… Says Minister Complains too much, Lacks Solution
The Human Right Writers Association of Nigeria has Urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to quickly dismiss the underperforming power minister, Chief Adebayo Adelabu.
In a statement by its national coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko said that the minister’s stock-in-trade is incessant complaining and blaming others for the poor electricity supply situation in the country without offering any viable solutions.
According to HURIWA “Mr. President, you may need to accept the hard fact that you don’t have a functional electricity power minister but you do have someone you clothed with the authority of a cabinet level minister but whose penchant and passion is for electrifying the media and public spaces with sweet empty talks/rhetoric and he is ever so ready to look for who to blame but not himself who ought to provide solutions.”
“The other day, your power minister declared that the number of Nigerians that lack access to electricity from the national grid has increased to about 92 million.
He disclosed this at the closing ceremony of the 7th Nigeria International Energy Summit in Abuja, as operators in the power sector called for partnerships in the deployment of solar power to bridge the country’s electricity gap.” How is it the duty of the minister of power to be bemoaning the acute electricity power supply status of the population when in actual fact, his job is to bring messages of hope, optimism and then follow up his soothing words with empirical solutions.”
Nigeria generates between 3,000 and 4,000 megawatts of grid electricity for over 200 million citizens across the country; however, this figure remains abysmally low according to experts in industry players.
Despite his duty being primarily focused on finding sustainable solutions to address Nigeria’s energy poverty crisis through effective policies and programs implementation strategies etc., Chief Adebayo Adelabu seems more interested in engaging in meaningless grandstanding public speeches when it comes to discussing issues related with poor electric supplies nationwide since assuming office as Minister of Power.
HURIWA recalled that several national grid collapses have occurred since he became minister yet rather than working towards proffering lasting solution(s) Mr Adelabu continues verbal warfare against perceived adversaries within Nigeria’s Electricity Power Sector which doesn’t help matters at all because these attacks are not based on fact or logic but on personal vendetta.
The right group appealed to President Tinubu thus: “Sir, your renewed hope agenda wouldn’t make meaning to millions of Nigerians who rely on power supply from the national grid to power their small and medium scale enterprises. Mr. President, many of these businesses are closing shops because of the high operational costs occasioned by your administration’s recent hike in the costs of petrol and diesel”.
“How does your administration want these fragile businesses to remain on track when Nigeria has witnessed in less than a year, more national grid collapses so much like what we saw in the 8-years of Muhammadu Buhari’s misadventures in governance. Mr. President, are you in a hurry to beat the negative records of the bad government of Muhammadu Buhari?”
HURIWA told the president thus: ” Mr. President, please give Nigeria an effective electricity power minister and drop this noise maker who hasn’t added any value to the volumes of electricity power supplied to Nigerians. Nigerians are fed up with always reading meaningless public speeches by your power minister, but in reality, there is no electricity power in most parts of Nigeria.”
HURIWA lamented that Nigeria’s available power generation capacity fell by 981.8 megawatts between 2015 and August 2022 despite the over N1.51tn intervention in the sector as claimed without any credible evidence tendered publicly by the Federal administration of the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
The group called upon President Tinubu investigate alleged expenditures made during Muhammad Buhari-led government tenure which saw available generation capacity fall by almost one thousand mega-watts despite an over N1.51tn intervention package aimed at improving infrastructure development within Nigerian Electric Power sector.
Interestingly data obtained from Association Of Nigerian Generation Companies (ANGC), showed available generation capacities fluctuated between 2015-2022 periods ranging from a minimum level recorded Jan-August’22 at about 5634MWs compared previous years such as:
*2015 -6 ,616 MW
*2016 -7 ,039 MW
*2017 -6 ,871 MW
*2018 -7 ,506 MW
*2019 -7 ,381MW
It was also noted average utilized generations during review period hovered around levels below least available generation capacity recorded between January-August’22.
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‘’HURIWA has therefore suggested to the President that he needs to make hay whilst the sun shines by sacking the poorly performing power minister at the moment and enlist the service of an egg- head in the electricity power sector notwithstanding whether such a person is of the same ethnic stock with the president but the benchmark should be based on pure merits and competencies. The Rights group said the current administration got it twisted because the president was very particular about putting square pegs in round holes only because such persons are from his own side of the country. The group stated’’
