Appointment of AfDB Official as TCN MD Unconnected to $174m Loan Says Fashola

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, monday said the decision of the federal government to appoint an African Development Bank (AfDB) official, Mr. Usman Gur Mohammed, as the new Managing Director of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) was driven by the need to improve TCN operations.

Fashola, who made this disclosure when he appeared before the Joint National Assembly Committee on Power, also said the appointment had nothing to do with Nigeria’s search for $174 million AfDB loan.

Fashola made the explanation against the backdrop of misconception that the federal government had opted to concede the management of TCN to AfDB as collateral for $174 million loan from the bank.

Against the background of Mohammed’s appointment, the federal government had asked the acting Managing Director of TCN, Mr. Atiku Abubakar, to hand over to Mohammed, a move which sparked protest by workers in the power sector and resulted in a petition to the National Assembly.

According to Fashola, the appointment of a new Managing Director for the TCN was above his “pay grade to stop the change having received a presidential directive to carry out the change,” describing the move as a matter of employer-employee relationship and “if government does not want to keep an employee there is nothing anybody can do.”

Fashola who added that political appointments are the exclusive preserves of the president, further disclosed that the invitation of Mohammed to manage the TCN was not a foreign appointment but rather the recall of a Nigerian who had been on a continental assignment in AfDB to serve his country.

He further disclosed that the protracted squabble between Manitoba team and the Nigerian team in TCN led to the departure of the former, insisting that the president has the prerogative to decide who heads the agency.
“TCN does not have a managing director. The man on whose behalf a petition was written is not TCN MD,” Fashola added.

But the committee Chairman, Senator Emyinnaya Abaribe, interrupted the minister, saying the petition was written by the power sector union and not on behalf of anyone.
But Fashola was swift to add that it was mischievous for anybody to suggest that a new appointment was made in the TCN because of AfDB loan.

“There is no MD in the company. What provoked this investigation is the appointment of one person to manage the company. It is the prerogative of the president to appoint MD because there is vacancy. It has nothing to do with lack of capacity. It has to do with the need to improve. I will not sit down here and say that Manitoba team did add any value. They probably could have added more value. There was a lot of in-fighting between Manitoba team and the Nigerian team. There were a lot of petitions.

“This appointment has nothing to do with AfDB loan. We asked for him (Mohammed). The terms and conditions of AfDB loan have been settled. The issue of local content does not arise because we are dealing with a Nigerian who left to go to AfDB. Nobody on the Nigerian side is being asked to go home. This is simply a political appointment the president made. The president can choose the youngest person in the company to head the company. It is a government company,” Fashola insisted.