No minister working for me has the authority to grant more than N25 million without my permission, said Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo stated that while he was in office from 1999 to 2007, no member of his cabinet had the ability to approve amounts greater than N25 million without his permission.

In an exclusive interview with TheCable, Olu Agunloye, the former minister of power and steel, was questioned by Obasanjo on how he obtained the right to grant Sunrise Power and Transmission Ltd a $6 billion contract for the Mambilla Hydropower Project in 2003. Obasanjo made this statement.

Sunrise Power and Nigeria are currently engaged in arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Paris, France, for an alleged violation of contract on the part of the federal government.

Sunrise claimed it had spent millions of dollars on financial and legal experts before the contract was thrown out and sought $2.3 billion in damages in the first arbitration.

According to the terms of the agreement it entered into with the federal government in 2020 to stop the arbitration, the business requested a $400 million payment in the second one.

In response to this, Obasanjo stated in an interview with TheCable over the weekend that “no minister had the authority to authorise more than N25 million without direct presidential authorization when I was president.

“Without my consent, Agunloye could not commit my government to a $6 billion project, and I did not grant him any consent.”

The former president continued, “I am prepared to testify if a commission of inquiry is established today to look into the subject. Due to the existence of all the records, I am not even required to testify. I never gave my approval.