By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
The epileptic power supply in Nigeria will be a thing of the past if the federal government and private sector sincerely collaborate to tackle the menace headlong.
This is the view of Professor Bartholomew Nnaji, Nigeria’s former Minister of Power who was a guest of Channels Television breakfast programme Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.
According to him the problem of steady power supply in Nigeria will continue to be a pipe dream except government and private sector team up to tackle it headlong, pointing out that “It will requires both Government and Private Sector involvement for Nigeria’s power problems to solved”.
But Nnaji, who was also former Minister of Science and Technology, posited that for the collaboration to succeed government must ensure that it is dealing with credible partners who have the capacity to play in the huge power sector.
Said he: “Government needs to get credible partners and participants that have both technical capabilities and the fund to play in these critical sector. I mean those who have the technical capacity and Financial capacity to undertake such huge task”.
Nnaji who is the Chairman/CEO,
Geometric Power Limited, the operators of Aba Independent Power Plant, servicing Aba industrial and commercial hub in Abia state, insists that the only way Nigeria will achieve self-sufficiency in power generation and transmission is for the components of the power sector to collaborate”.
Said he: “the right thing to do now is for the government to revisit the unbundling of the power sector. Their must be political will to do this. There must be a credible Generation, Distribution; and Off-takers. We still need to increase generation capacity. We have to recover energy from gas flaring”.
Asked if he approves of Re-negotiation of the process by government, he said there is notting bad in just as he insists that government should not be subsidising power in Nigeria.
The former Chairman of Presidential Task Force on Power from June 2010 to July 2011 and also Special Adviser to the President on Power from June 2010 to July 2011, said the Generation and Transmission will have to be resolved together while canvassing for Super Grids which was available during his time as Federal Minister of Power.
On the state of power today, he said in 2012, power was improving but can’t say what the state is now, saying “I can only go back to 2012, unfortunately and if you ask me of Aba Power then I can tell you it’s doing well”.
Meanwhile, the Professor of Robotics Engineering revealed that he has been dragged into running for the post of Governor of Enugu state.
Said he: “My people has pleaded with me to come back home to replicate what Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo is doing in neighbouring Anambra state. So they brought an Expression of Interest Form for me and pleaded with me to run. So I will not refused their plea”.
