By Jerrywright Ukwu

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Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has asked the federal government to publish the beneficiaries of the N501 billion bond issued to settle debts owed to electricity generation companies (GenCos).

The request follows claims by the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) that the bond has not been fully disbursed despite repeated government assurances.

In January, the federal government announced that it had successfully issued a N501 billion inaugural bond under the presidential power sector debt reduction programme (PPSDRP).

In February, Joy Ogaji, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the APGC, said the federal government owes the GenCos about N6.5 trillion.

However, in April, President Bola Tinubu approved a payment plan to settle the outstanding debt in the power sector under the presidential power sector financial reform programme.

‘THIS IS A CRISIS OF CREDIBILITY’

In a statement issued on Wednesday by Phrank Shaibu, his senior special assistant on public communication, Atiku said the disclosure by Ogaji had exposed what he described as inconsistencies in the government’s handling of power sector debts.

The former vice-president said Ogaji’s challenge to the federal government to disclose details of the disbursement raises serious concerns about transparency and fiscal accountability.

“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.

Atiku said successive announcements of interventions to clear power sector debts have failed to resolve 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.”

He challenged the federal government to publish the names of all generation companies that received payments under the N501 billion bond, the amounts paid to each beneficiary, the dates of the payments and the outstanding balances.

“Public money cannot disappear into official press statements. Every naira borrowed in the name of Nigerians must be traceable to its destination,” he said.

Atiku accused the Tinubu administration of relying on repeated borrowing instead of addressing the underlying problems in the power sector.

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“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.”

The former vice-president called on the national assembly, the auditor-general of the federation and other oversight institutions to conduct a comprehensive public audit of all power sector intervention funds raised under the Tinubu 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.

Atiku added that “darkness has become one of the most expensive commodities in Nigeria” and urged the government to account for previous borrowings before seeking fresh debt.

Source: TheCable