Currently , the country is in the dark with power generation already dropped to 1 ,580 .6 MW while the Minister of Power , Works and Housing , Mr . Babatunde Fashola (SAN) is receiving serious censure from Nigerians.
No excuse for non -performance , Nigerians took to social media platform to query the ‘Super Minister ” , whom of course has made more noise on tariff than generating power for the populace.
When the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission announced 5000 MW(Mega-watts) about two months ago , it looked like the minister had hit the ground running but the sudden drop of the capacity to 2 , 800 MW revealed the irrationalities the minister would have to battle to succeed.
Providing stable electricity in Nigeria goes beyond availability of funds , it encompasses provision of adequate security to protect facilities from vandalism , which of course is a tall order for government to do now .
The generation capacity had shuffled up to 4 ,387 MW lastlast week Friday only to crash to 2 ,800 MW due to serial gas pipeline vandalism in some parts of the country .
With some hours of strike by oil workers on Wednesday, the power generation dropped to 1 ,580.6 megawatts . At present , the Egbin Power Plc, Nigeria ’s largest plant with a capacity of 1320 MW , could barely generate up to 900 MW last week due to gas shortages occasioned by pipeline vandalism.
Fashola’s public rating has dropped with the drop in power generation no doubt.
The minister enjoyed so much accolades as Lagos State Governor and having ruled the megacity for eight years successfully , Nigerians expect him to replicate the idea at the federal level , which of course has been a difficult task for now .
He had spent much time debating why the electricity tariff must be increased by 45 percent than how the various power plants would be refurbished to meet the required capacity . He had attributed his shortcomings to vandalism.
Fashola is yet to come up with alternate way to generate electricity for the country , which of course is what most Nigerians are seriously waiting for.
When he came on board , Fashola said he wanted to gather all the information that had made power to fail in Nigeria . He is expected to have gathered enough information on vandalism , inadequate gas supply , moribund plants , paucity of funds and of course large army of generator importers.
Having got the idea of how small the problems are, Nigerians expect the minister to fix it but instead , it is a motion without movement .
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