El-Rufai: Previous administrations failed woefully in their power sector reforms

Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, has called for the restructuring of the National Electricity Regulatory commission (NERC), saying the power sector has failed “woefully”, despite reforms by successive governments.

Speaking at the second edition of the national council on power meeting held in Kaduna, el-Rufai said the sector is in a shambles as a result of incompetent people at the helm of affairs in the commission.

He alleged that shortly before the 2015 election, NERC slashed electricity tariff in order to favour former President Goodluck Jonathan in the election.

“The reforms in the power sector previous administration have failed… we are back to where we were in 2001-2002, we are generating the same amount of electricity,” he said.

“One of the reasons why it (NERC) has failed, in my opinion, while communication and telecommunication sector have succeeded, is the kind of people that were appointed to be the regulators of the Nigeria electricity regulatory commission.

“We did not attract any foreign investment into the sector because the regulatory framework is not working and lacks credibility. The decision by  National Electricity Regulatory Commission in March last year to reduce tariff just to help former President Jonathan win elections destroyed any sense of independence and credibility of the commission.”

The governor expressed the determination of the present administration to fix power, under the guidance of Babatunde Fashola, minister of works, power, and housing.

He appealed to Fashola to appoint “capable hands” that would help the current administration to implement its change agenda.

El-Rufai also called on the private sector to partner with the government, making reference to how the privitisation of the telecommunications sector yielded results.

“We couldn’t solve the telecoms problems with NITEL  alone even after sinking billions of  dollars, we had to open out the sector to have independent regulators, MTN, Econet, Glo and everyone came and now every Nigerian has a phone,”he said.

“If the same is done in the power sector,  every Nigerian will have electricity in a few years.”