12 October 2015, Lagos – Former Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, has blamed the inability of the Goodluck Jonathan administration to turn around the power sector on those he described as saboteurs in the system.
The former Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, said it was quite disturbing that in spite of the appreciable efforts made by the immediate past government that the cabal were destroying gas pipelines constantly, to sabotage Jonathan’s strides in the critical sector.
Nebo, who spoke in Ikole at the weekend while being conferred with the honourary title of Ateyese of Egbeoba kingdom by Elekole, Oba Ajibade Fasiku, said the noticeable improvement in power supply across the country under President Muhammadu Buhari was a reflection of what Jonathan did in the sector.
Oba Fasiku, who also conferred the honourary title of Yeye Atayese on the former minister’s wife, said the town recognised them for their contributions to the establishment and nurturing of the Faculty of Engineering at the Ikole campus of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti.
The former minister said it would be wrong to attribute the improvement to Buhari’s body language and resolve to fight corruption, saying Jonathan’s heavy investment in the sector has started to yield dividends for Nigerians.
Nebo also appealed to the people from the South-east to refrain from castigating President Buhari over perceived marginalisation of the region in the appointments he had made so far, saying such imbalance would be corrected in the subsequent appointments.
He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to focus attention on embedded power generation and strengthen the infrastructure for transmission for the dream of total resuscitation of the sector to be realisable.
“Some said it was Buhari’s body language that brought the improvement but I didn’t know what they meant. You can see that these saboteurs have stopped regular bursting of the gas pipes that powered the electricity since President Buhari came on board. Some people did not want Jonathan to succeed.
“Some of these people were doing this great disservice because they did not like President Jonathan. The regular supply is Jonathan’s labour. The present administration has not added any value to the sector and Nigerians must appreciate this”.
Speaking further on the need to revamp the power sector wholesomely, Nebo said: “President Buhari will do wonders if he strengthen embedded generation and built more infrastructure for transmission of power.
“He should also change the threshold for licensing from one megawatt to five megawatts because the former has no incentive for investors and I believe Nigeria will leapfrog from 4,000mw to something more appreciable if this is done,” he said.
The former minister warned that people should stop using Nigeria’s diversity to cause crisis in the system, saying “the greatest strength we have in this country is our diversity and it should be used for the benefit of all rather using it to cause more confusion in the system.”
- This Day