New Nigerian Newspapers Online Edition

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has clarified issues concerning spending on the power projects undertaken by his administration. In his presentation before the House Committee on Power and Steel, the former President explained that the amount spent depended on what areas of commitment the committee decided to look at.

A copy of the presentation, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja, said: “Various figures have been bandied around ranging from four billion U.S dollars to 16 billion U.S dollars.

“They may all be right or they may all be wrong depending on what anybody takes as expenditure most of which is constant no matter what amount of power is generated, transmitted or distributed.

“That figure will include personal emolument of staff, pensions, gratuities, transportation, maintenance, rural electrification, etc,’’ he said.

Obasanjo said if staff emolument and others were removed and expenditure was limited to only running or operating costs and capital expenditure for generation, transmission and distribution, a new set of figures would emerge.

However, he said, if one added power-related training and expenditure in other ministries and departments such as education, NNPC and industry, one would get yet another set of figures.

“If you limit yourself to capital expenditure and running costs, you will get a set of figures that can truly be said to be really expenditure on power,’’ he added.

The former President said that he had been told that the figure in this regard from 1999 to 2007 was in the region of 6.5 billion dollars, including outstanding letters of credit.

He said that in all, for anyone to say that there was little or nothing to show for it would be the greatest understatement of the year which would tend to portray inadequate knowledge or ignorance.

Obasanjo said: “From what I have said above, there are results to show for the expenditure. What is required is serious, adequate and committed follow-up and sustenance from where we stopped.

“If the total expenditure has not translated to power availability at our homes and for our industries, it is because the little additional expenditure that is necessary for completion or for sustenance has not been made.

‘’For example, if you spend 200 million dollars on a power station and the switch gear costing less than half a million dollar is not installed, you will not get the benefit of the 200 million dollars already invested.’’

He added that for the uninitiated, nothing had happened.

Obasanjo observed that theatrical or circus shows would provide fun and perhaps hurt some people but the reality would remain.

He advised the government to do everything possible to urgently implement the projects in the pipeline to minimise the current agonies of the Nigerian public.

He noted that one year was already lost, warning that Nigeria could not afford to lose another without dire consequences in the coming years.

He urged all Nigerians to be progressively positive and cumulatively constructive to move the country forward by moving away from the current “pull him down (phd) syndrome.”

“In summary, when our Administration came in in 1999, we met seven power stations — Kainji, Jebba, Shiroro, Egbin, Afam, Sapele and Delta — all together in different stages of disrepair and obsolescence, generating about 1,500MW.

“By 2007, we had added six new stations as follows with the seventh almost completed at Alaoji: a. Okpai in Delta - 480MW by Agip; b. Afam II - 276MW; c. Omotosho - 330MW; d. Palalanto - 330MW; e. Geregu - 414MW; f. Ikot Abasi-Ibom Power - 145MW - to which the federal government is a partner; g. Alaoji - 545MW. “To these must be added about 2000MW produced by Rivers State,’’ he said.

“We we must also take cognisance of the heavy rehabilitation works in all the existing power stations, increasing their available capacity significantly.

“There are six NIPP projects in the pipeline and the expansion of Omotosho, Papalanto, Geregu and Alaoji to about 1,000MW each by combined cycle and 2,500MW from Mambilla.’’

Obasanjo said that in eight years of his administration, six new power generating units of almost 2,000MW had been added.

He said that there was no transmission work embarked upon between 1982 and 2000 but that by May 2007, “we had taken transmission to Bayelsa State for the first time and doubled the transmission from Shiroro to Abuja to ensure stability of supply.’’

The former President said that his administration also awarded all the transmission contracts to close the transmission loop and ensure that vandalism of transmission or any fault in the transmission line will no longer keep any part of the country in the dark if there is adequate power generation.

“This is to ensure stability of power supply nationwide,’’ he noted, saying, “at the same time, we have embarked on pre-paid meter system to reduce non-payment of electricity bills and eliminate unauthorised connection.

“We moved from revenue generation of about two billion Naira per month in year 2000 to about seven billion Naira per month in 2007.

“Repairs on the pipeline that was vandalised in February 2006 and which began immediately were completed only in March 2008.