance management.

A Swot Analysis Of The Meter Asset Provider Regulation(Part 2)

By Idowu Oyebanjo

Continued from PART ONE

*Threats

The biggest threat to the implementation of the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) regulation is the regulatory inconsistency and policy summersaults for which the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) has come to be known in the eyes of the international community. What if, for socio-political reasons, the MAP regulation is withdrawn and the metering service charge removed some few months down the line post-investment? A related issue is around the ownership of meters to be installed. Will the consumer own the meter and carry it when they leave the property as was possible previously if they relocate within the same DisCo franchise area? 

Will the consumer pay for meters owned by others as well as pay for the electricity consumed (a service) and metering service rendered (another service) in the procurement of same service? Consumers may see this as a case of double-dipping! As the regulation makes provisions for consumers who wish to make an upfront full payment for meters, will such a consumer continue to pay for similar charges if they relocate elsewhere within the NESI? The best way around these and allied issues will be to decouple the consumer from the asset by means of a metering point administration number (MPAN) unique to every property to which electricity is supplied and metered. Theretofore, every consumer will pay a service charge for metering and this component can be included in the MYTO tariff structure. Also, the issues around customers who have paid for meters and are yet to receive them under the CAPMI scheme have to be resolved. There is the risk around sustainability of policies made in this regard and generally, within the regulated electricity supply industry in Nigeria.

The major stakeholders in the implementation of MAP are the consumers, the DisCos, the MASPs and the financial organizations who will provide funding for the investment required. To succeed, the process has to have a line of sight and be seen to be transparent. The monies due to each party has to be handled by an independent and dedicated system or body which escrows the payments made by consumers and distributes to relevant parties based on a previously agreed sharing formula. The implementation has to be such that investors and financiers can have consistent cash flow and recoup their investment in reasonable time. To this end, there is a need for a clear financial or capital structure in the implementation (debt and or equity) for MAP and financiers who will provide long-term loans at single-digit interest rates. Sadly, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that has been in the fore-front of the Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilization Aid, currently has a limited budget available to provide finance for Meter Asset Service Providers (MASPs). That said, the CBN is only prepared to provide funding in the form of re-financing for MASPs that can demonstrate viability and sustainability of their business model.

The time deadline provided for DisCos to procure the services of MAPS is one hundred and twenty (120) days following the 3rd of April, 2018 date of declaring the regulation. In comparison to the level of activities to be carried out for a competitively tendered procurement process and the number of certified MASPs for the entire country (22), this time is insufficient and need increasing. MASPs should also not be limited by the number of permits they have to obtain to accelerate the delivery of meters to cover the sure-to-increase metering gap. Also, economy of scale should be encouraged to ensure the warranty on installed meters are up to the shelf life, ten (10) years say, of installed meters.

For the general implementation of the MAP regulation to be a success, there is need for the proper monitoring and development of a competitive MAP procurement process. Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) tenders’ auditors will ensure transparency and review the procurement process. Both pre and post-installation audits are imperative. MASPs must have the technical competence and financial capacity to carry out the intended services and the procurement process must ensure this is the case. We need to have genuine investors who will be willing to put money into investing in infrastructure, which in this case are the durable and fit-for-the purpose electricity meters for the NESI. This will also mean the power system will have a much desired enforcement system devoid of the corruption-ridden judicial system we have to day. The special court for the NESI will rely on the efforts of specially trained enforcement officers who will render swift services up to adjudication based on laid down procedures.

According to the regulation, consumers will have to pay a metering service charge (a lease charge) for the services provided by a MAP. In view of the level of consumer apathy today, and more so, as many consumers have paid for meters previously under the CAPMI scheme and are yet to receive the meters, there is an urgent need for an extensive enlightenment and sensitization campaign to be championed by NERC to seek the understanding of consumers nationwide. It is best to involve consumer advocacy and civil society groups, consumer protection council, and other affiliate organizations during the communication efforts to make this campaign a success. Yet, there is still the issue of consumers who reject the offer to have meters installed in their property. Thus, a robust enlightenment campaign for market participants and customer re-orientation to be championed by the DisCos and NERC is apt.

The absence of robust data and communication systems on which the stakeholders including the MASPs can leverage is another area of need. For the NESI to function optimally, and by extension for the implementation of the MAP regulation to be a success, there is a dire need for customer enumeration, consolidated with asset information systems. 

This provides an opportunity for DisCos to sponsor an energy networks association (ENA) to be saddled with delving into core technical problems within the NESI for and on behalf of the stakeholders. Issues to be looked at include but not limited to cost-reflectivity of tariffs, customer charging methodology, consolidated and centralized high-fidelity data capture of consumers and assets, technical policies for the successful operation of power assets and systems, specifications for plants, components and devices, research and development (R&D), investigation into failures and recommendations etc.

As metering services have hitherto been in the jurisdiction of DisCos, there will be cases of existing contracts with certain metering services providers that need to ultimately operate based on the MAP regulatory framework. While a process to ensure the sacrosanctity of such contracts has to be put in place, a cut-off date for migrating all such legacy metering services contracts to operate in line with the MAP regulation has to be determined. Such existing contracts between DisCos and their current metering service providers have to be declared to NERC now to preserve the integrity of the new regulatory regime. Also, it is possible for a DisCo to frustrate the process of implementing the MAP regulation if for example additional mundane and impeding requirements are placed on MASPs in the procurement of their services as the regulator has only provided minimum requirements for MASPs with Discos at liberty to demand further requirements in conformance with their asset management policies. 

This has the potential to slow down the implementation of the MAP regulation. The antidote to this is the separation of the “wire” business of DisCos from the energy supply business to be provided by separate legal entities, owned by existing DisCos, MASPs or others. In addition, as MASPs have to procure 30% of meters from certified local manufacturers, a system has to be worked out to ensure that MASPs patronise local manufacturers of meters and if possible tracked by the regulator. Also, the percentage of local content involvement can be increased (or flipped) to make original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to open shop in Nigeria which brings with it attendant employment opportunities and allied economic benefits that impact positively on the country’s GDP.

The absence of technical specification and standards of electricity meters to which MASPs must adhere leaves room for sub-standard meters to be installed within the NESI. This threatens the sustainability of the business for MASPs and may ultimately lead the consumers back to status quo. The required specifications will include requirements for technology, data management and communication systems. There is also the issue of collaboration between NERC and Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA).

The MAP regulation is a step in the right direction towards entrenching full retail competition in the NESI as envisioned by the Electric Power Supply Reform Act (EPSRA) 2005 which has to be updated to reflect the changes brought about by the declaration of the eligible customer and meter asset provider regulations. Its implementation is only a part of the solutions to the myriads of problems bedevilling the power sector. Closing the metering gap does not in itself remove the problems associated with ATC&C losses, cases of electricity theft and meter bypass, low morale and deficiency in human capital resources within the NESI.

The next step in the direction of full-scale competition in the distribution system within the NESI will involve the separation of the “wire” services from the energy supply services to allow DisCos to carry lower risks and focus on the required investment in the operation and maintenance of the weak network infrastructure while reducing the aggregate technical and non-technical losses in the distribution network.

…Concluded

A Swot Analysis Of The Meter Asset Provider Regulation (Part 1)

By Idowu Oyebanjo

The recently released Meter Asset Provider (MAP) Regulation by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in attempting to close the metering gap in the power sector has become inevitable because DisCos have failed to provide meters to consumers within the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) as anticipated by metering targets set in the performance agreements between Federal Government and Distribution Companies (DisCos).

As a result of this failure, estimated billing, electricity theft, meter bypass, illiquidity in the power sector, increased aggregate technical, commercial and collection losses (ATC&C) and consumer apathy towards the power sector reform have been some of the undesirable consequences. Lately, the National Assembly has determined to criminalise estimated billing in response to the cries of consumers nationwide who have in the last five (5) years remained unmetered, let-down and unprotected in the current regulatory environment. By this regulation, NERC aims to achieve revenue assurance within the NESI, reduce illiquidity, close the current metering gap of over 4.7 million meters within the next three years and eliminate estimated billing. It is therefore imperative to consider the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats associated with the implementation of the MAP regulation.