‘MY TRIPLE PORTFOLIO IS NOT AS DAUNTING AS PEOPLE THINK’

issue of water supply, many parts of the State now are presently without water.

I am a citizen myself, and I think that we must respect the right of the leader of the State, to continue to do the best that he can to deliver services to all of us.

Your Party, APC, recently suspended its National Legal Adviser, Dr Muiz Banire, SAN, creating an impression that the cracks in APC especially the Lagos State Branch, are getting deeper. Kindly, comment on this.

Again, I don’t have all of the facts. Most of the facts that I have, are those that I read about in the newspapers. But I think that if you read the Constitution of the Party, it will be very clear what responsibilities lie to be dispensed at State level and what responsibilities lie to be dispensed at National level. From my general observation of things, I think that there has been some misunderstanding in the position that is being canvassed by Dr Banire on the one hand, and the position that is being canvassed by other interests in the Party on the other hand, about what internal democracy is. Those are issues that will not go away.

The interesting thing is that the issue of internal democracy, is not a unique problem to Nigeria. I keep telling people this. We saw challenges with internal democracy, in the last American elections. There was evidence by email, that the Democratic Party leadership had decided that Senator Bennie Sanders, was not going to win their ticket. What we don’t have evidence of, is what they did to frustrate his ambition. So, that is an internal democracy issue. In all the other Parties to, you will see that immediately after Primaries or Congresses, somebody would say I was excluded and so on. It’s in the nature of human agitations for rights and jostling for positions, that this conflicts will happen. There are mechanisms within the Party Constitution and within the framework of the rule of law, to resolve all these issues.

Honourable Minister, could you please educate us on the Mambilla Electricity Project. What is the reason for siting the project in Mambilla, when there is also Zungeru in the same region of Nigeria? Why are such projects not being cited in the other parts of the country as well? Why did it take Nigeria over 40 years to bring the project into reality?

This is a very, very interesting question that you raised. First, one of the weaknesses of our power supply, power production cycle, is its vulnerability and over-dependence on one source, which is gas. But the truth is that every power source is also vulnerable. So, whether it is coal, gas, hydro, solar, whatever, they have their vulnerabilities arising either from the lack of sustainability of supply and the ecological jammies that sources like coal do, and pollution and all of those.

So, what nations do, is to diversify their sources of supply such that they have what you call an energy mix. We did not really pay enough of attention to this problem, until last year when our Ministry announced an energy mix for Nigeria; and that energy mix targets that by 2030, we will have 30% of our total energy component, from renewables, and those renewables include solar and hydro. And they will help us also respond to our commitment under the Paris Climate Change Agreement for Cleaner and Safer Energy. So, those are the underpinning drivers of more Zungeru more Mambilla, because that belt, has a rich and generous store of moving water bodies that provide energy to turn turbines.

So, Niger State, because of the confluence of the River Niger, that is why Jebba, Shiroro and Kainji Power Plants are hosted by Niger and that is why Zungeru is also sited there. There is also Guarara Dam, also in Niger and there’s Dadinkowa Hydro Power in Gombe. There is also a Kashimbila Hydro Power Plant in Taraba. Now all of these serve many purposes.

As to why they are not in the other parts of the country, they actually are. There is the Oyo Dam, the Ikere Gorge, there is the Tiga Dam in Kano, and there are six others, but they are smaller dams that we are working on and the record of dams and potentials for hydro power that the Ministry of Water Resources has, because they have oversight for water management, is in excess of fifty-four. All of these were created since the seventies, but we haven’t optimised them for power. They have been used largely for irrigation, agriculture and flood protection.

Now, the Mambilla, has a height and because it is in a plateau, water drops from a very high altitude and therefore, that is a potent force to harness for driving turbines. So, that is why that one is in Mambilla. What about Abeokuta? Well there’s no water falling from the top of that rock. There is no water in that sense. And that is why the scope and the design of the project, is such that you have some of the dams rising and walls rising up to about one hundred and fifty metres, which is the equivalent of a fifty storey building and some up to seventy metres, which is the equivalent of about a twenty-three storey building. So, those are the sites, and potentially to deliver three thousand and fifty mega watts.

When Mambilla is ultimately built, it will also give us a balance and more security over our dependence on gas. It is a plan towards ultimate energy security for the country.

That said, why did it take so long? I don’t like to criticise others that have served before me, because we have built on some of what they had started since the 1970s, but I just think that we could have reached this point much earlier than now. I think that we could even have built this dam with our own money, when we had $100 per barrel of oil everyday, instead of now going to borrow over $5 billion to do the project. But it is better late than never.

It’s a five to six year project ahead and it’s already beginning. Just awarding that project, we are already beginning to receive expressions of interest, it is already beginning to affect the economy. Expressions of interest from Insurance Companies, who are looking to provide services during that construction project, where all sorts of things are going to be shipped, manufactured, transported, goods in transit, workmen’s compensation, workmen’s insurance, employers liability, that is already happening. Just yesterday, I received a letter from a group called Heavy Lift or so, that their own specialty is moving heavy things across the country, and they are again responding to the announcement of Mambilla . And you can just imagine what is going to unleash really, as construction starts. So, it is good for the economy. It has come at a time when we are exiting recession and implementing our economic recovery and growth plan, and power is one of the five pillars of implementing the growth plan. I think everything is converging for the better. We have momentum and we are not going to lose it.

When do you expect to move to the Mambilla site?

Well the next stage now, is to formally sign the contract documents, which will happen hopefully before the end of this month. After that, it is for Ministry of Finance to lead the negotiations for the loans, which should happen this year. Touch wood, I’m hoping that before the end of the year, we can do some kind of ground breaking thing, because we have some position in the 2017 budget to pay our counterpart fund, and that is part of the process to start some preliminary work. So, every civil and in aid of civil works that we do, the project start, the contracting firms have already started. Work has really started. It’s just the construction work in that sense, because they have undertaken a root survey from the South to North looking at Ports. Which Ports, which roads, are they going to dedicate for moving their equipment? Because, there is a lot of work to be done. So they are already looking at logistics, how they are going to move cargo in. The work to the project is going on, the contract signing will happen, the Legal Department is tidying that up and we will finish that anytime now. Finance is tidying up, so that we can conclude the financing and we are preparing the logistics. We have set up a Joint Implementation Team between the Government of Taraba and ourselves. So, all of that has been done. It’s just a logistics operation that we need to fine tune and drive.

Some power stations in Nigeria, like Calabar Power Station, Egbema Power Station in Imo State, are not operational, while that of Egbin is only partly operational. What is being done to get these power plants fully operational?

Our target, is to optimise the stalled power generation capacity in the country and that is why we talked of our road map as being first incremental power, steady power, then uninterrupted power. And we are doing that by a combination of actions.

Some of the power plants, are not operational because they have evacuation problems. We are increasing transmission capacity as I have announced, from the proverbial 5000 mega watts. As at first week in September this year, the figures were that we have a transmission capacity of 6700 mega watts, so we added 1700 mega watts to what we met. From the figure of 2690 mega watts, which was the power produced on May 29, 2015 when the Buhari Government was sworn in. As at 11th or 12th of September, 2017, our power production capacity reached 7001 mega watts. And this is because our power sector recovery program is working, and includes expansion of the transmission system to solve those that need transmission solutions.

The gas production service - to create peace in the Niger Delta, so that we can produce more oil and gas into the system. That has happened. Assurance also that those who produce power, will get paid; and so the Payment Assurance Guarantee of N701 billion