Suleiman Bello,Former Minister of Power, on Thursday said that one of the major problems in the
power sector is the incompetence of ministers appointed to man the sector over
the years.
Suleiman Bello said this to the Senate Ad hoc Committee on
Power during the ongoing power probe that another problem was that the
ministers appointed were usually given a short period of time to work.
Saying that, although there is no doubt that privatization
was a good step, the 2005 Environmental Protection Regulation Act (EPR) must
also be reviewed from time to time.
“One of the major problems of the Nigeria power sector is
the incompetence and lack of knowledge of the sector by the ministers appointed
to run the sector and the short time (less than two years in the past decade)
that the ministers are given to run the sector.
“Acts such as the EPR Act (2005) must be reviewed from time
to time as is the case in other countries where such attempt at privatisation
were made.
“Acts cannot decide how this nation should be run. This is a
nation trying to get 5000 MW. For ten yrs the argument has been how to sell
3000 MW.This is the only country that spends billions every year.
However, Bello stressed that the nation constantly talks
about increasing generation but has not given a clear cut initiative on how to
achieve this.
He went ahead to say that it was easier for new technology
to be deployed in the telecoms sector following the liberalization of the
sector because licenses were given to investors to start from scratch without
necessarily unbundling Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and selling
it.
He also complained that the nation keeps saying there is no
money in the power sector meanwhile the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) gave the
sum of 220 billion naira for the reform of the power sector.
Meanwhile, he urged that credibility and competence must be
shown to attract investors in the power sector.
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