Tobias Sylvester
Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, claimed during the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce (NSACC) breakfast forum, that president Muhammadu Buhari three years administration has done better in power generation, transmission and distribution than the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did in 16 years of its administration.
The years ago, Babatunde Fashola, who was the former governor of Lagos state bashed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for their inability to provide Nigeria a stable power supply. During Buhari’s Campaign for the presidency, he promised to fix the problem of power supply with Buhari’s first four years in power, if Nigerians vote for Buhari.
Fast-forward to today, Buhari is the president of Nigeria, Fashola is the man in charge of providing Nigerians the steady power supply he promised three years ago. The whole steady power supply thing is now becoming a reality because after being in charge for three years, Nigeria is still struggling with the provision of a stable power supply. Though while addressing the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce (NSACC) breakfast forum, he claimed they have done better than what PDP did in their 16 years in electricity. He said:
“You will compare our record of three years with what we met after the previous 16 (sixteen) years.”
“If you compare our performance record in three years with the 16 – year record of the previous administration in the areas of Generation, Transmission and Distribution you will get the following instructive results.”
“Incremental Generation of 1000MW per year against 4000MW in 16 years which amounts to 250MW per year, Transmission capacity improvement by 666MW per year against 5000MW in 16 years which amounts to 312.5MW per year and Distribution capacity improvement by 740MW per year as against 3,000MW in 16 years which amounts to 187.5MW per year.”
“I made it clear that our intention was to improve your power supply experience gradually rather than discuss the megawatts as the quantum of power, and that any reference to the megawatts would be measuring milestones of our progress in the journey of incremental power.”
“If you do not define your goal against your reality, progress will be difficult to recognise,” Mr Fashola said. “As to where we were in 2015, power generation was averaging 4,000 MW; transmission was averaging 5,000 MW and distribution was averaging 3,000 MW.
“As to what we promised, I stated in my very first public briefing in November 2015 that contrary to previous practice, we were committing to a journey; first of getting incremental power, with the plan to proceed to steady power, and ultimately get uninterrupted power.
According to Fashola, records show that from 4,000MW, the generation has reached 7,000MW, averaging incremental generation of 1,000 MW every year since 2015, and transmission has reached 7,000MW from 5,000MW, averaging 666 MW of incremental transmission every year and distribution peaked at 5,222MW in January of this year, from about 3,000 MW in 2015, averaging 740 MW incremental distribution capacity every year.
“How far we can go depends on what those of you who will decide who forms the next government do when you vote.”
He disclosed that by end of this year, another 945 MW will be ready for supply from the following power plants Azura (450MW), AFAM IV (240MW), Kaduna (215MW) and Kashimbilla (40MW). Zungeru (700MW) and Okpai II (450MW), both totalling 1,150MW, are expected to come into operation between 2019 and the first quarter of 2020.
