5 November 2009
Abuja — Former minister of Information, Professor Jerry Gana has said that lack of political will on the part of the Nigeria leadership is responsible for the embarrassing state of power supply in the country.
Jerry Ghana said this in Abuja yesterday at the International Summit and Exhibition on Energy (I-SEE) holding at the International Conference Centre.
He said with the natural resources available in Nigeria, generating sufficient power and distribution is no difficult task if the political leadership is honest, sincere and willing to invest qualitatively.
"We have tons of coal deposit in this country and it from this same mineral that South Africa generates 27, 000 megawatts of electricity. Hydro power sites are all over, not to mention the solar and bio mass energy in abundant supply", Gana said.
He said the government seemed not to be interested in implementing the 2005 power reform policy which is supposed to define the relationship between the government, the independent power producers as well as regulators and consumers for optimum results.
Gana who is the chairman of Supertech Energy Limited lamented that; "I have been waiting to sign the power purchase agreement for two years. Investors have been around, ready to invest but they are getting impatient at the moment as they have other places to go."
Mr Joshua Gana, the Managing Director of Supertech said: "There is gross insincerity about the power in Nigeria and I have said it before and still stand by it that the 6, 000 megawatts of power promised by government will not happen in December."
He recommended that renewable energies even though still expensive should be deployed to the rural areas where energy demand is low.
The Minister of Power Lanre Babalola gave the assurance that federal government will meet the 6, 000 megawatts target in December. He was represented by Dr George Oluwande.
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