From David Onuoja, Abuja
The Managing Director, and Executive Secretary, Association of Power Generation Companies (APGCs), DR Joy Ogaji, has called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency declared State of Emergency on Power sector, as the only menace in solving the problem of electricity in Nigeria.
Dr Ogaji who said this in an exclusive interview with The Graphic newspaper in Abuja, said the time to declare state of emergency on power, is no other time than now.
She added that, the time for blame game should be over if Nigeria is to be named among the committee of nations where power industry is booming.
Citing an instance where Morocco was said to be requesting to supply electricity to Nigeria whom and where an enormous availability and abundance of power sources in the Country is glaring.
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According to her, “let the state of emergency be declared on power. Let serious attention be giving to it. The necessary things done, people that would manage it should be considered and then, you will see that the issue of power sector value-chain is something of the past.
“Let those who should not have business with power come or take control of it. It should be purely on merit. Lets give it a try and you will see that Nigeria can do it better than those who are clamouring to give or supply us light here”, she revealed.
Speaking on the association’s role in terms of making power generation the most efficient for the country, Nigeria, she said, the role of the association is not to make generation available to Nigerians alone. “As you may likely know, power generation is not a free product. It’s a very capital-intensive operation. So if Nigerians want more power, they should be willing to pay.
“That is the reason why I said let there be ‘key performance indicators’ to monitor the leadership and everybody. Who monitors the NERC commissioners? What are the KPIs for each of the commissioners? The directors in the Ministry of Power, what are their KPIs? Let there be KPIs So that we can see their performance indicators. What are they performing? The reason why these KPIs are very critical is because they are the ones responsible to monitor the private investors.
“So how can somebody who is supposed to monitor and supervise me, does not even know what I do in my business? If you don’t understand the business of power, the business of power generation companies, how do you monitor me?
“This is why I say it has to come from the leadership. And for that to happen, it has to start from the president. Everything lies with the president, and it is captured in the Electricity Act of 2023. (The Electricity Act 2023 signed into law by President Bola Tinubu, on June 5, 2023, repeals the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005.),”
