22 January 2015, Abuja – The Minister of Power, Prof.Chinedu Nebo, has stated that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration inherited only 2,800 megawatts of electricity. Nebo has also blamed the limited generating capacity of the national grid on the persistent acts of vandalism on gas pipelines that feed the power stations.
Speaking yesterday in Lagos when he visited the Corporate Head Office of THISDAY, Nebo disclosed that President Jonathan had transformed the generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure, increasing generation from
2,800mw to over 4,000mw.
He, however, noted that vandalism has made it increasingly difcult for generation to exceed 4,000mw and blamed generator sellers and enemies of the government for this sabotage.
“Each time you see us staying above 4,000mw, they hit. Once they realise that we are barely making 3,500mw, nobody does anything. So, they know when we have hit and stay there for long and they will go and hit. You cannot rule out pure sabotage – pure sabotage by people who hate this country or hate the government or hate Mr. President or people who feel that when we give Nigerians power, their business suffer. “It is possible that generator cartel may be part of all this but only God knows who is actually responsible,” he explained.
Nebo listed other achievements of this administration to include the resuscitation of the moribund National Integrated Power Project (NIPP), provision of gas supply infrastructure forthe 10 NIPP plants across the country, revival of the rural electrication agency and the strengthening of the transmission network. He further stated that for 16 years, neither the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), nor the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) employed a single engineer until President Jonathan assumed office. According to him, it was Jonathan who approved the employement of 1,000 engineers for the power sector after a period of 16 years.
He further stated that this present administration started the building of the Zungeru Power Station and the Mambilla Power Station, which had been on the drawing board for 30 years and 50years, respectively.
He also described the privatisation of the power sector as the greatest achievement of this administration.
– This Day