Yar'Adua fires power company boss

President Umaru Yar'Adua on Tuesday in Abuja fired the Executive Vice Chairman of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria [PHCN] Bello Suleiman, saying he was a cog in the wheel of the administration's ambition to generate 6000 megawatts of power for the nation's use by December this year.
Inside sources, however, said in Abuja on Tuesday night that Suleiman actually resigned citing frustration from top power players around the president who he accused of eyeing personal advantage to the detriment of the nation's energy needs. Also removed were two executive directors, Isiaka Abdul Razak [Finance and Administration] and Simon Atakulu [Operations].
A statement on Tuesday by the Minister of Power, Lanre Babalola, said the removal of Suleiman and the two directors was to enable the federal government "achieve the goal of providing better electricity supply to Nigerians through the attainment of 6,000 and 10,000 megawatts of electricity by December 2009 and 2010 respectively."
According to the statement, Husein Labo replaces Suleiman. Pius Apuye was named as Razak's successor and John Ayodele as the replacement for Atakulu. As the chief executive officer, Bello Suleiman headed the Executive Management Team [EMT] of the power company.
Some of the other members of the board are Joseph Makoju, Adviser to the president on power generation, and Irene Chigbue, Director Bureau of Public Enterprise.
With Suleiman's ouster, the new Labo-team was charged with shepherding the power company towards Yar'Adua's dream of doubling Nigeria's power generating capacity by the end of the year and further raising that to 11,000 megawatts ahead of the 2011 election year.
The current national capacity is about 3200 megawatts, an appalling index compared to South Africa, a country of about 44 million people, which currently generates 45,000 megawatts of electricity.
Energy experts received yesterday's news with concern noting that the government's plan to double power production by December hasn't even taken off because pre-qualification of tenders to build power transmitting lines and transformers were only advertised on 23 February 2009.
"This, I beg to suggest, doesn't make any sense and is clearly a pipe dream" said a company insider who sought anonymity. In the new dispensation, Mr. Labo, an engineer and old hand at the power company, takes the reins of power as chief executive officer, while John Ayodele, an engineer and erstwhile operations chief who was fired by the last minister, but later surfaced as special adviser to the new minister of energy.
Mr. Bello is a 1975 graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with a first degree in Engineering. He also attended the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, where he obtained a Master of Science degree in industrial management in 1977.
Bello Suleiman is a Hausa-Fulani from Sokoto State.