BY DANIEL IDONOR & YEMI ADEOYE
OLORUNSOGO— IT was a can of worms, weekend, as Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, and his Information counterpart, Mr Labaran Maku who were on inspection tour of power projects under the National Integrated Power Projects, NIPP, visited the N30 billion ($220 million) first phase of Olorunsogo power plant.

Vanguard gathered they were informed that the 304mgw installed capacity eight turbines power plant, built and commissioned five years ago had packed up, as six of the turbines have broken down, leaving only to function at about 60mgw capacity.

The ministers who toured the projects on behalf of the Presidential Steering Committee, headed by Vice President Namadi Sambo, were told by the Acting Chief Executive Officer, CEO of the station, Engr. Mohammed Almu, that the project which was awarded to a Chinese firm, SEPCO Electric Power Construction Corporation in 2002, was commissioned in May 2007. It functioned for barely three years before six of the eight turbines went off due to lack of spare parts and operating manuals in English language.

Besides, the inspection team was also told that every move and attempt by Nigerian engineers attached to the Chinese experts to acquire the requisite skills for the maintenance of the plants were usually frustrated by the foreigners, just as Nigerians at the plant could not lay hands on the agreement documents, to ascertain at what point their responsibilities begin and ended.

Although there were earlier plans to handover the plant to a Chinese firm as core investor with 65 per cent equity shareholding, especially given that the project was funded through loan from the Chinese government, the Minister who expressed disappointed at the situation on ground, said there would be fresh negotiation with the investors as President Goodluck Jonathan was not in power when the first talks held.

Shortly after the inspection, this discussion ensued between the CEO and the Minister, at a briefing session:

CEO: On the issue of spare parts, at the time of handing over of this project, they (Chinese) supposed to give us two years running spare parts but what they gave us were just small spare parts that is why we are having serious problem. And anytime we contact than, they will promise to bring the parts and up till now, they have not given us any. And any time we have a problem and we want to go with them, they will refuse to go with us and abandon the place.

Min: How many people from here that went to China for training and were they given the necessary documentation to operate the plant? Technically, who is operating the plant?

CEO: We are doing it together. But at any time we want to rub mind together, they will refuse. And some of them don’t even understand English, so its difficult.

Min: Do you have operating manuals in English?

CEO: No, we don’t have that.

Min: How many people were trained in China?

CEO: About twenty travelled. But two of them have been transferred.

Min: They (Chinese) actually built this plant on loans. They provided about 65 percent of the funds and Federal Government provided the balance to build this plant. So, you know what loan means you have to be paying. So, the consideration is whether the company that built this plant should simply take over since they have the document and they haven’t handed the document and that the document are not written in English. So, definitely we are going to resolve this problem in a way that it will be to the benefit of Nigerians.

The Minister said “at Egbin station where we were well briefed we got here (Olorunsogo) and we are scratching for information I don’t like it and we will do something about that because what we want is ability to ensure that things keep on going. It requires resourcefulness to get things done. How can we be in a situation where if the total amount of money needed here is nothing in comparison to just one problem the people in Egbin solved . It is a lot more than all of this put together. So, for sure,we are going to do something about it to solve these problems but on the technical side, we have to do something. That is why visiting these plants is very important”, he said.

Fielding questions from reporter, Nnaji disclosed that “I will say that in Olorunnsogo phase I, which is a federal government power plant we are quiet disappointed that there are eight units that should provide over 300 mw there and that of all those units only two are functioning. And what is required to actually get many of the units functioning is not just much and we are also going to look into the issue of the workers not being able to access manuals to operate the power plant. So these are some issues that we have found that we are going to resolve”.

However, the Minister said “the phase two of Olorunsogo seems to be going on quiet well. In Olorunshogo what we have found is gas problem which we are going to go back and work with the ministry of petroleum and NNPC to resolve. They are already working on permanent line for Olorunsogo, I have talked with our gas people snice we left that place and they said that the permanent line is in construction and should be ready very soon. There is also a gas pipeline, Escravos Lagos gasoline that is also under construction that should also help to relief and that is also coming”.

Also, speaking, the Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, noted that “ we are on a fact-finding tour to find what are the problems, what are the prospects and what is the state of progress in all our power plants. The power minister has said that this plant is ready and that there are small technical problems that shouldn’t obstruct production. You (power minister) are on top of the situation and you are providing the leadership.

And as we go back, I am sure we will find solutions, if they are technical or financial, we will apply them and if they are managerial, we will definitely advice.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Power, Professor Nnaji has assured the management of Egbin power plant that the Federal Government would soon provide the required N1.5billion to restore 220mgw ST-06 plant from the station. The station has 1,320 mega watts installed capacity but currently generates less than 1,000 mega watts.

The Minister did not make the pledge not until he had switched-on the fifth plant which was recently rehabilitated by by NIgerian engineers at the cost of about N100 million as against N200 million it would have cost the government it was to be repaired by foreigners.

Uzoigwe, who request for the fresh funding of N1.5 billion while briefing the minister, said it would take the staff ten months to restore the plant to its full capacity if provided with enough funds; adding that restoring the plant became necessary considering the strategic importance of the plant to meeting the country’s power needs. He noted that the 27-year old plant have five of its six Units belting power.

He described the plant as the backbone and engine of electricity supply in Nigeria, as it has the capacity of providing 35 percent of the nation’s power needs, saying that the renovation of the gas turbine by the staff costs the plant N100 million, saying it would have cost the government about N200 million.

Nnaji, while responding to the submissions from the staff through their union leaders, allayed their fears over the privatisation of the plant and the envisaged mass retrenchment of staff; even as he added that it would no longer be feasible to handover the plant to private investor by December,noting that the staff have proved their worth by maintaining the plant despite the challenges.

“Seeing your ability to repair the whole plant gives me joy and any one willing to take over the plant must come and see you. Our visit here has been quite insightful. This plant is being managed and operated by our own people with technical capacity and leadership that knows his own onions,” he said.

He also noted that the problem of power in the country was not from the power generation but rather from the distribution companies who he accused of lack of will to utilise the power being generated from the plants.

“Our problem is not with the plants but the distribution companies. About 40 percent of the power generated get lost on transmission because the distribution companies are unable to pay for the power generated from the plants. It is warrisome that the distribution companies are not doing enough to justify the power generated because of over bloated staff.”

He also promised government’s readiness to implement the 50 percent salary increment.

The Secretary of the workers’ union, Mr Kingsley Ndome who spoke at the forum, requested the minister to clarify insinuation that the ministry was compiling names of staff to be sacked, as he expressed their anxiety over the envisaged mass retrenchment of staff being planned by the ministry.

Barth Nnaji spoke further on the privatisation of power sector saying that “the privatization is all about money, let all the 1,320 mw of power be provided for Nigerians and let us even consider expansion, there is nobody that will take over power station in this country that we will permit to operate it just as it is. We talked about spare parts, about getting the power to where it was originally installed and expanding the stations”.

“I like to tell workers not to be afraid of privatization because what is going to happen is not about getting people off work, there is nobody that is interested in that, we are here to help you do your job better than the way you are doing now”, he said.

Asked to speak on his general experience on the tour, he said, “I’m quiet optimistic at the progress of work at the various power station and I am also pleased at the dedication by our workers in ensuring they do what they need to do to recover the lost capacities at the various power stations.

There are some places that we will need to do some reinforcement but overall a good work is going on. In Egbin, which actuall provides about 25 per cent of the entire power in this nation, they have done very, very well in their efforts to continue to provide electricity”.

On the issue of spare parts, he said “ clearly, for us and for me as power minister, I want to see local content in the power provision in Nigeria, I will like to see a lot of content that goes into the production of power, manufactured in Nigeria. Some of them can start from simple assemblies and ultimately the components that go into them would still be manufactured in Nigeria. We are talking of transformers, switch gears, cabals, a who,e lot of the com Ige ts that go not power stations, sub-stations and so on, should be manufactured in Nigeria. Whatever enablement we need to do, we will be doing”.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/08/how-chinese-firm-sabotages-power-supply-fg/

Awoof dey run bele! I wonder when Nigerians will learn that the Chinese are not here for our good but for their own good. If you have to do business with these boys, you must operate under very strict terms. On the other hand, how are we sure those who were trained actually concentrated on what they were being taught

efisher:

Awoof dey run bele! I wonder when Nigerians will learn that the Chinese are not here for our good but for their own good. If you have to do business with these boys, you must operate under very strict terms. On the other hand, how are we sure those who were trained actually concentrated on what they were being taught

It even wrong to do business with a fellow you do not understand his language.

supereagle:

It even wrong to do business with a fellow you do not understand his language.

really?

why on earth do we think that the Chinese will be honest with us in this type of business, knowing full well that if we get it right in the power sector, the rate at which we IMPORT GENERATOR SETS will reduce drastically and that will mean bad business for them. does our leads think at all before they issue contracts.

It seems like these Vanguard newspaper journalists and editors need some reprogramming because their report of Prof Barth Nnaji's statements did not indicate any assertion to the effect that the Chinese firm involved were sabotaging Nigeria's efforts at improving power supply. Rather, allegations by the Olorunsogo plant CEO were alluded to. Rather, the Minister pointed to gas supply issues. Perhaps that CEO needs some thorough performance evaluation to determine whether or not he knows his onions.

Besides, the headline ignores the important detail about the economic sabotage and treason said to be perpetrated the electricity distribution companies.

SMH at Nigerian journalism and attempts at using biased reporting to sway the minds of the Nigerian populace instead of holding sacrosanct the principles of objectivity and reporting the facts.

Should I marvel at what seems to be the gullibility-tainted expressions of some of my fellow NairaLanders?

amor4ce:

It seems like these Vanguard newspaper journalists and editors need some reprogramming because their report of Prof Barth Nnaji's statements did not indicate any assertion to the effect that the Chinese firm involved were sabotaging Nigeria's efforts at improving power supply. Rather, allegations by the Olorunsogo plant CEO were alluded to. Rather, the Minister pointed to gas supply issues. Perhaps that CEO needs some thorough performance evaluation to determine whether or not he knows his onions.

Besides, the headline ignores the important detail about the economic sabotage and treason said to be perpetrated the electricity distribution companies.

SMH at Nigerian journalism and attempts at using biased reporting to sway the minds of the Nigerian populace instead of holding sacrosanct the principles of objectivity and reporting the facts.

Should I marvel at what seems to be the gullibility-tainted expressions of some of my fellow NairaLanders?

Seconded!! if those were his comments, he sounds 'somehow'

and if the minister is just getting to know this after 2years then he himself get skoin skoin!

Story, was nt there a contract where all the terms and conditions shud have been spelt out.THE FG IS TO BLAME

Yes, Yes. Blame it on the chinese.

Losers.

So what did the guy want us to do now, to go to Beijing and protest for a crime our govt. committed.

We wake up every day wishing for the best but with guys like this we are expecting the worse

amor4ce:

It seems like these Vanguard newspaper journalists and editors need some reprogramming because their report of Prof Barth Nnaji's statements did not indicate any assertion to the effect that the Chinese firm involved were sabotaging Nigeria's efforts at improving power supply. Rather, allegations by the  Olorunsogo plant CEO were alluded to. Rather, the Minister pointed to gas supply issues. Perhaps that CEO needs some thorough performance evaluation to determine whether or not he knows his onions.

Besides, the headline ignores the important detail about the economic sabotage and treason said to be perpetrated the electricity distribution companies.

SMH at Nigerian journalism and attempts at using biased reporting to sway the minds of the Nigerian populace instead of holding sacrosanct the principles of objectivity and reporting the facts.

Should I marvel at what seems to be the gullibility-tainted expressions of some of my fellow NairaLanders?

Thank you. The Chinese are sabotaging our power efforts while 'innocent' Nigerian leaders are helpless and powerless bystanders rather than co-conspirators? Abeg, lets apply for Nigeria to be renamed "land of gullibility" . As if the current privatisation probe has not revealed to every Nigerian that our self-serving leaders don't need foreign help to be totally self-destructive and the saboteurs of Nigeria's progress.

kodewrita:

Yes, Yes. Blame it on the chinese.

Losers.

Indeed. Pathetic losers !! This is as old as the hills i.e the habit of Nigerian leaders blaming non-Nigerians for their own ineptitude, corrupt practices and nefarious collusions aimed at frustrating our progress for their own personal gains.

The only way forward is an armed revolt.Let us kill all these animals in Government and take our country back  Now they want to blame the chinese for their corruption and incompetence.Until Aso rock is stormed by the people and blood is shed ,we will never get decent leaders in this country.

never heard [img]http://2.s07.flagcounter.com/count/DymW/bg=E6E6E5/txt=E6E6E5/border=E6E6E5/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=0/[/img]
[img]http://s07.flagcounter.com/count/DymW/bg=E6E6E5/txt=E6E6E5/border=E6E6E5/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=0/[/img]

what do you expect?

Everything blame it on Chinese. even man no get food to eat blame it on chinese,even no water supply in nigeria blame it on chinese. When are we starting to blame all the bastards and corrupt politicians that are ruling nigeria? are going to blame it on chinese as well.
We should take the blame for our failures.

ttt

wrote this on another thread:

why are these issues cropping up now. During construction and eventual handover, why were these issues not raised? Now that they seems to have returned to their country, we are crying foul.
Na wa ooo

All I see here is managerial ineptitude, how can you say you were unable to use manuals cos they were written in Chinese? What happened to translators? To give this is an excuse for sitting idle for years is deliberate economic sabotage and high treason, if a finger should be pointed it should go squarely in the face of the confused station manager.

wesley80:

All I see here is managerial ineptitude, how can you say you were unable to use manuals cos they were written in Chinese? What happened to translators? To give this is an excuse for sitting idle for years is deliberate economic sabotage and high treason, if a finger should be pointed it should go squarely in the face of the confused station manager.

i really agree with you, its the same lazy bone ineptitude that pervades anything that has to do with government in this country. If this same power plant was dashed out to this same ceo would he have sat down on his lazy bum all this years making excuses while the demand for power kept on increasing?

They all went to china, none of them was smart enough to learn the language?, o i forgot they were too busy spending our estacode! Bunch of I.D.I.O.T.S!

are you suprised that the blame is being sent china's way? or are you expecting them to blame them selves. Like we don't know our Nigerian leaders. For one, was a contract not signed clearly laying out the responsibilities of both sides? If the chinese have been breaching terms of the contract, why haven't they been sued? If they weren't breaching any contract terms by acting the way they were reported.to act, then i am left amazed.by the infinote brilliance of the Nigerian(s) party to the draft of the contract that failed to ensure that clauses to ensure the chinese function efficiently or lose the contract were included in the contract. Naija is a funny country.

Besides, wasn't there a minister of power before? wasn't there a federal government before? How come the federal government is just being told about this problem despite the fact that it happened years ago because i'm sure if the ceo had tried his possible best to rectify the situation, he would probably have told us the steps he took to do so, seeing as he wasn't at all reluctant to pour, rather, shower the blame on the chinese.

The matter get k-leg.

I stand with d PHCN officials in ds.

I hav been aware of ds since last year through colleagues working on d plant. D Chinese deliberately blocked Nigerias off the core technical functions in d installation and running of d power plant. Manuals and Instructions are in Chinese, and no effort was made to translate into English. They created two societies within the system; superior being Chinese and weaker Nigerian.

The Nigerian engineers had no sense of belonging in the plant. It was difficult for them to complain as the authorities are by default biased towards d Chinese so they bore the pain silently. I'm happy that this finally came out.

in: How many people from here that went to China for training and were they given the necessary documentation to operate the plant? Technically, who is operating the plant?

CEO: We are doing it together. But at any time we want to rub mind together, they will refuse. And some of them don’t even understand English, so its difficult.

Min: Do you have operating manuals in English?

CEO: No, we don’t have that.

Min: How many people were trained in China?

Are there no Nigerians that can translate the manual ?

IF really 20 people were send to china to acquire the technical-know-how ,then how do they acquire it if they do no understand the Chinese language.

I only guess 9ja technicians are in a hurry and they now place the blame on china

It just a case of giving "a dog a bad name then later hang it".

The true is china have really help the poor of the nation with their "china made product"

homerac7:

I stand with d PHCN officials in ds.

I hav been aware of ds since last year through colleagues working on d plant. D Chinese deliberately blocked Nigerias off the core technical functions in d installation and running of d power plant. Manuals and Instructions are in Chinese, and no effort was made to translate into English. They created two societies within the system; superior being Chinese and weaker Nigerian.

The Nigerian engineers had no sense of belonging in the plant. It was difficult for them to complain as the authorities are by default biased towards d Chinese so they bore the pain silently. I'm happy that this finally came out.

  Are u for real, Like seriously? Who's the station manager? What has he been managing? How can you oversee the winding up of 6 turbines out of 8 and not recognize there's an emergency? Are u being paid to sabotage the economy? If you're being sidelined by Aliens in your country who should raise an alarm? Me? Are we being colonized all over again? If Nnaji does not recognise the real problem here then even he is unfit to oversee the ministry, but he obviously seems to have recognised the managerial failure even though he didnt spell it out. 

igerian.

The Nigerian engineers had no sense of belonging in the plant. It was difficult for them to complain as the authorities are by default biased towards d Chinese so they bore the pain silently. I'm happy that this finally came out.

  Are u for real, Like seriously? Who's the station manager? What has he been managing? How can you oversee the winding up of 6 turbines out of 8 and not recognize there's an emergency? Are u being paid to sabotage the economy? If you're being sidelined by Aliens in your country who should raise an alarm? Me? Are we being colonized all over again? If Nnaji does not recognise the real problem here then even he is unfit to oversee the ministry, but he obviously seems to have recognised the managerial failure even though he didnt spell it out. 

prof. iwu, prof. nnaji, prof. soludo, prof. dora etc are good examples of nigerian professors.
it is a stupid thing to do always coming back to us with the same stories of sabotage everyday. why is nobody sabotaging your looting tendencies? if prof bat and his group have failed in their efforts, it is a wise thing to do accepting responsibilities and resign honorably like their foriegn counterparts.
it is a shame how shameless these good for nothing criminals always tell us about these sabotage as if we are all fools.
what were the terms of all these power contracts these pdp led govts have been given out since 1999? no firm will just come into nigeria and sign contracts with the federal govt and just walk away with the money - never. why are these firms not doing same to south africa? china, america, uk, germany etc. these idiots should stop playing with our minds.

Blame the Chinese? Where? Why?

I always thought I was a hard bitten cynic who had heard it all. But this country continues to surprise even me with each new revelation or expose.

I have struggled but I still cannot for the life of me understand the meaning of the 'alleged' exchange between the federal minister and the station manager in the news report on this thread.

Someone should tell me that the federal minister has refuted the newsreport. Please.

I hope that someone somewhere has the audio and video transcripts of this "inspection" tour by Nnaji, Maku and company. They will prove very useful when this matter is being settled at some point in the future.

We cannot blame the Chinese
We should not even blame our corrupt incompetent criminal leaders.

We should blame ourselves for allowing our rulers to be as corrupt as they are without protests.
Allowing elections to be rigged without protests.

Allowing huge criminals like Obasanjo and Babangida who have stolen trillions of Naira, to be free men and to flaunt their stolen wealth - without protest.

So who can we really blame but ourselves 

Why do negroes like the blame game ? Today it is the chinese, tomorrow the government. Why cant they see that they are the part of the problem ?

what is so special about the chinees that Govt always wants to use them. Is it not these same chinese that collected money to shoot our satellite to space and it fell off orbit for wat ever reasons, the same chinese is given the go-ahead to relaunch another one for nigeria,

It is the same chinese that has manufacture 8 turbines out of which 6 has packed up remaining 2- all for no clear manual in english and fake parts.
[b]
My QUESTION WHY MUST WE GO FOR CHINESE products WHERE FAKE PRODUCTS ARE MANUFACTURED AND SOLD CHEA[/b]P,
[b]
IS IT COS OF CORRUPTION THAT GOVT WANTS TO GET CHEAP products AT THE EXPENSE OF THE DURABILITY OF PRODUCTs[/b]S,

y CANt WE DO BUSINESS WITH THE AMERICANS EVEN IF THEY ARE EXPENSIVE WE ARE SURE OF GETTING QUALITY AND EXCELLENT AFTER SALES SERVICE ,NOT THis GAMBLE OVER INTERPRETATION OF LANGUAGE and no parts ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I CANT EVEN USE A CHINA PRODUCT PHONE OR WHAT EVER COS THEY HAVE ALWAYS HAD RELIABILITY ISSUES NO MaTTER HOw CHEAP THEY ARE, THEY ALWAYS FAIL.

CORRUPTION IS THE REASON Y GOVT DECIDE TO DO BUSINESS WITH CHINESE INSTEAD OF THE EUROPEANS OR AMERICANS,