States ‘empowered by law’ to generate, distribute electricity- Fashola

Former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, on Monday said that lack of funding was hindering infrastructure development, noting also that States were now empowered by law to generate and distribute electricity.

Fashola, who is one of those President Muhammadu Buhari nominated as ministerial nominees on the list he sent to the Senate last week, stated this while being screened by the federal lawmakers on day four of the ongoing ministerial nominees screening.

He also stated during the screening that states in Nigeria “are empowered by law” to generate and distribute electricity.

He said, “The major problem for road construction is funding. PPP are complex and Sukuk is an example of how we are trying to bring private sector in.

“Our procurement law is not compatible with the speed with which we want projects to be executed. The way our procurement law is enacted, it is the big contractors that can make the most money. Our law is holding us back.

“In our closing report, there was no state that we were not executing a federal project. We also had roads that decongested and led to ports.”

He added that at the time he left office, his ministry was working on roads in 14 universities.

On what he was able to achieve as a former minister of power he said, “During my first term as minister of power, we recovered 720 containers of electricity equipment abandoned at ports.

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He also said that “since privatisation occurred, the ministry of power ceased to be a major player in the sector. We only deal with regulatory issues now.”

Earlier, former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu had asked Fashola, “if interested private people could help in road construction and if Fashola would be willing to oversee a situation where zones of the country can generate their own power.”

Senate President Ahmed Lawan, who had earlier acknowledged that over 30 senators were waiting to ask Fashola question, later asked the former Lagos State governor to ‘take a bow and go’.

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