Oscarline Onwuemenyi 13 July 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos – Senator Shehu Sani has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a new minister to oversee the power sector in view of the worsening state of electricity generation and supply across the country.
According to the senator representing Kaduna Central, the power situation was embarrassing, and no excuse by power sector operators, including the regulatory agencies, was cogent enough to justify the hardships Nigerians were passing through due to the development.
He urged the president “to rethink his way towards appointing a Minister who is not only an electrical engineer but who has the knowledge of the industry”.
“We are in a state of paralysis, and there is urgent need to appoint a reputable electrical engineer to manage the affairs of power, independent of other responsibilities”, he said.
Sani added that “Distribution Companies (Discos) are now distributing darkness despite increment in electricity tariff; private power investors have failed the nation by moving manageable power epilepsy to a complete paralysis.”
He called for a review of the sale of defunct Power Holdings Company of Nigeria, PHCN, assets, noting that the privatisation of power sector had only brought untold hardship to Nigerians.
He also recommended the setting up of an energy task force responsible for immediate technical and financial intervention in the generation, transmission and distribution of power in the country, even as he urged the government to invest in renewable and non-renewable energy.
