Oscarline Onwuemenyi
28 August 2012, Sweetcrude, Abuja – In an abrupt move devoid of any theatrics, Professor Barth Nnaji, Nigeria’s minister of power has resigned his appointment.
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has also accepted the resignation.
Independent checks revealed that Nnaji’s exit may not be unconnected with numerous allegations of monumental frauds which have bedeviled the power sector recently.
Calls placed to several stakeholders in the sector and officials of the ministry revealed that the minister’s exit may not be unconnected with barrage of allegations of frauds
and favoritisms leveled against him by the electricity union and some stakeholders in the sector.
The Minister, who has had a running battle with organised labour in electricity sector since his appointment, has also been accused of diverting funds meant for development of the sector to his own interests.
Nnaji has previously expressed deep frustrations with organised labour and other entrenched interests within the sector, who have resisted his efforts to revamp the comatose power sector.
His fall from the hot seat may have been hastened by his constant rub-ins with executives of power generating plants, even as he determinedly pursued the privatisation agenda of the Federal government.
Earlier on Tuesday, the embattled Minister left the negotiation with organised labour abruptly over his alleged vested interest in the privatisation of Afam power plant.
