The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, have denied making any campaign promise of providing 20,000 megawatts of electricity to Nigerians during the build up to 2015 elections.
The APC and its presidential candidate then, Muhammadu Buhari, had during the campaign promised Nigerians 20,000 megawatts of electricity in its first four years in office if voted into power. Similarly, Fashola had stated in his lecture:
“Nigeria’s Electricity Challenge: A Roadmap for Change,” that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), under his watch, would increase transmission capacity on the grid to 20,000 megawatts for over five years. In the lecture, Fashola said: “TCN has expressed a desire to increase transmission capacity from 5,000MW to 7,000MW, 10,000MW to 13,000MW to 16,000MW and 20,000MW over five years from 2016.
In February 2015, the APC, while unfolding its power agenda, stated that it would generate at least 20,000 megawatts of electricity in four years to surpass Nigeria’s consumption level of around 15,000MW. The party’s Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO), in promising the 20,000 megawatts, said that the Federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan had only added 1,400MW to the national grid in four years.
But fielding questions from journalists at the APC National Secretariat on Tuesday, both the minister and national leadership of APC denied making any such promise and also wondered when and where the promise was made, The New Telegraph reports.
According to the minister and the NWC members led by the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie- Oyegun, there was no time the party made such a promise, as they queried: “Where did you read that one? If you can’t produce where you read that, it means you are not right.”