Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, has blamed past administrations for the power challenges facing the country.
Adelabu said that former Nigerian Presidents and military rulers failed to do things differently, but were expecting different results.
According to the statement by the minister’s media aide, Mr. Adelabu told the World Bank delegation in his office in Abuja that the current government is laying a solid foundation for a stable, reliable, and effective power supply and is willing to partner with international agencies and reputable organisations to achieve the objectives.
He blamed the “neglect of the sector by the past administrations” for the rot and the degeneration that the sector is passing through, adding, however, that there has been significant improvement since President Bola Tinubu took over in May 2023.
Adelabu argued that past efforts to transform the sector did not amount to anything.
“We actually have a past that we are not proud of. Over the years, we have only been paying lip service to transforming the power sector. We have not worked on the talk. Previous administrations have kept on doing the same thing all the time, and you cannot get different results for that, which is why we have decided to do things differently this time. In all the segments across the sector, we must run away from the past,” he said.
The minister lamented the neglect of power infrastructure, which he said contributed to the present problems in the sector.
Adelabu blamed the previous administration headed by President Muhammadu Buhari for allegedly failing to implement the Siemens contract since it was signed in 2019.
“We entered into the Siemens contract in 2019. We never lifted a finger until 2023 when this government came on board. So, you can now imagine since this President came in, and now look at the mileage we have achieved. Even in this Siemens project, the pilot phase is almost completed, and that is in less than two years, when in four years we didn’t do anything,” Adelabu said while expressing optimism that the future is bright for the sector.
He claimed that the challenges of the power sector were of utmost concern to Tinubu, and he had given total support to all efforts at making the sector work.
The minister commended the support the sector has received from the World Bank and other partners and implored them to continue in that spirit to ensure the current administration’s investments succeed.
“We’ve seen your support in transmission, we’ve seen your support in distribution, we have seen your support in renewable energy, almost in every facet, even in generation,” local mdia reports quoted the minister as saying.
GIK/APA