Tolu Ogunlesi, the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital and New Media has said that Peter Obi’s claim that Nigeria has been having meetings with Siemens without progress is not true.
In a Twitter post, he alleged that lots of activities have been ongoing with regards to the Siemens deal as against what was stated by Peter Obi that only meeting upon meeting has been on with little or no execution.
Referencing the viral video by Peter Obi while speaking on the outcome of his journey to Egypt, the presidential aide stated that it is based on a cheap lie.
What you should know
In the video, Peter Obi 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 shared 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 you Siemens in Germany,” Obi said.
What Buhari’s aide is saying
Ogunlesi in his tweet 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.
What is the Siemens deal?
The FG, Siemens AG signed a contract for the pre-engineering phase of the presidential power initiative.
The pre-engineering phase contract includes; Engineering design, finalizing 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) will come in 3 phases: Target of 7,000MW operational grid capacity, 11,000MW, 25, 000MW.
For 7 years you are still discussing? Egypt discussed,negotiated,implemented constructed,and gave Egyptians power in 5 years. It’s glaring whos telling the truth
The Siemens contract was awarded in 2020, not ”7 years ago”.
Ross go read passage very well