By Sabiu Abdullahi
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has asked the federal government to make public the identities of beneficiaries of the N501 billion bond issued to offset debts owed to electricity generation companies, also known as GenCos.
Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), made the demand after the Association of Power Generation Companies claimed that the funds had not been fully released despite several assurances from the government.
Earlier in the year, the federal government announced the successful issuance of the N501 billion inaugural bond under the Presidential Power Sector Debt Reduction Programme.
In February, the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Power Generation Companies, Joy Ogaji, disclosed that the federal government owed GenCos about N6.5 trillion.
President Bola Tinubu later approved a payment arrangement in April to clear debts in the sector through the Presidential Power Sector Financial Reform Programme.
Reacting in a statement released on Wednesday through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the comments made by Ogaji had raised questions about how the government was handling debts in the power sector.
He said the call by the APGC chief for details of the disbursement to be made public had exposed concerns about accountability and transparency.
“Dr. Ogaji’s vivid description of the government’s token payment as ‘like rubbing oil on a crying child’s mouth to imply that he had eaten’ perfectly captures the Tinubu administration’s approach to governance: grand announcements, impressive figures, glossy headlines, and very little substance,” the statement reads.
The former vice-president said repeated announcements by the government on settling electricity sector debts had failed to end the crisis.
“This is no longer a policy failure. It is a crisis of credibility,” he said.
“The question is no longer whether the government is borrowing. The question is why Nigerians are repeatedly being asked to applaud fresh borrowing to solve a problem that government insists it solved only yesterday.”
Atiku also challenged the federal government to publish the names of the power generation companies that benefited from the bond, the amounts paid to each company, the dates the payments were made and the balances yet to be settled.
“Public money cannot disappear into official press statements. Every naira borrowed in the name of Nigerians must be traceable to its destination,” he said.
He accused the Tinubu administration of depending on fresh borrowing instead of tackling the root causes of the problems in the electricity sector.
“Every challenge is met with another ceremony. Every crisis is greeted with another headline. Every unresolved debt is answered with another borrowing plan,” he said.
“Yet electricity generation remains constrained, investors remain uncertain, businesses continue to spend fortunes powering themselves, and ordinary Nigerians still pay exorbitantly for darkness.”
Atiku further called on the National Assembly, the Auditor-General of the Federation and other oversight agencies to conduct a public audit of intervention funds released to the power sector under the current administration.
“Nigerians deserve to know precisely how much has been borrowed, how much has been disbursed, who received the money, and why the debts continue to rise despite repeated claims of settlement,” he said.
The former vice-president added that “darkness has become one of the most expensive commodities in Nigeria” and urged the government to explain how previous loans were spent before seeking additional borrowing.
