Zoe A.E
The chairman of the House Committee on Power – Magaji Aliyu expressed displeasure with the ministry of power when its Permanent Secretary, Nebeolisa Anako, appeared before the committee during an interactive session as the representatives of the committee tackled the federal ministry of power due to the prolonged poor supply of electricity in the nation.
He affirmed that Nigerians were currently experiencing one of the worst moments of electricity supply across the country which has caused a variety of challenges affecting the standard of living of many.
He also said that the condition has caused the collapse of small businesses whose operations depend on stable electricity supply and in turn increased prices of commodities and services for those who required electricity supply, as well as making the production processes harder.
He added that the overheated socio-economic environment due to very poor electricity supply had attracted huge public outcry for immediate solutions.
He urged the ministry to also explain the technical, operational and administrative measures taken by the ministry to address the challenges and its devastating consequences on Nigerians, adding that the permanent secretary only presented a thesis rather than proffering a solution to the many electricity problems of the country.
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“In this country, there is no fuel, no light and no gas. We were told we have 30,000 megawatts, but that only transmission is our problem. My heart bleed for this country, we may never have it right maybe during our time,” he said
Ajibola Muraina (PDP-Oyo) affirmed that the power issue is not a new one and recurs every year without measure to correct the anomaly.
He added that the country’s inability to power light via gas was uncalled for and the fire brigade approach of the ministry will not work.
“I think we are not prepared to give Nigerians power. In my constituency, no light; they only bring it when they want to bring bill,” he said.
Sada Soli (APC-Katsina) said: “I don’t think the ministry of power is in charge because they don’t see it as their responsibility to deliver power to Nigerians.
Mariam Onuoha (APC-Imo) in her contribution stated: “I want to assume that there is some level of conspiracy of bringing the government down as we approach the electioneering year.”
He queried why critical infrastructure would be about to run down when the country was approaching the election year.
The permanent secretary, on his part, said the ministry had a lot of issues in the Nigeria electricity supply crisis, adding that it’s working to resolve the issue.
He said that in spite of improvements in power generation to a peak of 5,800MW last year, and an average available generation of 5,000MW, recent events had seen a temporary crash in generation by about 1,600MW.
He said the loss was now gradually being recovered as the situation is stabilised to better serve the growing power demand in the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Ministry of Power is responsible for the coordination of the power sector in Nigeria to ensure synergy among stakeholders to provide an efficient power supply.
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