OpeOluwani Akintayo
05 May 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos – Newly-confirmed chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Prof. James Momoh, has pledged to enforce regulations in the power sector strictly.
He made the promise during his swearing-in in Abuja.
In making the pledge, Prof. Momoh promised to deploy his experience from the diaspora in his dealings.
”As a Commission, there will be enforcement of our regulations. I pledge my allegiance and dedication to the motherland and especially the power sector where I have come as an example of Nigerians in the diaspora”
Lending his voice to Prof. Momoh’s stand, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said all stakeholders are “subject” to NERC.
“The new owners of the assets in the power sector have responsibilities to generate and distribute electricity. These new owners of electricity distribution companies and other operators are subject to the regulatory authority of NERC”, Fashola said.
The oath of office was later administered to Prof. Momoh by the Director, Legal Services, Ministry of Power Works and Housing, Mrs. Adetutu Shotan.
Speaking further, Prof. Momoh said the NERC would look into the computation of the tariff.
He said: “The tariff is not a challenge you cannot solve. It happened, you learnt something about it last week. You don’t have to relearn the same lesson today.
“You should be able to ask questions – What are we going to do tomorrow to avoid the problem?. There is what you call data science in the new thinking of the world, where we collect data, you learn from the information and you predict the future.
“So if we don’t do that, we are wasting our time. Because you know it is going to rain tomorrow so you get your umbrella. You don’t wait until it rains before you go by umbrella.”
Momoh added: “We have no choice; we have to look at what computes a tariff. Tariff is not a guesswork. There is a calculation you do to get there.”
He called for teamwork among staff of the commission.
Momoh further stated: “If we remain the same, and we remain static, and we are not solving the real problem, we will just be doing fire brigade promise. The Gencos will always tell you there is a blackout without knowing why.
“You are going to ask question why. I know why because I know the Mathematics behind it, I know the Physics behind it. I know also the Economics behind it. If we are able to teach people to know why things go wrong, perhaps, we learn from our mistakes”.
Momoh, who said the industry should anticipate problems, insisted that “we look back, we use lessons of yesterday to solve tomorrow’s problem.”
