No Minister Under Me Had The Power To Approve Over N25m Without My Consent – Obasanjo

• Kazeem Badmus

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said no member of his cabinet had the authority to approve more than N25 million without his consent when he was leading the country between 1999 and 2007.

Obasanjo said this in an exclusive interview with TheCable, while challenging the former minister of power and steel, Olu Agunloye, where he got the authority to award $6 billion contract to Sunrise Power and Transmission Ltd in respect of the Mambilla Hydropower Project in 2003.

Sunrise Power is currently in arbitration with Nigeria at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Paris, France, over an alleged breach of contract by the federal government.

In the first arbitration, Sunrise demanded a compensation of $2.3 billion, claiming it had spent millions of dollars on financial and legal consultants before the contract was jettisoned.

In the second one, the company asked for a $400 million settlement being the terms of the agreement it entered with the federal government in 2020 to end the arbitration.

Reacting to this at the weekend with TheCable, Obasanjo said, “When I was president, no minister had the power to approve more than N25 million without express presidential consent.

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“It was impossible for Agunloye to commit my government to a $6 billion project without my permission and I did not give him any permission.”

The ex-president further said, “If a commission of inquiry is set up today to investigate the matter, I am ready to testify. I do not even need to testify because all the records are there. I never approved it.”