Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Thursday, March 20, 2008

And for the defense in Nigeria...

As we should expect, there's a defense to the charges in Nigeria of vast waste in the electricity production industry. This report was published by Vanguard in Lagos. The article is nearly all quotations from testimony at the legislative hearings into the allegations of mismanagement and corruption.

OBJ Didn't Waste Money On Power

"GOVERNORS Olusegun Agagu (of Ondo state, at right above) and Liyel Imoke (of Cross River state, at right below), both of them Ministers of Power in the Obasanjo administration, declared yesterday that the much-talked-about expenditure on the power sector by that government was not a waste as widely thought...

"Clarifying his role as head of the Presidential Technical Committee on Power and later as the Minister of Power and Steel, Governor Imkoe said: 'Power supply is increasingly capital intensive. Another fact which I will like to state is until there is total completion of the power projects, it adds nothing to the grid. It will only deliver electricity when it is complete and connected...

"'I was drafted into the technical board in 2000... There was a total collapse of the national grid in March 2000...

"'On my appointment... the President asked us to repair dilapidated machines. There were 79 generating units... and only 19 were working. By the time we left in December, 44 units were working.

"'Before 2000, the last power station that was built was in 1987... In those 20 years the Nigerian economy had grown but we did not realize the importance of power in growing the economy...

"'There is no quick fix to the rehabilitation. Short of expansion of the grid and new capacity, we are going to be faced with challenges. Some suggested private sector involvement. It will take tremendous political will to achieve this..."


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