We’ve not seen the promised change in electricity yet —Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday said that he hopes that Nigeria may soon begin to see the change the Federal Government promised in the power sector.

The former president stated this at the investiture of Adekunle Mokuolu as the 31st President of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE).

According to Obasanjo, figures released by government officials cannot be used to assess the power situation in the country. He said that the situation can only be ascertained by Nigerians who are the consumers of electricity.

He therefore called on the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Mr. James Olotu, an award recipient on the occasion, to see that Nigerians get value for their money.

Obasanjo, had before presenting the award to Olotu, demanded to know if all the power plants had been completed.

In his response, Olotu said that they were over 90 per cent completed.

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Apparently not satisfied with the response, Obasanjo said that the supply of electricity in various homes in the country would tell if the country had started witnessing the desired change in the power sector or not.

“Let’s hope that the 100 per cent of the (NIPP projects) will be completed and all of them will be feeding power into our homes. Maybe we will see the change,” he said.

This was just as NSE recently announced a decline in the general power infrastructure in Nigeria.

Over the years, successive Nigerian governments, including the former administration of Chief Obasanjo has committed billions of dollars into electricity projects around the country.

However there is yet to be any noticeable improvements in electricity supply to most parts of the country.

Several companies have closed shop, while many more have relocated to nearby countries due to the poor supply of electricity, throwing thousands of Nigerians out of jobs.

Those who have persevered, keep spending a fortune to provide electricity for their operations, which has contributed greatly in pushing up inflation, as it has had an upward push on the prices of goods and services.

The privatization process which has seen a name change from the National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has only been reflected in the change of name as operations of the company, and poor supply of power to Nigerian homes remain the same.

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