Controversy trails concession, sale of Enugu coal blocks

By Sebastine Obasi & Gabriel Ewepu


Controversy has trailed the alleged concession or sale of some coal blocks at Enugu Coal Mines in Enugu.

This came at a time power generation has not exceeded 3,500 megawatts, MW, for a country with a population of not fewer than 150 million. Before now, Enugu State had claimed that the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, concessioned and sold coal blocks in the state for renewable energy. However, BPE alleged that the sale was stopped by the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, which denied the allegation, as it insisted that it only gave Coal mine Coal mine professional advice. According tothe Technical Assistant to the Minister of State, Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, Mr. Frank Odom, BPE only was given professional advice by the Ministry over mining assets at Enugu mine.


He said, “Since mining assets are not like any other assets our Ministry only gave the BPE professional advise considering the evaluation of moveable and immovable assets including the coal reserve. “There was nothing like stopping the BPE, rather it was cautioned based on expert advice. We as a Ministry cannot stop BPE from going on with their mandate since government has given them the go-ahead”. However, a source at BPE who chose to be anonymous because he was not authorised to speak told Vanguard that there was no sale of coal blocks as alleged by the government of Enugu State.“It is not true that BPE sold coal blocks in Enugu State”, he said. This was corroborated by the Head, Public Communication, BPE, Mr. Yunana Malo, who stated that the process of concession and sale of the coal blocks was in progress. He said, “At no time did the Bureau ever say that it was stopped by the Ministry to concession the coal blocks. “The Ministry rightly said it does not possess the powers to truncate the Bureau’s transactions on the coal blocks. However, the Bureau works with the Ministry as it is a key stakeholder. “The Bureau gets its approvals and guidance regarding all its transactions from the National Council on Privatisation (NCP).

“The transaction on the concession of the various coal blocks in Enugu State is in progress and at the due diligence stage. This stage involves visit to the sites, which is currently being delayed because visits cannot be made to the coal sites during the raining season.” Phone calls made to the Enugu State Commissioner for Information were not answered, neither did he respond to the text messages sent to him. Power generation has not exceeded 3,500MW in the last four months as many Nigerians complain of irregular power supply. For some years now, the federal government has signed some agreements with companies who wanted to invest in the Nation’s coal industry, so as to shore up power generation. However, none of such agreements has come to fruition. It will be recalled that the Federal Government stated that its intention was to generate 30 per cent of electricity needed in the country from coal.

Consequently, various memorandums of understanding, MoUs were signed by investors. One of such MoUs on coal to power was signed for the development of Ezinmo Coal Block in Enugu and a 1000 megawatts coal power generating plant. The MoU was signed between the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and HTG-Pacific Energy Consortium for the development of the Ezinmo Coal Bricks.

He stated that: “I welcome the growing synergy between the ministries of Mines and Steel Development and Power which is made manifest in their collaborative efforts to attract investors to coal fired oil generation opportunities. We expect the co-operations to continue until we get the desired destination in terms of our power needs.” Ezinmo is a large coal block which ranged from Enugu State to Benue State. The Coal to Power plant was to be cited in the same location with the mine, specifically, Nsukka, thereby saving the cost of transportation.

As a follow up, a Ministerial Committee headed by the Director General of Mining Cadastre office (MCO) was set up to collate and evaluate the report on coal to power initiatives with a view to establishing the status of the project. The committee was also to identify assets of the Nigerian Coal Corporation other than coal that had been privatised and identify uses of Nigerian coal in addition to power generation. The committee, which submitted its report to the minister on August 6, 2013, proffered in its recommendations, privatisation of all outstanding coal blocks, resolution of all distracting issues that could hinder the transition from a public organisation to a private enterprise, establishment of two coal fired power plants in the first phases to be powered by the Ogboyega, Okaba and Ezimo coals respectively as well as the resuscitation of the Oji River Coal fired plant among others.

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Only restructuring ‘ll save Nigeria from break-up — Ikokwu, Uko, others

Only restructuring ‘ll save Nigeria from break-up — Ikokwu, Uko, others

By Clifford Ndujihe Second Republic Politician, Chief Guy Ikokwu and founder of the Igbo Youth Movement, IYM, Evangelist Elliot Uko, have justified the ever increasing clamour for the restructuring of the country, saying it is the only measure that can save Nigeria from looming disintegration.




Ikokwu, who is also a member of the Ime obi (inner caucus of Ohanaeze Ndigbo) said the renewed call for the restructuring of the country “is a new reawakening for some parts of the country and people who did not see the need for restructuring of Nigeria. Unless we restructure the country we cannot achieve economic diversification and growth. Implementing the 2014 National Conference recommendations will enable each of the six zones of the country to tackle unemployment, insecurity, poor power supply and infrastructure. It will also engender healthy competition among the zones, which help Nigeria to achieve 12 per cent growth rate.”


He continued: “If Nigeria will have the courage to implement the national conference resolutions giving political and legislative powers to the six geo political zones and allowing zones to move according to their pace with the centre not as powerful as it is now, things will be better. The question of states running to the Centre for bail out will not arise. Each zone will bite the much it can chew. Each Zone will determine the number of local Councils it can cope with.


“Without restructuring, the country will continue on this perilous path that will lead to disintegration. With insecurity crises all over the country – Boko Haram in the North-East, Niger Delta militants in the South-South and Biafra struggles in the South-East, no good government can close its eyes to restructuring.


The South as a bloc should wake up. If the oil had been in the North, no southerner will share in the ownership of the oil blocs.” On his part, Uko, who is also the deputy secretary of Igbo Leaders of Thought, ILT, said “it’s absolutely difficult to comprehend how any sensible person hopes to save Nigeria without restructuring. An early restructuring of Nigeria is the only viable option facing us today, the alternative is frightening. It is now impossible to continue the pretence. We have run into a cul de sac. Indeed, this view was shared by a host of leaders across the country, who attended the 17th IYM annual convention in Enugu, recently.


In a communique issued after the the convention, the leaders said that ‘’the political, economic and social realities on ground today, have made it impossible for Nigeria to move forward without an early return to true fiscal federalism, in other words, a political restructuring along the lines of true federalism has become inevitable. The resolutions of the 2014 National Conference should serve as a road map to the adoption of a new constitution built on real federalism.

The communique read in part: “Nigerians are surprised at determined effort by fellow Nigerians to continue the unhelpful pretence that all is well with the present structure of Nigeria. This pretence which only serves the interest of those who erroneously believe, that the 36 state structure created by the military, helps them hold down and dominate other regions, politically, remains the source of over 90 per cent of the agitations going on in the country today.”

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Only restructuring ‘ll save Nigeria from break-up — Ikokwu, Uko, others

By Clifford Ndujihe Second Republic Politician, Chief Guy Ikokwu and founder of the Igbo Youth Movement, IYM, Evangelist Elliot Uko, have justified the ever increasing clamour for the restructuring of the country, saying it is the only measure that can save Nigeria from looming disintegration.




Ikokwu, who is also a member of the Ime obi (inner caucus of Ohanaeze Ndigbo) said the renewed call for the restructuring of the country “is a new reawakening for some parts of the country and people who did not see the need for restructuring of Nigeria. Unless we restructure the country we cannot achieve economic diversification and growth. Implementing the 2014 National Conference recommendations will enable each of the six zones of the country to tackle unemployment, insecurity, poor power supply and infrastructure. It will also engender healthy competition among the zones, which help Nigeria to achieve 12 per cent growth rate.”


He continued: “If Nigeria will have the courage to implement the national conference resolutions giving political and legislative powers to the six geo political zones and allowing zones to move according to their pace with the centre not as powerful as it is now, things will be better. The question of states running to the Centre for bail out will not arise. Each zone will bite the much it can chew. Each Zone will determine the number of local Councils it can cope with.


“Without restructuring, the country will continue on this perilous path that will lead to disintegration. With insecurity crises all over the country – Boko Haram in the North-East, Niger Delta militants in the South-South and Biafra struggles in the South-East, no good government can close its eyes to restructuring.


The South as a bloc should wake up. If the oil had been in the North, no southerner will share in the ownership of the oil blocs.” On his part, Uko, who is also the deputy secretary of Igbo Leaders of Thought, ILT, said “it’s absolutely difficult to comprehend how any sensible person hopes to save Nigeria without restructuring. An early restructuring of Nigeria is the only viable option facing us today, the alternative is frightening. It is now impossible to continue the pretence. We have run into a cul de sac. Indeed, this view was shared by a host of leaders across the country, who attended the 17th IYM annual convention in Enugu, recently.


In a communique issued after the the convention, the leaders said that ‘’the political, economic and social realities on ground today, have made it impossible for Nigeria to move forward without an early return to true fiscal federalism, in other words, a political restructuring along the lines of true federalism has become inevitable. The resolutions of the 2014 National Conference should serve as a road map to the adoption of a new constitution built on real federalism.

The communique read in part: “Nigerians are surprised at determined effort by fellow Nigerians to continue the unhelpful pretence that all is well with the present structure of Nigeria. This pretence which only serves the interest of those who erroneously believe, that the 36 state structure created by the military, helps them hold down and dominate other regions, politically, remains the source of over 90 per cent of the agitations going on in the country today.”


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Don’t give people’s lands to Fulani Janjaweed Boko Haram -Vanguardngr

Don’t give people’s lands to Fulani Janjaweed Boko Haram -Vanguardngr

While still faced with Boko Haram atrocities in the North East, Nigerians are faced with heavily armed herdsmen invading farming communities, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Possibly emboldened by the impunity of their wanton attacks, the rampaging herdsmen soon extended their killing spree across the country, particularly in the North Central, South East, South-South and South West. Nigerians were thrown into shock and rage after the chilling massacres in Agatu community in Benue and Nimbo community in Enugu State.

Since then, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has been pressured to rise to the occasion and put a permanent check on the excesses of these killer cattle herders. Several options have been canvassed. One of these is a bill currently before the Senate which, if passed into law, will pave the way for the establishment of grazing reserves in different parts of the country.

The Bill was first presented in the House of Representatives where it has passed its second reading. In the Senate, it was sponsored by Senator Zaynab Kure (PDP, Niger South), and titled: “A Bill for an Act to Provide for the Establishment, Presentation and Control of National Grazing Reserves and Livestock Routes and the Creation of National Grazing Reserve Commission and for Purposes Connected Therewith”. The Bill was from inception mired in controversy as there was a sharp division between those in support and those opposed to it when it was first presented before the Senate, with some senators even denying its existence in the Red Chamber.

The Senators who spoke in favour of the bill argued that if passed into law it would stop communal clashes between the Fulani herdsmen and farmers in parts of the country. But its opponents have argued that its passage would bring it into conflict with the existing Land Use Act. The senators who shared this sentiment argued that the only way the Bill could be passed into law is if the Constitution is amended for that purpose which is not likely, hence the wide perception that it is dead on arrival.

Apart from that, most states in the country, especially across the South and parts of the North Central, have spoken out against it. It is believed that the envisaged Grazing Commission would confiscate indigenous peoples’ lands and allocate same to Fulani cattle owners. Many interest groups have vowed not to surrender their ancestral lands to the proposed commission. Some state governments have also declared their opposition to the scheme. We therefore reiterate our stand that no state, community or family should be made to forfeit their lands for this project, to avoid creating new conflicts while trying to solve an old one.

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Grazing Bill: Stage walk-out, pro-Biafra group tells SS, SE lawmakers.

ABA—A pro-Biafra group, Biafra Liberation Council, BLC, has called on State Houses of Assembly in the South East and South South geo political zones to reject the National Grazing Routes and Reserves Commission bill which is before the National Assembly.


It accused the Imo State House of Assembly of secretly planning to sign the bill into law and urged members of the National Assembly from the zone to stage a walk out against any attempt to impose the bill on the people.

In a statement signed by ‘Comrades Austin-Mary Ndukwu and Dom Offornwoke respectively, the group described the bill as “obnoxious and an attempt to make a ‘wholesale’ of our homeland to the Fulani herdsmen whose stock in trade is to kill and occupy.


“We want to emphasize that we won’t hesitate to fight the enemies of our people who instead of positively representing their constituencies, go cap in hand to our oppressors to enslave us. BLC is warning the Imo House of Assembly to desist from their anti people stance to pass the grazing reserve bill or face our wrath.


“From now, any House of Assembly in the South East or South South geo political zone that supports the obnoxious bill will regret its action. Nobody will be allowed to deny us our homeland. We charge Presidents General of town unions and communities to reject any attempt to use their land for cattle grazing and reserve,” the statement read in part.”


The group lamented that out of the three main regions and languages in Nigeria, only the former Eastern region had no descendants in other parts of Africa and vowed to resist any attempt to enslave the region as being orchestrated in the grazing bill.


“The Hausa/Fulani can trace their descendants to Ghana, Mali, Niger and other parts of Africa while the Yourba have their kiths and kin in Benin Republic and Togo. The federal government should drop the idea of creating grazing reserves in our homeland. We will resist any attempt to further enslave us.”