No Hope for Nigeria Power Sector - Senate

The Nigeria Senate had a critical talk and review of the progress made after privatization of the Power Sector following a debate and discussions on a motion moved by Senator Dino Melaye (APC Kogi West), entitled “DISCOs, electricity consumers and the burden of over-billing.” 

As the Senate began discussions on the power sector in Nigeria, yesterday, a very gloomy picture was painted by senators who came to the conclusion that there was no hope of Nigeria coming out of its present power crisis.

The Senate, which noted that the power sector was in dire need of emergency response, said Nigerians would not have steady power supply because the distribution companies were bankrupt and could not, therefore, procure meters.

Consequently, the upper chamber asked that the privatisation of the sector be revisited without delay.

In his contribution, Senator Mustapha Bukar, APC, Katsina North, while lamenting the ugly situation of the power sector, said that going by realities on ground in the sector, the country was sitting on an emergency without any sign of immediate solution.

According to him, though the nation has capacity for generation over 12,000mega watts, only 4,000mw have been achieved at any time, out of which 1,800mw are paid for by consumers, making the providers to be in perpetual indebtedness.

Senator Bukar, who is the Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, said: “The problem we have is the inefficiency within the system which we have actually so far not decided to address.