Fashola: Poor Management Bane of Power Sector

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has restated that the challenges facing the power sector is not engineering but man- made, adding however, that the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) will address the challenges facing the sector.

Speaking at a recent dinner organised by the Petroleum Club in Lagos, Fashola also exonerated the government for the poor power situation, saying that the private sector has taken over power generation and distribution.

Fashola debunked insinua- tions that the power problems have worsened because he is not an engineer.

“Some people have said that because I am not an engineer is the reason for continued power instability. But many people have served before me that are engineers and the challenges in power are still there; though I acknowledge their efforts. Most of the problems in the sector are not engineering but man-made. For instance we have a situation where close to 900 containers that have switches, feeders, control units meant for the power plants are trapped in our own ports for almost a decade. During this administration, we have now received 387 containers in one year that could not be retrieved in a decade, and we have started moving them to different power stations in the country,” he explained.

He also claimed that power supply has also improved under Buhari’s administration.

According to him, “two years ago, that is May 29 when this administration came to power, Nigeria was generating 2,690MW, but by May 29 this year, power generation is now 4,014MW. What we did is that from the onset, we set a road map that will take us to more incremental energy”.

“The years we were getting 2690 MW and perhaps less, this economy was growing. But at a time when we are generating 4,014MW, we are in recession. It shows we were growing but not developing. India, for instance relies on self- generating power in their industrial sector and they are manufacturing and exporting. India is advertising Made- in-India because they have developed the capacity to manufacture. So we have to look in the mirror,” he added.

He blamed the poor power situation on the private sector.

“After all, we said we don’t want government again but the private sector. We said the private sectors have the skills and technical know how to run it, so if we are not generating or distributing power, whose fault? Government is only the manager of the transmitting companies,” he said.

“The problem is also a value chain; you don’t solve one and leave the other. If Nigerians understand the situation on ground, they will be more considerate in their assessment and work with us to get there,” Fashola said.

He identified liquidity, debts, supply of gas as some of the challenges, alleging that some rich men do not pay for power they consume.

He said his ministry was working with Ministry of Petroleum Resources and related parastatals to improve on supply of gas.