Our Challenges In Providing Adequate Power Supply, Fashola Speaks

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babtunde Raji Fashola (SAN) has attributed the poor distribution of power rocking the country to obsolete equipment’s – Transformer, power theft, among others. According to the Minister, in an interview monitored by Us, there is a metering problem at the distribution end of the Power sector. Admitting that the Federal Government hasn’t built enough transition lines to enhance power generation, Fashola stated that these problems would last longer than expected. He said: “In terms of transition, we have not build enough transition lines. We have more power available now than the transition lines can carry. The transition lines are like the passenger, transport system. “This year’s plan, we have identified where there is power waiting and the need to supply transition is part of the programmes in the Budget. These are some of the problems that have slowed down the delivery of service. “We have power plants built, there was no gas for them. So, they are hanging. It’s like you buying a generator and don’t plan fuel supply, It won’t work. I think these are problems that can be solved and they would be solved”. The former Governor of Lagos State lamented that President Muhammdu Buhari-led Government inherited a “broken system”, affirming that it was impossible to discuss the way forward without going backward. Fashola said: “There are problems in every sector and perhaps the way to define the problem is that – since about 1960 that we’ve been producing power, we’ve never had enough. And it was because there were problems that Nigerians started agitating that Government should privatise the power sector. “It was a broken system. And it is impossible to discuss the way forward without going backward. And this is not blaming anybody, or previous administration. We have been Ministers for just a little over four months, and we have inherited problems that have defiled solutions essentially in 16 years. It’s going to take a little longer to fix those problems. “There is a metering problem at the distribution end. Government is intervening through an agency called NERC. NERC is a product of a law made by parliamentarians representing Nigerians. It’s a good law but there is no perfect law. “Distribution problems, metering, old equipment’s – Transformers, power theft, among others. They have happened in other countries and they have been overcome and Nigeria will overcome it as well”. Fashola added, “What the President is trying to do is that, if we solve a problem today, it must stay solved and that requires some very detailed planning, understanding the errors that have been made in the past and developing a very robust and sustainable solution that will endure”. Thanks for reading

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