RE: SENATE’S PROBE OF RAILWAY CONCESSIONING

Note the date of this report and my reaction to it. November 11, 2016.

Has there been any positive changes since then in the behaviour of the Buhari administration in parceling out major projects to his cronies both foreign and domestic? There, doesn't seem to be any evidence to that effect. Let's review my comment one more time, as the political gladiators seek to outdo each other in the campaigns towards this Presidential Election.

November 11, 2016

The Senate has suddenly woken up from its long self-induced slumber. On Tuesday, it directed five committees to probe the concessioning of major segments of the Nigeria Railways network by the Presidency to General Electric without competitive bidding. Should we cheer? Hardly.

A railway project without competitive input from the world leader in railway infrastructural work, the Chinese, must be fishy, to say the least. That concession to GE should not just be probed. It should be thrown out.

What’s the hurry? We have wasted four decades and did almost nothing to develop our railways, but for the little achieved by President Goodluck Jonathan in his final days in office. Why then should the government regulatory agencies entrusted with the responsibilities over the issues at hand be brusquely shunted aside, TO SAVE TIME! Really? This is most disingenuous to say the least.

What is an extra year in the life of a project with a 25 to 30-year time horizon? As we speak, the average Federal Government landmark project is behind schedule by five years. That includes many that are unencumbered by any contentious agreement or contractual disputes. So, who is fooling who?

According to the report, the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation also warned the Ministry of Transportation against this backdoor concessioning because of the extant procurement laws. Was anyone listening?

Meanwhile, the Bureau for Public Procurements has been directed to issue a “Certificate of no objection” as part of the fast-track approach. By who? Note that the key word here is DIRECTED. According to the law, nobody directs the Bureau for Public Procurements, BPP. Its mandate is not ambiguous. Has President Muhammadu Buhari now decided, as most of his detractors and critics suspect, to run a one-man administration? Like during the Obasanjo reign, the Senate and House of Representatives have their job cut out for them. Sitting on the fence is not an option. Feigning indifference also implies criminal complicity # PS: I keep reminding myself that the Buhari administration has all this while claimed to be about an unrelenting War Against Corruption, even as it barely makes a dent in meeting the demands for infrastructural development. It would appear that some of our kids, who watched earlier promises, made decades ago on television, about say the 2nd Niger Bridge, would end up working on them. Call that silver lining if you wish. The Mambilla Hydroelectric Project, huge in both size and potential impact, readily comes to mind.