A presidential aide, Tolu Ogunlesi, has picked holes in claims by Peter Obi, that only meetings have so far been held concerning Nigeria’s deal with Siemens, describing it as a cheap lie.
Ogunlesi, who is the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital and New Media, was reacting to claims made by the presidential flag bearer of the Labour Party in a viral video, wherein Obi claimed that Siemens officials had lamented the lack of progress on the project.
Obi, while speaking on the outcome of his journey to Egypt, had said, “they told me they have been having meetings with the Nigerian government for the past three years. Every time they come; it is a meeting. And they come and go.”
Obi, who also said that he was well received in Egypt, further stated that it didn’t take the country long to come to terms with the deal with Siemens in Germany.
“They told me that in Egypt, it took them one month from the beginning of the talk to conclusion of the talk and the highest person in the land’s position is, ‘tell me what you need.’ I don’t want to go via any company. I want to deal directly with Siemens in Germany,” Obi said.
In a Twitter post, Ogunlesi, however, said a lot of activities were ongoing with the deal, beyond holding meetings as alleged by Obi.
He wrote, “There’s a video of Peter Obi claiming Siemens told him Nigeria has been having meetings with them without progress. With all due respect, this is yet another grievous untruth, and must not be allowed to go unchallenged.
“Here are the facts on PPInigeria: Since PPInigeria kicked off, FGNPowerCo set up -Pre-engineering phase has started & been concluded, africa_finance appointed Transaction Adviser, a major equipment contract was awarded Dec 2021, factory testing of equipment starting this month.
“For someone to claim they were told this, by the implementing firm – is a cheap lie, and also very easy to fact-check. Someone needs to pay more attention to PPInigeria news – because all of these things are being duly reported.
The federal government and Siemens AG signed a contract for the pre-engineering phase of the presidential power initiative.
The pre-engineering phase contract includes; Engineering design, finalising project specifications, Commissioning works for transmission & distribution systems and others.
The Presidential Power Initiative which used to be known as the Nigeria Electrification Roadmap (NER) is in 3 phases: Target of 7,000MW operational grid capacity, 11,000MW, 25, 000MW.
