New Nigerian Newspapers Online Edition

Worried by the protracted power crises in the country, the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, has advised Federal Government to reconsider its policy on restructuring the power sector and possibly move into actual demonstration of the will to take necessary decisive action to tackle the power supply quagmire.
Fashola said though the presidency had said the provision of interrupted power supply must be treated as emergency but said every one is tired of such rhetorics as it cannot be reiterated too often that power is critical to the overall development of the country.
Addressing delegates at the maiden conference of the National Council on Commerce and Industry (NCCI) in Lagos last week, the governor said he believed that the emergency measure the country requires is to quickly complete the privatisation of the power sector, which according to him should be completed before end of the second quarter of this year.
Fashola also recommended that only qualified and competent investors be invited and allowed to take control of the eleven distribution and seven generation companies which the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) had been unbundled so that the can proceed to turn them around for efficient power generation and distribution.
He further suggested that if the government truly meant to find an end to the power problem it must deliberately put it self under pressure by setting a realistic but strict deadline to halt the importation of power generating sets.
This he explained should be the way to go if the country is really serious about providing its own power.
Alternatively, he said apart from hydro power supply government should consider other sources of power supply like solar power and the utilization of abundant coal supplies in the Middle Belt to generate power as being done in other parts of the world blessed with large supplies of coal.
In Lagos, the governor disclosed ongoing plans to establish an energy city that will transform the Badagry corridor of the state into a major business hub for oil companies and other players in the global energy industry.
Fashola also said there is a viable economic opportunities which exist for tor the establishment of an industrial park at Matori which is capable of generating 25 mega watts of power which small and medium enterprises can access.
He therefore urged delegates at the meeting to debate options and especially consider those advise put forward by him and hasten to find a lasting solution out of the protracted crises of darkness that has remained the greatest obstacle to Nigeria’s economic development.