The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has disclosed that the Federal Government has spent a whooping sum of N1.7trillion on power in the last three years without much progress.
El-Rufai made the disclosure while briefing journalists on the outcome of the National Economic Council, NEC, meeting presided over by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.
He described the power situation in the country as a national emergency that requires all hands on deck to interrogate why the sector was not working to the benefit of Nigerians.
El-Rufai said the solutions to the nation’s problematic power sector might be painful because the government could not continue to finance a sector that had gulped N1.7 trn without much progress.
He said: “The National Economic Council appointed two committees last year. I was privileged to chair and we brought a progress report to the council.
“We all agreed that the electricity supply industry is broken and the situation of the power sector is a national emergency that requires all hands to be put on deck to interrogate why the sector is not working for the overall progress and benefit of Nigerians.
“There is the will on the part of the committee members to really go into the root of the problems and speak to ourselves in an honest national conversation and find a way to fix this sector because this country will never make progress, will never create jobs until we industrialize with a functioning electricity sector.
“There are other issues. The entire sector is broken, the tariff is an issue, the way the privatization was done is an issue to many. So, there are many issues. What we have agreed on is that there are fundamental problems in the electricity supply industry.
“The federal government has supported the electricity sector with N1.7 trillion in the last three years and this is not sustainable. So, solutions must be found, those solutions are not going to be nice, they may be painful but the only way to solve the structural problems in the industry is to take some very difficult decisions.”
