HE CONTESTED AGAINST YAR'ADUA, WORKED FOR GOODLUCK...NOW HE'S RESIGNED...WHY POWER MINISTER NNAJI HAD TO GO...

Barth Nnaji

President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday accepted Minister of power, Professor Nnaji’s resignation from office with immediate effect.
In response to Nnaji's resignation, the president thanked him for his services to the nation under the present administration and wished him well in his future endeavour.
The former Minister is yet to make any comment on his resignation, there are reports linking him to two of the companies that were initially cleared to participate in the forthcoming bidding process for some of the nation’s power generation and distribution companies on September 25, 2012.
Before his resignation, Professor Nnaji had been at loggerheads with electricity unions over the on-going reforms in the power sector and the privitisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), was totally commited to the privatisation of the power sector.
A major source of that conflict has been the issue of the severance benefits to be paid to the staff of the PHCN after the sale of the 18 companies produced by the unbundling of the company.
Prof Nnaji is the director and a founder of the Automation and Robotics Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was made a Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in 1992.
He is also the founder of the first indigenously owned power generating company in Nigeria and was also a former minister for Science and Technology in the country.
He contested for Nigeria's Presidency as Better Nigeria Party's Presidential candidate against late president Yaradua and others in 2007.