POWER: FG Vows To Improve Electricity, Targets 27,000mw

Prof.YemiOsinbajo (SAN)

FEDERAL Government of Nigeria has reiterated to improve on the power generation in the country with a target generation of hat 27,000 Megawatts of power in the next 18 months towards addressing the present challenges of epileptic power supply across the country.

 

Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) who disclosed this at a book presentation titled “Nigeria: The Challenges of Growth and Development” held at Trenchard Hall, University of Ibadan on Monday stated that the Federal Government was hindered by the delay in passage of the 2016 Appropriation budget which was in the overall interest of the country.

Osinbajo assured that by the present efforts being put together by the executive and legislative arms of government towards resolving the conflicts on the budget, the implementation would commence in few days time and noting that priority would be accorded to the power sector due to its essential roles in the survival of any economy.

However, Osinbajo identified the major challenges of power supply in the country to include pipe line vandalism and transmission of gas from gas wells to power plants but added that the Federal Government had put up adequate security measures to forestall pipeline vandalism and other vices in the sector.

The Vice President also regretted that about 5,000 Megawatts of power generated shortly at the inception of the present administration were not sustained due to pipelines blown by vandal.

Furthermore, he stated that Nigeria during the previous administration of Goodluck Jonathan lost about $15 billion to fraudulent and corrupt practices under the guise of providing security to the nation adding that the abuse and distrust perpetrated were enough to pull down a strong economy down.

“When you look at the sheer amount of money that have been embezzled, the sheer amount of money lost from any of these various cases of corruption, you will find that far too much has been lost; more than half of the current foreign reserves of the country”, currently at about $27 billion.

“It was discovered a few days ago that the total amount of money lost just to corruption in part of…and provision of security equipment in the military is closer to 15 billion US dollars,”

“I believe strongly that it is important to send a message that no public officer can steal the resources of this country and expect to escape. I hope the message would be loud and clear and it will inform behaviour in the future,” he said.