Mr Idris Mohammed, President, Daramol Power Consulting Company, has called on the Federal Government and other stakeholders to embark on full implementation of the new power sector recovery programme .
Mohammed made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved a power sector recovery programme comprising policies and actions that government hoped would create a viable sector, with emphasis on private sector participation.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, had said that the sector’s recovery programme would also monitor service delivery by the entire value chain comprising generation ,transmission and distribution companies.
Mohammed told NAN that the call for the full implementation of the new power recovery road map became necessary given the non implementation of previous well articulated road maps designed to develop the sector.
“We have had several power sector road maps in the past; there was one designed by the Presidential Commission on Power during President Goodluck Jonathan ’s time.
‘’’ It started during Prof. Barth Nnaji ‘s tenure as the chairman of that transition committee.
“ And then also Dagogo Jack was also the head of Presidential Task force on power.
“Each time they designed power road map, somehow, the implementation is not executed in its entirety.
“ So the new one that the Minster of Power ,Works and Housing is actually trying to initiate now is also the same as the previous ones – there is no fundamental change from what we have had before.
“What we need is for the government to declare a state of emergency in the power sector.
“If the government keeps saying it will be designing road map and then the implementation will not be carried out in its entirety, it is not addressing the issue.’’
Mohammed also said it was important for the sector to be given full priority above other sectors, given its pivotal role to the development of the nation’s economy.
“The Federal Government should remove the issue of power from the ministry. It should domicile it in the office of the president , and the president should appoint a sole administrator who will be reporting to him .’’
Mohammed said it was also very important to overhaul the transmission infrastructure in the country.
He said that the reliable transmission infrastructure in the country were those developed by the Niger-Delta Power Holding Company.
He said it was also necessary that government found a way of making distribution of electricity competitive by opening the electricity distribution window to other new interested companies.
“Right now the distribution companies do not have any competitor that you can compare their performance with. “(NAN)
KC/DO/IA