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$174 million ADB loan: National Assembly queries Fashola over sudden change in TCN leadership

By Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Abuja
04 February 2017   |   3:11 am
The National Assembly is worried about the brewing crisis over the sudden change in the leadership of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in fulfillment of the conditions...

The National Assembly is worried about the brewing crisis over the sudden change in the leadership of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in fulfillment of the conditions to obtain the $174 million loan granted a year ago by the African Development Bank (ADB).

The loan, which is being sought to tackle the country’s power sector crisis, has as major condition the fact that ADB experts would run the TCN, which has been managing the national grid.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval of the condition was said to have caused the sudden replacement of TCN’s former managing director, Abubakar Atiku Tambuwal, with Usman Gur Muhammed.

But in a statement signed by the Senate and the House of Representatives joint power Committees on Power yesterday, they asked the Minister of Power, Works and Housing to appear at the National Assembly on Monday to provide explanations on the matter.

The National Assembly committees also directed that “the status quo ante in respect of the management of TCN be maintained;

The statement, which was signed by Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Enyinnaya Abaribe, and his House counterpart, Daniel Asuquo, ordered that “all TCN staff and relevant stakeholders should maintain the peace in the overall interest of the nation.”

It was learnt that lawmakers are very concerned about some issues that might arise from the loan deal if implemented, including “the propriety of allowing the ADB to run the TCN, even when it is yet to be privatized, the legality of removing the TCN management, which is just midway into its tenure and the arrangement under which the critical national asset will be given to the ADB.”

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