Nigeria's Power Minister is Powerless - Emir Sanusi

Forum 8 years ago

Nigeria's Power Minister is Powerless - Emir Sanusi

Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has stated that the country's Power Minister has no control over the power situation in the country.

According to him, Nigerians don't pay enough attention to the organic link between their objectives, strategies, processes, procedures and results.

"One example I’ve always given is the power sector in Nigeria. I used to ask this question that, ‘please what really is the Power minister responsible for?’ And it sounds like a silly question.

“But the truth is, I don’t know about now, but as of the time I was in government, could anyone legitimately hold the Power minister responsible for delivering power? The PHCN (Power Holding Company of Nigeria) was privatised by the Bureau of Public Enterprises; the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is responsible for gas; regulation and pricing is done by the NERC (Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission), which is an independent body.”

“By the time you took out everything you need in power, the minister has nothing. He controls nothing. The Power minister cannot boast that I will deliver 1,000 megawatts because he can actually build a gas powered turbine and not have the gas. This is because the gas is under the control of a different ministry.

“Also, for hydro, the dams belong to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and the sites around the dams belong to the state governments. The water turbines belong to the Ministry of Power, but if you want to use hydro, the Ministry of Power does not have the dams. The point I’m making is that one of the reasons why we’ve not made much improvement on power is due to a lack of coordinating mechanisms.”

He added that the case is similar in the Transportation ministry and several other ministries.

He said this while delivering a keynote address during a stakeholders’ workshop on Road Transport Management and Mass Transit Operations in Nigeria organised by the Federal Ministry of Transportation in Abuja.