Leadership (Abuja)
Golu Timothy
9 November 2009
Abuja — With 50 days to the promised deadline for the attainment of the 6,000 megawatts of electricity for the country, the Federal Government has assured that it will not fail Nigerians.
The government said everything necessary has been put in place for the actualisation of the tall dream, appealing to the people not to lose hope. The government also announced that presently, the available megawatts generated and being distributed has moved from 2,450 in the last one month to 2,900 as at yesterday. President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua had promised that 6,000 megawatts of electricity would be generated and distributed before the end of 2009, and 10,000 would be delivered by the end of 2010.
The government added that at the moment, there is available generation capacity of 5,000 mw, and that the vandalism of pipelines and gas facilities by militants in the Niger Delta has restricted the supply of gas to the power plants to actually generate the needed power.
Minister of State for Power, Nuhu Way, told State House correspondents at a meeting of the National Integrated Power Projects at the Aso Rock Villa, (NIPP) Steering Council chaired by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. He said, "We are working round the clock to solve the inherent problems concerning power generation. But we assure you that government will deliver on its promise".
He expressed worry that power plants at Geregu, Omotosho and Papalanto are generating far below capacity because of inadequate gas and that as contractors and consultants return to work in the wake of the amnesty deal, substantial improvement will be recorded by year's end.
He added, "We have enough transmission capacity for 5,000mw. We have an issue and that issue is availability of adequate gas. As I said before, we have a new plant in Geregu that can generate about 400mw but today it is not producing because of lack of gas. The same thing applies to Omotosho. But we do not have adequate supply of gas.
This is not to be blamed on anybody but the master plan of gas has been scattered by the activities in the Niger Delta. "We have been working around the clock in collaboration with NNPC to ensure that all the damages on the pipelines are put right and we are very very hopeful that before the end of the December deadline we would get a lot of these things fitted and Nigerians will enjoy the power as promised. "The gas problem is not related to us alone. A private company, Obajana, is also having the same problem.
They source for gas from the same point with us. And so it is not anybody's fault. It is a national problem that we have about the availability of gas to generate electricity." On the deadline, he said, "We are working round the clock to fix the inherent problems that are on ground and I want to assure Nigerians that we will deliver on our promise to give Nigerians an improved power supply come December 2009".
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