Stable power supply impossible before 2011 – NEC sub-committee
Benue State Governor, Mr. Gabriel Suswan, on Monday said it would take at least three or four years to ensure stable power supply in the country.
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Mrs. Fatima Ibrahim, Minister
Suswan, who spoke at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, shortly after a meeting of the National Economic Council sub-Committee on Power, also informed journalists that he would take legal action against those alleging that he embezzled N24bn accruing to Benue State from the Excess Crude Oil Account.
The NEC sub-committee on power, comprising six governors representing the six-geopolitical zones, met with Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, to consider the progress report on plans by President Umaru Yar’Adua to declare an emergency in the power sector.
Members of the sub-committee are the governors of Imo, Benue, Kwara, Kaduna, Delta and Ekiti states, as well Danjuma Goje of Gombe and Liyel Imoke of Cross River.
The last two were co-opted due to their experience in the power sector as former ministers of power during former President Olusegun Obasanjo‘s administration.
The implementation of the emergency plan is currently awaiting the approval of legislatures in all the 36 states of the federation, to a proposal by the President to deduct about $5.3bn from the Excess Crude Account.
Although he was optimistic that the target to generate 10,000 megawatts of electricity by 2010 was realisable, Suswan explained that results from ongoing measures to ensure sustainable power supply would not fully manifest until three or four years’ time.
He said, “You know there are quiet a number of issues involved in the steady power supply and it is not something that can be done in a day, when you are putting up power infrastructure it takes a whole lot of time.
“There are intermediate measures anyway, some of which include resuscitation of some of the moribund substations or transmission lines.
“That is immediate but to build a sustainable power supply in the country is something that will take not less than three to four years because we are talking of building plants of not less than 5,000 megawatts and 10,000 megawatts. These are plants that don’t take weeks.
“You will notice that there is remarkable improvement in power supply in recent months. Some of the obsolete equipment that have been replaced have enhanced power generation for now.
“I think once we fit in some of the interim measures as it was presented by the minister of power to the NEC we will have an improvement, but the target which they have, which is 2010, was to be able to achieve at least 10,000 megawatts which I think is achievable given the things which have been put in place.
“The governors, local government chairmen and the federal government have agreed to put substantial amount of money in place in other to address the issue of power.
