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Obasanjo and Nigeria power sector


A former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,
has attributed the rot in the power sector to the
administrations that came to office after his
tenure.
Obasanjo believed that if Nigeria must surmount
the power challenge, it must start generating
additional 2,000 megawatts every year.
He said apart from his efforts to ensure stable
power while he was the military Head of State in
1979, subsequent administrations did nothing on
power generation, up to the time he returned as
a civilian president in 1999.
The former President said this on Monday at a
programme tagged First Green Legacy Moment
with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Leadership and
Human Security in Africa, held in Abeokuta.
While he noted that part of the challenges
confronting the nation was lack of political will
by Nigerian leaders, he, however, warned that
power should not be “privatised to friends.”
He said, “Part of our problems is lack of political
will on the part of the leaders. What does a
leader understands about development? Any
leader worth his salt should know that power is
very important. It is the driver of all
development, be it social, economic, and even
political.
“When I was military head of state, I developed
the Jebba dam, I developed Shiroro, I started
Egbin. Shagari came and completed Egbin and
inaugurated Jebba and Shiroro.
“Between Shagari in 1983, until I came back in
1999, there was no single dime invested in
power generation. If anything, the ones that were
there were allowed to go down.
“A country like Nigeria must be adding not less
than 2,000 megawatts every year if we are to be
moving on the part of development.
“If you will remember, when I came back in
1999, my first Minister of Power was late Bola
Ige. I won’t say Bola didn’t know what he was
doing and he said publicly that he would fix the
power problems in six months.
“After one year, Bola, with his capacity, couldn’t
fathom what was wrong with power; it was
riddled with corruption. Then, we had no money.
People have forgotten that in 1999/2,000, the
price of crude oil was US $9 per barrel.
“When we started having money, we started the
National Integrated Power Plant. When we said
the money we had should be invested in power,
my successor (Umar Yar’Adua) didn’t
understand; he stopped it.
“If for almost 20 years, we did not achieve
anything in power generation, then we may not
be able to get it again.”

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