Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) said it is alarmed by the insistence of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in pushing the plan by the National Council on Privatisation and Bureau of Public Enterprise to sell the Ihovba, Calabar, Geregu, Olorunsogo, and Omotosho power plants.
CNG in a statement by the director, strategic communication, Samaila Musa recalled that on 13th July, 2021 the group categorically declared the plan to privatise the Calabar, Ihovbor, Olorunsogo, Omotosho and Geregu power plants, held by Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited (NDPHC), as unacceptable and a deliberate attempt to marginalise the North.
It said it was alerted of a grand conspiracy by powerful interests in the South taking advantage of the vice president’s position as chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC), the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to sell these assets and further diminish the economic viability of the northern region.
It said as the representative of various interest groups from Northern Nigeria, the CNG raised concerns that the funds used in establishing the said plants were contributed by states and local governments including those in the North.
The group said it appeared before a House of Representatives public hearing on the issue and declared a definite stand against it and insisted on respecting the initial agreement of rotating the projects between the South and the North after stipulated terms.
The group recalled that the National Assembly had even made a pronouncement against the purported sale of the assets and noted that despite all these patriotic efforts by the CNG and other well-meaning Nigerians, the vice president has remained adamant in pursuing this privatisation agenda aimed at further pauperising the North economically.
It said that what is particularly disturbing is that due to the Covid-19 devastation, assets such as these ones have greatly lost value and would only be sold at a great national loss.
The CNG insists that the power plants’ equity through NIPPs are owned by states and LGAs alongside the federal government which was designed and implemented in the South and eventually to be replicated in the North and rejected in its totality any such plan to dispose of the plants without replicating same in the North as per the initial agreement.
The group demanded for the Northern versions of the plants to be immediately established as agreed in 2004 when NIPPs was established and called on Northern federal lawmakers to stand firmly against this attempt at mortgaging the future of the North.
