Anyanwu: He came, saw, but couldn’t conquer
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- Written by Yunus Abdulhamid
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Dr Christopher Anyanwu started as the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) on a turbulent note. That was on March 9, 2009. Now, he is leaving the post turbulently just a year after. He was handed an indefinite suspension by the Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan on Monday. What an anniversary gift!
Jonathan is the chairman of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP). The most senior Director at the BPE, Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa has since taken over in an acting capacity as the DG. As at the time of filing this report, Anyanwu was suspected to have left the country. He is required to respond to allegations raised in his suspension letter.
Anyanwu came, saw but didn’t conquer. His stint at the privatisation agency, to say the least, was colourless. His appointment to replace Mrs Irene Chigbue was one of the surprises of 2009 as he had no known experience in privatisation. As at then, he was the acting Head, law department at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Out of the N100 billion expected revenue from BPE in 2009, only about N5 billion was said to have been realised.
Dr Christopher Anyanwu is one of those who were appointed from outside the BPE to head the agency since its establishment. Others are Mallam Nasir el-Rufai (1999-2003); and Dr. Julius Bala (2003-2005).
Anyanwu, who hails from Imo state, was quite aware of his inexperience. “I have come with a clean slate, clean hand and clean heart to work,” he had told newsmen upon assumption of office.
He was given suspension via a letter transmitted by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, last Monday. It is doubtful if he would ever find his way back to the BPE again given the weight of the ‘six allegations’ against him.
The two page letter titled ‘Preliminary letter on allegations of misconduct,’ alleged unilateral revision of the criteria for the selection of a core investor for SAHCOL, deliberately directed that the proceeds of the sale of SAHCOL be diverted into an account which you opened without the consent of the liquidator of Nigeria Airways, initiated and executed the process which led to the revocation of the sale of NITEL/MTEL to Transcorp and the issuance of Federal Government Bond/promissory notes for the payment of N70 billion to the creditors of Transcorp.”
Over 3, 500 workers of NITEL/MTEL are still being hungry and desperate after 22 months of unpaid salaries. Some N12 billion is required to offset the payment.
He is alleged to have also “unilaterally and fundamentally altered the conditions and guidelines approved by the NCP for the sale of NITEL/MTEL, even after these had been published in the print media, misrepresented the facts with respect to the post-privatisation evaluation of enterprises such as Niger Dock, Delta Steel and Daily Times, and embarked on needless and hastily arranged foreign trips with hand-picked members of the entourage at great cost to the public and these trips have taken a toll on the efficiency and productivity of the Secretariat and Technical Committee itself.”
Truth be told, the BPE had published in its Request for Proposal to intending investors in NITEL that, “…No entity (including for this purpose, its shareholders, subsidiaries or associated companies) may be a member of more than one consortium.”
However, the declared preferred bidder of NITEL, New Generation Telecommunications Consortium and the reserved bidder, Omen International, had Unicom China (Europe) and Unicom China (Hong Kong) respectively.
However, there is a school of thought that Anyanwu was being hunted because he refused to ‘play ball.’ Certain powerful forces are said to have lost out in the NITEL bid and that the only option left was to discredit the BPE boss, have him sacked to pave way for the emergence of a proxy who would cancel the process.
Last December, the embattled BPE boss and the House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation were at each other’s throats on issues bordering on graft running into about N12 billion.
The committee accused the BPE of mishandling the SAHCOL sale and not allowing them to carry out their oversight functions as required. The committee had threatened to have him sacked and returned to the classroom. How prophetic they were!
Anyanwu had denied any wrong doing and told newsmen that “what is happening between the BPE and the House Committee should be likened to the situation in the past when some members of the executive were blackmailed into doing certain actions which eventually cost them their jobs and landed them in courts.”
“If some members of the executive are not careful, there may be pressure to act unethically, as a responsible academician, I will not succumb to pressure that are altruistic and uncivilized motives.”
Upon assumption of office last year, Anyanwu picked holes in the privatisation model adopted by the country. He said “my point of understanding of privatisation as we are practising here appears to be dove tailing the western capitalist ideology. That is to say, that the economic development is best treated from the private sector and as we can see, the result is here with us and everybody is complaining. I am thinking that we may need to go to the drawing board.”
A year after, he is being put on the spotlight for allegedly tinkering with official privatisation procedures. The only transaction that was concluded with Anyanwu in charge at the BPE was the privatisation of Skypower Aviation Handling Company (SAHCOL.) The same SAHCOL proved to be his albatross even though it appears there is a lot to do with NITEL, too.
Eraskorp Consortium was declared the preferred bidder on June 30, 2009 after offering N13, 458 billion for SAHCOL in a ceremony held in Abuja. Pan Express Services Limited also raised its bid from N2, 175 billion to N10, 400 billion to emerge the reserve bidder.
Eraskorp could not meet up with its financial obligations to pay the balance of 70% within 30 working days of NCP approval. Even the preferred bidders, Pan Express failed too.
The BPE, through the “willing-buyer, willing-seller” technique, finally sold SAHCOL to Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited for N5.5221 billion. This is being questioned as usurpation of the NCP’s responsibility.
Skypower Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) was carved out of the liquidated Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) as part of the Federal Ministry of Aviation’s reform in 1996.
On October 1st 1999, SAHCOL was granted operational autonomy, thus becoming a company administratively and financially independent of the then Nigeria Airways Limited.
In a nutshell, Anyanwu’s stint at the BPE has been that of one controversy to another, failed privatisation exercise to the other. It could be said that the erstwhile university don would probably be regretting now for taking the appointment to head one of Nigeria’s hottest seats. He would have fared better as a classroom teacher, perhaps.
Articles
Anyanwu: He came, saw, but couldn’t conquer
Category: SME toolkit Written by Yunus Abdulhamid Hits: 1155
Dr Christopher Anyanwu started as the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) on a turbulent note. That was on March 9, 2009. Now, he is leaving the post turbulently just a year after. He was handed an indefinite suspension by the Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan on Monday. What an anniversary gift!
Jonathan is the chairman of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP). The most senior Director at the BPE, Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa has since taken over in an acting capacity as the DG. As at the time of filing this report, Anyanwu was suspected to have left the country. He is required to respond to allegations raised in his suspension letter.
Anyanwu came, saw but didn’t conquer. His stint at the privatisation agency, to say the least, was colourless. His appointment to replace Mrs Irene Chigbue was one of the surprises of 2009 as he had no known experience in privatisation. As at then, he was the acting Head, law department at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Out of the N100 billion expected revenue from BPE in 2009, only about N5 billion was said to have been realised.
Dr Christopher Anyanwu is one of those who were appointed from outside the BPE to head the agency since its establishment. Others are Mallam Nasir el-Rufai (1999-2003); and Dr. Julius Bala (2003-2005).
Anyanwu, who hails from Imo state, was quite aware of his inexperience. “I have come with a clean slate, clean hand and clean heart to work,” he had told newsmen upon assumption of office.
He was given suspension via a letter transmitted by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, last Monday. It is doubtful if he would ever find his way back to the BPE again given the weight of the ‘six allegations’ against him.
The two page letter titled ‘Preliminary letter on allegations of misconduct,’ alleged unilateral revision of the criteria for the selection of a core investor for SAHCOL, deliberately directed that the proceeds of the sale of SAHCOL be diverted into an account which you opened without the consent of the liquidator of Nigeria Airways, initiated and executed the process which led to the revocation of the sale of NITEL/MTEL to Transcorp and the issuance of Federal Government Bond/promissory notes for the payment of N70 billion to the creditors of Transcorp.”
Over 3, 500 workers of NITEL/MTEL are still being hungry and desperate after 22 months of unpaid salaries. Some N12 billion is required to offset the payment.
He is alleged to have also “unilaterally and fundamentally altered the conditions and guidelines approved by the NCP for the sale of NITEL/MTEL, even after these had been published in the print media, misrepresented the facts with respect to the post-privatisation evaluation of enterprises such as Niger Dock, Delta Steel and Daily Times, and embarked on needless and hastily arranged foreign trips with hand-picked members of the entourage at great cost to the public and these trips have taken a toll on the efficiency and productivity of the Secretariat and Technical Committee itself.”
Truth be told, the BPE had published in its Request for Proposal to intending investors in NITEL that, “…No entity (including for this purpose, its shareholders, subsidiaries or associated companies) may be a member of more than one consortium.”
However, the declared preferred bidder of NITEL, New Generation Telecommunications Consortium and the reserved bidder, Omen International, had Unicom China (Europe) and Unicom China (Hong Kong) respectively.
However, there is a school of thought that Anyanwu was being hunted because he refused to ‘play ball.’ Certain powerful forces are said to have lost out in the NITEL bid and that the only option left was to discredit the BPE boss, have him sacked to pave way for the emergence of a proxy who would cancel the process.
Last December, the embattled BPE boss and the House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation were at each other’s throats on issues bordering on graft running into about N12 billion.
The committee accused the BPE of mishandling the SAHCOL sale and not allowing them to carry out their oversight functions as required. The committee had threatened to have him sacked and returned to the classroom. How prophetic they were!
Anyanwu had denied any wrong doing and told newsmen that “what is happening between the BPE and the House Committee should be likened to the situation in the past when some members of the executive were blackmailed into doing certain actions which eventually cost them their jobs and landed them in courts.”
“If some members of the executive are not careful, there may be pressure to act unethically, as a responsible academician, I will not succumb to pressure that are altruistic and uncivilized motives.”
Upon assumption of office last year, Anyanwu picked holes in the privatisation model adopted by the country. He said “my point of understanding of privatisation as we are practising here appears to be dove tailing the western capitalist ideology. That is to say, that the economic development is best treated from the private sector and as we can see, the result is here with us and everybody is complaining. I am thinking that we may need to go to the drawing board.”
A year after, he is being put on the spotlight for allegedly tinkering with official privatisation procedures. The only transaction that was concluded with Anyanwu in charge at the BPE was the privatisation of Skypower Aviation Handling Company (SAHCOL.) The same SAHCOL proved to be his albatross even though it appears there is a lot to do with NITEL, too.
Eraskorp Consortium was declared the preferred bidder on June 30, 2009 after offering N13, 458 billion for SAHCOL in a ceremony held in Abuja. Pan Express Services Limited also raised its bid from N2, 175 billion to N10, 400 billion to emerge the reserve bidder.
Eraskorp could not meet up with its financial obligations to pay the balance of 70% within 30 working days of NCP approval. Even the preferred bidders, Pan Express failed too.
The BPE, through the “willing-buyer, willing-seller” technique, finally sold SAHCOL to Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited for N5.5221 billion. This is being questioned as usurpation of the NCP’s responsibility.
Skypower Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) was carved out of the liquidated Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) as part of the Federal Ministry of Aviation’s reform in 1996.
On October 1st 1999, SAHCOL was granted operational autonomy, thus becoming a company administratively and financially independent of the then Nigeria Airways Limited.
In a nutshell, Anyanwu’s stint at the BPE has been that of one controversy to another, failed privatisation exercise to the other. It could be said that the erstwhile university don would probably be regretting now for taking the appointment to head one of Nigeria’s hottest seats. He would have fared better as a classroom teacher, perhaps.