Presidential spokesman says power generation raised 200 times by Buhari

GARBA SHEHU, SENIOR special assistant, media and publicity, to President Muhammadu Buhari, has claimed success for the president’s administration in greatly improving electricity generation in the country.

His claim comes amid controversy over the government’s performance in the power sector with a full jury still out counting areas of shortcomings in power delivery across the country.

In his claim, Shehu said though the administration has been constrained by “situations on ground,” the government has been able to generate more than 13,000 megawatts of power.

In a monitored television interview programme, Shehu further claimed that the government has doubled power availability in the country.

He said the government inherited what he termed a “reckless” privatisation of the power sector, done by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, but that it has been able to up its uptake by 5,000 megawatts.

In 2013, the power sector was privatised as the electricity distribution and generation sub-sectors were sold to core investors, while the federal government held the transmission sub-sector.

“The situation on ground constrained the government and the party from delivering as much more than what we have. As we speak today, we have doubled power availability in the country,” he said.

“In terms of generation, it has improved 200 times. We have the capacity to generate more than 13,000 [MW] of power. The uptake is up to 5,000 [MW] as we speak now. That is not the best but it’s an improvement on the 2,500 megawatts that we inherited.

“We aspire to do 20,000 or 30,000 megawatts of power, we haven’t done that but we have launched 19,000 availability. It’s remarkable, why don’t we look inwards and use out the 13,000 that are available. A lot of power is generated and wasted in some cases.

“This government inherited a reckless privatisation process, which the president said in the interview that it was largely driven by the need to gratify political interests,” Shehu said.

President Buhari recently expressed his displeasure with the state of electricity in Nigeria.

According to him, Nigeria currently has the capacity to produce 13,000 megawatts of electricity but currently, Africa’s most populous nation produces just 4,000 megawatts on the national grid.

The president had in May 2018 questioned the spending of $16 billion on power projects during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

But in a recent television interview, Buhari reiterated his administration’s commitment in providing infrastructure for Nigerians, including improving electricity.

When he was asked if he is happy with the nation’s electricity production capacity, the president replied in the negative.

“I am not because I identify that no country can develop without infrastructure and infrastructure means road, rail and power,” Buhari said.

“This government is working very hard on the road. Try to imagine what was happening between Lagos to Ibadan six months ago and what it is now.

“We are doing, from Lagos to Kano, the rail road from here to Kaduna to Kano. So we have to get the infrastructure right and then Nigerians will mind their own business. But when the infrastructure is not there, the roads are not there, the rail is virtually killed, no power, what do we expect people to do?”

President Buhari also shed more light on why the electricity supply is yet to be stable in the country.

While admitting that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) is 100 percent governmentowned, he noted that his government inherited the Distribution Companies (DisCos).

According to the President, the owners of Discos bought them based on geopolitical zones rather than merit.

He added, “The people that own them, who are they? They are not electrical engineers, they don’t have money, it is just a political favour.

“To remove a system and reintroduce one is no joke. Luckily we have the TCN and that is the transmission. If we can get our technology right, we will cut the cost of transmission and the likelihood of sabotaging the lines and so on,” he explained.