Abuja — In line with his promise to
strengthen the administrative
structure to drive reform in the
power sector, President Goodluck
Jonathan yesterday named a
former Minister of Science and
Technology, Prof. Barth Nnaji, as his
Special Adviser on Power.
The Federal Government has also
budgeted N45.77 billion for
electricity subsidy in the 2010 fiscal
year, Accountant General of the
Federation, Mr. Ibrahim
Dankwambo, said yesterday.
Nnaji is a Professor of Mechanical
Engineering of the Universities of
Massachusetts and Pittsburgh in the
United States .
By his appointment, Nnaji will now
head the Presidential Task Force on
Power, which is saddled with the
responsibility of developing and
driving the action plan for the
attainment of steady power supply
in the country.
Jonathan had during his Presidential
Media Chat on Sunday hinted that
the appointment of the Special
Adviser on Power would be
announced yesterday.
He said so while responding to
questions on the progress of reform
in the power sector, which the
Federal Government under the late
President Umaru Musa Yar' Adua
set out to achieve.
A statement issued yesterday by
the Special Adviser to the President
on Media and Publicity, Ima Niboro,
said Nnaji is expected to work with
other members of the Presidential
Task Force on Power "to evolve
workable strategies for rapid
improvement of power generation,
transmission and distribution in the
country."
He said members of the task force,
which would report directly to the
President and the Presidential
Action Committee on Power, include
the Permanent Secretary (Ministry
of Power); Group Managing
Director, Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC);
Managing Director, Power Holding
Company of Nigeria (PHCN);
Managing Director, Niger-Delta
Power Holding Company (NDPHC);
and Director General, Bureau for
Public Procurement (BPP).
Other members of the task force,
according to him, are the Director-
General Bureau for Public
Enterprises (BPE); Accountant-
General of the Federation; Chief
Executive, Nigeria Electricity
Regulatory Commission (NERC);
Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of
two power distribution companies;
CEOs of two generating companies;
Director of Power in the Ministry of
Power and the Senior Special
Assistant to the President (Special
Projects.)
According to the statement, "The
newly-appointed Special Adviser
will also work with seven Special
Assistants who will oversee the
monitoring of performance and
progress on specific power sector
issues in the areas of generation,
transmission, distribution, fuel-to-
power, the National Integrated
Power Project, BPE, regulatory
issues and other transition enablers,
and labour issues."
Jonathan had during the media
chat hinted that the Federal
Government might opt for
privatization to bolster power
generation and distribution.
According to him, "We believe that
generation must be completely
privatized. No matter what, if you
bring government to continue to
generate, you would never get
anywhere.
"Distribution must be completely
privatized because there have
been some leakages through one
way or the other. Government can
concentrate on just transmission
and; even that transmission
government can still give it out to
consultants at a particular
arrangement."
He said that for now, government
was trying to see if some of the
transmission and generation
projects that were on-going could
be completed soon.
Dankwambo, who spoke to select-
journalists in Abuja, however said
that the dream of uninterrupted
power supply may not be realised
any time soon as the Federal
Government did not possess the
requisite financial resources to
develop the energy sector.
The private sector that would have
supported efforts of the
government by investing in the
sector, he expalined, were not
encouraged due to heavy
subsidisation by the later.
Going forward, Dankwambo
therefore advised the Federal
Government to immediately
deregulate the energy sector, so as
to drastically improve electricity
supply in the country.
He said with the long history of
power price determination and its
attendant adverse effect on the
overall socio-economic
development of the nation and its
people, only full deregulation of the
sector will create the needed
incentives for potential
investments required to turn
around the sector.
"If the energy sector is not
deregulated, the truth is that only
the Federal Government will be
able to invest because the
necessary incentives to attract and
encourage private sectors'
investments are not there", the
AGF said.
Nigeria's Jonathan Appoints
New Power Adviser
NEWS — Nigeria: President
Names Special Adviser on
Power
PEOPLE — Professor Bart Nnaji
Dankwambo decried the current
arrangement where the cost per
unit of power is N22 for
government to purchase and
thereafter sell for only N6. He
insisted that such arrangement
amounted to wastage of scare
resources that would have been
channeled into other productive
areas of development.
"The current situation is
unsustainable because government
cannot afford to continue buying
power from independent producers
at N22 only to sell at N6 to the
public, thereby incurring a huge loss
of N16 per unit cost.
"This is definitely an abnormality
that should not be allowed to
continue in the overall interest of
Nigeria 's socio-economic
development and growth," he
added.