Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has criticised previous Nigerian leaders for the persistent crisis in the nations power sector, blaming decades of mismanagement and neglect for the current challenges. Adelabu made the remarks while hosting a delegation from the World Bank in his office in Abuja. According to the minister, past administrations failed to act decisively, leading to the decay of critical infrastructure and the underperformance of the sector. He stressed that President Bola Tinubu has prioritised power reform and is providing unwavering support to overhaul the system. We actually have a past that we are not proud of. Over the years, we have only been paying lip service to transforming the power sector but have not worked the talk," Adelabu said in a statement issued by his special adviser on strategic communications and media relations, Bolaji Tunji. "Previous administrations have kept on doing the same thing all the time and you cannot get different results for that, which is why we have decided to do things differently this time. In all the segments across the sector, we must run away from the past. He noted that the long-standing failure to maintain vital infrastructure such as transmission lines and transformers has severely impacted energy delivery. How will you explain the kind of infrastructure that we put together for our transmission network across the country? Thousands of kilometers of power line, thousands of power transformers, hundreds of thousands of distribution transformers that we have not maintained over time and expect them to keep sustaining our energy supply. It is not possible, he said. Adelabu also raised concerns over widespread infrastructure vandalism and the metering gap, stating, How do we allow our people to be vandalising infrastructure and expect stable electricity? So how do you have a sector with over 12 million customers and our meter is not more than six million and we expect to have a stable industry? No, its not possible. So what has happened with past governments? Highlighting Nigerias stagnant power output over the decades, Adelabu said, In 1984, when the military was in power here, we achieved a 2000 megawatts. Between 1984 and 2023, it took us 40 years to add additional 2000 megawatts. Now we have an average of 5,800 megawatts generation within one and a half years that we came to the office. What Im saying is that, if the past administrations have been adding things like this, we will not be where we are today. And that is why I said that President Tinubu is actually laying the kind of foundation that we need for our country to grow. He also accused the previous administration led by Muhammadu Buhari of failing to implement the Siemens power agreement signed in 2019. We entered into the Siemens contract in 2019. We never lifted a finger until 2023, when this government came on board. So you can now imagine since this President came in and now look at the mileage we have achieved, Adelabu stated. The minister revealed that the pilot phase of the Siemens project is nearing completion and expressed optimism for the future of the power sector. Appealing for continued support from development partners, Adelabu said, One thing that this administration has brought to the table is the seriousness, the determination, the commitment to make sure that the power sector is transformed. There is very little you can achieve in your agriculture sector, in your transportation sector, in your defense, education, or health; without stable and efficient electricity supply. That is why the President is really focusing on this, and he is supporting whatever we need to do to make sure that we transform this sector. He is ready to give us that support.Source: Linda Ikeji Blog š
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