Epileptic power supply: PDP administration responsible for Nigeria’s suffering — FG

…As FEC approves 16 power contracts

By Uthman Salami

The Federal Government has fingered past administrations over negligence of  Nigeria’s power sector, noting that the major cause of slow development of the sector was responsible for the suffering of the masses.

The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu stated this while presenting 16 memos during the Federal Executive Council meeting yesterday.

Aliyu Speaking on the memo stated: “Today, I presented to council 16 memos, which I seek for council’s approval and the council graciously approved all of them. At this point, let me say what these approvals will do to the nation’s electricity supply.

Meanwhile, yesterday’s FEC meeting was chaired by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.

Speaking further with the media, the Minister said the current administration has done far more than what was tenable in previous administrations in bridging the power deficits for improved electricity supply across the country.

While confirming the current power generation pegged at 5,000 MW, the Minister described the transmission grid as weak and unable to evacuate and distribute sufficient electricity.

He affirmed that the afformentioned would constitute a major problem in future.

The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, gave a press briefing at the State House in Abuja on December 23, 2021.

He, however, noted that the Federal Government has placed order for new power equipment and assures that Nigerians in no time will see the outcome of the ongoing investments.

While reacting to calls by the National Union of Electricity Employees, demanding a total reversal of the privatization exercise, the Power Minister notes that there were more questions surrounding the initial engagement that requires further investigation, primarily to unravel possible breaches, in order to make an informed decision.

He further maintained that while there are calls for a reversal, there are also calls for full privatization of the sector, a situation that equally demands the Federal Government going back to the drawing board.

The extraordinary Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at Council Chambers of the State House, Thursday approved all 16 memos on power presented by Minister of Power, Engr Abubakar Aliyu.

He blamed the epileptic power supply in the country on the lack of attention paid to the development of the sector in the past.

He added that the present administration has done more than any other to ensure that Nigerians enjoy improved supply of electricity.

Engr Aliyu said contrary to the impression that nothing is being done to tackle epileptic power supply, the government is doing a lot to remedy the situation with more investment in the sector which he said had manifested in the less system collapse being witnessed in the country.

The minister assured that Nigerians will soon see the outcome of the ongoing investment while noting that the federal government has placed order for power equipment.

His words, “As we’re all aware, the major problem we’re having in the Electricity Supply Industry is to be able to evacuate sufficient electricity and distribute them. That is to say, we have a very weak transmission grid and distribution segment of the value chain.

“We may not be having many problems with generation. So, unless we’re able to strengthen the electricity grid, which is nationwide, and to expand, and to be able to evacuate, what the grid can take to consumers, we will have a lot of problems ahead of us.

“So, what we’re doing currently through various and several interventions is to be able to repair the grid by constructing new transmission lines, bringing in new types of equipment to replace the old ones at our substations. So, that will release more capacity to the distribution and leading to the customers.

“So, the operational capacity, as you all know now is hovering around 5,000 megawatts and the transmission and distribution.

“So, these projects that we brought to council today and got approvals are all geared towards strengthening the willing capacity of the transmission and towards distribution, even though as you all know, the distribution segment of the NESI (Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry) is been privatized, but we cannot fold our arms and allow them to continue not to do much in order to evacuate what the transmission can bring.

“But as it is now, even the transmission is not that strong. So, we need to put more investment into the transmission so that we can improve the transmission capacity of the TCN to be able to take up enough electricity from the generation.

“So, these memos, although 16 of them but they’re all geared towards achieving what I’ve just explained. So I’m going to read them out for you for purpose of records and information” he concluded.