FG to Buhari: Don’t reverse power privatisation policy

 …Approves draft policy on renewable energy

…Apologises for poor power supplies, blames vandals

The Federal Govern­ment has advised the incoming administra­tion of President-elect, Mu­hammadu Buhari, not to re­verse the privatisation of the power sector, saying it would set the nation’s reform pro­cess in the sector back sev­eral years and would not be in the national interest.

Minister of Power, Chinedu Nebo, told State House Cor­respondents at the post-Fed­eral Executive Council (FEC) briefing where he announced a new draft National Policy on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (NPREEE) that any attempt to reverse the power privatisation policy would drag the nation back­wards by several years as the reform has progressed to the point that only adequate gas supply remains the major stumbling block.

He said, “on privatisation, I think the incoming govern­ment will be ill-advised to reverse privatisation, liber­alisation of power generation, transmission and distribution because any attempt to do that would be to set Nigeria back many decades. The gains of privatisation are very obvi­ous. If we can solve the prob­lem of gas like we are talking about energy mix, we are not just going by gas we are do­ing hydros. It was this same administration that flagged off Zungeru hydro power plants for 750 megawatts and is in a bid to flag off Mambilla 3,050 megawatts, Shiroro has been improved and revamped, Kai­nji revamped and improved; the same goes for Jebba.

“So there is a lot of work be­ing done by the government. But to turn back on privatisa­tion would mean stopping all of these companies and then reversing the massive inflow of investments coming into the power sector. Nigeria’s power consumption per cap­ita is one of the lowest in the world and that is part of the ef­forts of government to reverse that. So I don’t think it is in the best interest of the country.”

Nebo described as frustrat­ing the sabotage inflicted on the country by evil-minded vandals who ceaselessly and needlessly damage oil and gas pipelines to the detriment of their fellow countrymen.

While tendering govern­ment’s apology for the inces­sant blackouts nationwide, Nebo stressed that some “de­mon-possessed” Nigerians that have been responsible as the vandals make little or no financial gains from their ac­tivities which cost about N120 million every month to repair.

He pointed out that many turbines at the power plants have been idle because of lack of gas caused by vandalism, while the power generating companies have been oper­ating at about 30 per cent of their installed capacity.

“I have never in my life seen anything as frustrating as what we are experiencing today. Every month the Ni­gerian Gas Company spends a minimum of N120 million to fix gas pipeline. Every two weeks, western axis pipe­lines are vandalised and that is pure sabotage; the eastern axis pipelines are vandalised and that is oil theft. At the end of the day, the gas that is supposed to go to the turbines doesn’t get to the turbines to generate electricity.

“As I speak to you today, if you give us gas right now we will produce 5,500 mega­watts. But when the pipelines are in the state of disarray as they are now, in fact, the re­cent thing they are doing is testing the integrity of the entire system. And when you have broken something over and over again, you have to really look at the entire spec­trum to make sure whether the rest of the pipeline has integ­rity to bear gas.

 

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