It says a lot about Nigeria’s new Power Minister, Engr Saleh Mamman, that when electricity workers downed tools and the grid collapsed for the 12th time this year, no one mentioned his name as a solution to the problem.
Mamman was also nowhere close to providing answers to burning questions around the troubled electricity sector and issued no press statement in anger to reassure Nigerians in darkness. He remained behind the shadows where he’s been since he succeeded Babatunde Raji Fashola as power minister on August 21.
For all his foibles and endless excuses, Fashola did provide a blueprint to get us out of this perennial darkness from the moment he was sworn in. He had something resembling a philosophy. Fashola would go on and on about his incremental, stable and uninterrupted power road map, never mind that by the time he was leaving, he said there is little the government can do to reform an electricity sector that had been sold to corrupt politicians long before he got the job.
Mamman is silent in comparison. He stirs no debate, offers nothing resembling hope, has no media team, has never addressed a press conference of note, grants no interviews, is yet to embark on a tour of power facilities worth recording, has no philosophy or road map to cite or quote and carries on like he’s not in charge of the most important ministry in the federation.
Go through Google and there's not a recent, clear picture of Mamman anywhere.
Yet Nigeria’s power sector requires a hands-on supervisor--one who is available round-the-clock. A media savvy gentleman who provides a grasp of the issues articulately. This engineer looks so out of his depth and invisible already.
It’s Christmas time in Nigeria and most of the country is in darkness. Power supply is as erratic as ever, electricity workers are complaining, gencos and discos are forever on a warpath, Nigeria can only guarantee 4,000megawatts of electricity at the best of times and Mamman is providing no policy direction of his own to hang onto.
Mamman needs to be told how important and critical his sector is. For now, it’s sufficient to say he hasn’t got a clue.