Reps declare state of emergency on power sector

The house of representatives has declared a state of emergency on the power sector.

At the plenary session on Thursday, most of the lawmakers were enraged that Nigerians still do not have adequate power supply despite the various interventions made over the years.

Nigeria’s population is 198 million, but the country currently generates about 4,000MW of electricity while a little over 3,000MW is distributed.

In 2013, the federal government launched the privatisation programme to unbundle the power sector, but this did not provide the needed solution.

Debating a motion by Nnolim Nnaji from Enugu state, some lawmakers accused the electricity distribution companies (DisCos) of underperforming and called for a review of the power sector privatisation project.

Nnaji said the challenges in the power sector are connected to most of Nigeria’s problems including the high rate of unemployment.

He said: “The power situation in Nigeria is very unfortunate. I believe that if we can increase our power generation to up to 20,000MW, it will solve the issue.

“And the government is talking about foreign loan, if we can invest part of the money in power generation, I believe we can resolve the issue of unemployment. It is only power generation that can solve unemployment, rural-urban migration and so on.”

Ossai Nicholas from Delta state accused DisCos of cheating Nigerians since the privatisation of the power sector.

“How many houses have metres? Let us start from there. There is power that has been generated and has not even been distributed. The real problem is not power generation,” he said.

Olumide Osoba from Ogun state asked for a review of the power sector privatisation “since the DisCos are not performing”.