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Labour condemns FG’s continuous spending on power sector

By BusinessNews Staff on May 16, 2014

The Federal Government’s continuous spending on the power sector has been described as very worrisome considering all the resources and activities that went into the sector’s privatisation process.

The General Secretary, National Union of Electricity Employees, Mr. Joe Ajaero, said this in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Monday.

He said despite the clear conditions set for the investors in the power firms, the government was still running the sector as if it was a quasi privately-driven sector.

“This same government that privatised the power sector is still spending money heavily on the same sector after its sale. This calls for worry. For instance, this government is still buying transformers. I don’t think the sector is private sector-driven yet,” Ajaero said.

He also commented on the Federal Government’s plan to spend $3.7bn to upgrade the nation’s power transmission infrastructure.

The NUEE boss doubted the government’s sincerity in this regard, saying this was not the first time that money would be released to the transmission section of the power industry.

Ajaero said, “I don’t know how they want to do this. I don’t know if they are going to involve contractors again. But, of course, it will be a nice thing if the transmission infrastructure is improved.

“The government had earlier signed a deal with Manitoba on transmission; and now, it is planning a $3.7bn spending on transmission. I don’t know what they want to use this money for.

“One thing we must understand is that the transmission network cannot be upgraded in isolation. Generation and distribution infrastructure should be looked at also. The transmission network alone is like an empty vehicle that needs to be loaded. So, all other areas must be improved upon.”

Ajaero also doubted the ingenuity of the government as regards the privatisation of the power sector, saying that if it was sincere about the process, it would not have spent about 10 years to decide on selling 4,000-megawatt capacity, which is what the privatisation process was all about.

Vice President Namadi Sambo had said last week while granting audience to the management of Genesis Electricity Consortium led by a Nigerian businessman, Mr. Arthur Eze, that with the injection of the $3.7bn, the government would be able to wheel up to 20,000MW of electricity.

He added that the government, in its efforts to improve power generation, planned to invest $8bn on a Public-Private Partnership basis to develop local gas potential.

Sambo also said there were moves to fast-track the system to ensure availability of gas to power plants by involving owners of the new plants and international oil companies in the development of gas infrastructure.

[Punch]

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