Former Power Minister, Barth Nnaji, reveals solutions to current power challenges

A former Power Minister, Barth Nnaji, on Monday, gave suggestions towards redressing the power challenges bedeviling the country.

Nnaji, who is also a governorship aspirant in Enugu State under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) made this known during a live interview on AriseTV monitored by Ripples Nigeria.

The country has been plagued with teething power issues with the national grid collapsing several times within this year alone to the detriment of the economy.

In order to effectively eliminate this issue, Nnaji advocated for the establishment of clustered power grids scattered across the various regions, in addition to the national power grid for electricity reliability.

“As a nation, we should be talking about 4,000MW in a country of 200 million people. We cannot have just national control of power; we can have national power grid in addition to regional grids and nothing in the Constitution stops this. The regions doesn’t necessarily mean the geopolitical region; they can be in the form of clustered, smaller grids.

“Most states don’t have the capital to generate on their own but if there are regional grids, states will work with private sector to ensure reliable electricity resulting in a semi-autonomous utility. Doing this will result in embedded generation, which delivers more than enough power,” he said.

Nnaji further spoke on the rotational policy in Enugu State ahead of the 2023 elections.

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According to him, the principle is important in order to engender fairness and inclusiveness amongst the various stakeholders, while explaining Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s aspirations.

“Sen Ekweremadu can run since it is in the Constitution but there is an agreement between rotating between Enugu West, East and North senatorial zones.

“Previous Gov, Sullivan Chime supported the zoning formula which led to the emergence of current Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. The system is working for the betterment of the state because the fairness is important.

“It can’t be removed during the time of Enugu East which is why only Ekweremadu is running from the West and nobody is running from the North,” Nnaji said.

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