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Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' - Politics - Nairaland

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Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by moneygurl: 3:19am On Apr 12, 2009
*Gives Minister blank cheque

The current power supply situation in the country is taking a heavy toll on President Umaru Yar’Adua who has confessed that he “can hardly sleep again,” on account of the situation. He has consequently given Power Minister, Mr. Lanre Babalola, a blank cheque to deal with the problem fast and to the satisfaction of the generality of Nigerians.
Stable power supply is part of the 7-point agenda of the president and after about two years in office with little or no improvement from what he inherited, the president has come under serious attacks from Nigerians who, daily, bemoan the epileptic electricity supply they face at home and at work.

Thousands of paid employees have been thrown out of work following low production occasioned by the power problem while artisans find it difficult to work for the same reasons.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that at a recent meeting at  Aso Rock Presidential Villa, with Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, the Minister of Power, Mr. Lanre Babalola as well as top officials of the Ministries of Petroleum, Power and NNPC, the president pointedly told the Power Minister:

“Whatever  you need to succeed, I will give you. If anyone stands in your way and you want him or her out, just tell me and I will clear such a person for you. But I want results. I can hardly sleep again because of the power situation. I made a pledge to Nigerians that by the end of this year, they will enjoy stable electricity and it is a pledge I intend to keep. My name and credibility are at stake on this issue.”

At that point, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan chipped in that the credibility of everybody in the administration was at stake, including that of the minister himself.

Jonathan wanted it to be a collective success. But to this, President Yar’Adua was said to have interjected. “No, it is my credibility that is at stake. How many ministers of power have we had and who remembers them? If things fail tomorrow, Lanre (the minister) is a young man, he will simply dust his CV again and begin to look for another job but Nigerians will remember the promise I made.”

At that meeting, the president demanded a daily update from the Ministry and directed that the minister could see him anytime he wanted.

Sunday Vanguard gathered  that the power Minister now has unfettered access to President Yar’Adua. In fact, the minister is said to be briefing President Yar’Adua daily on every of his efforts. After the meeting, Babalola waited to see the president. And that explains why the next day, the PHCN Board was dissolved.

Babalola also got approval to suspend the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Board. Despite the teething challenges, Sunday Vanguard was informed that the minister has assured the president, there will be stable electricity by December.

Sunday Vanguard was told by Ministry of Power officials tha[b]t “what the minister is working on now is to rehabilitate and strengthen the Transmission Grid and the Distribution Network while expanding the Distribution Network to be able to wheel at least 6,000MW by December. The power problem sparked the recent probe of the power sector during the Obasanjo regime by the House of Representatives.[/b]

Although the president promised to declare a state of emergency in the power sector, this is yet to materialize

Sunday Vanguard was also tolf that the 6000 megawatts’ projection would be met in the following ways. First, the capacity as of today is 5000 but only 3000 is being transmitted. Then there is the issue of gas supply which has hampered operations.

The ministry plans to rehabilitate transmission lines with a view to maximising the supply of the remaining 2000 megawatts, as well as another capacity for the generation and transmission of another 500 megawatts. Shell, it was learnt, would be feeding another 300 megawatts in while two Independent Power Projects, IPPs being constructed would bring in 100 megawatts each.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/33365/41/
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by Kobojunkie: 3:20am On Apr 12, 2009
If this man actually said that, then he is an idiot!

This is almost 24 months afterwards and this is what he gives those who hired him to get the job done?
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by Seun(m): 3:25am On Apr 12, 2009
You can't build new hydroelectric dams, etc in 24 months. And the demand increases every day, so by the time they have enough power to supply current demand, the demand may have doubled. Forget about NEPA, it's just not going to work. Let's privatize it and let entrepreneurs have a go at the problem.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by Kobojunkie: 3:28am On Apr 12, 2009
He was never required to build new hydroelectric dams in the first place, and yeah, a serious president could have a hydroelectric dam constructed in less than 24 months if he so chooses.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by Nemeziz9ja: 4:46am On Apr 12, 2009
Blank Cheque? Insomnia? Another round of looting in the offing.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by CyberG: 5:45am On Apr 12, 2009
Anyone doubt what the result of this fire-brigade approach to solving problems would be? Wouldn't be different from what we have known for years! Much as this may be so, there are certain things that Yara could do that would have a long lasting effect. Some ideas:

1. Limit his efforts to the power plants that are already in existence, don't waste billions of dollars building new plants
2. Remove the useless bureaucracy that is killing power generation, transmission and distribution (in fact bureaucracy should be dealt with in a larger context and not just for PHCN)
3. Let Nigeria operate a true Federal constitution. . .let each state not only deal with its power problems but infrastructure, police, transportation and also generate their own revenue from which they will only pay taxes to the federal government. This will help to streamline the huge resource-guzzling do-nothing-but-steal federal government and their hangers-on.
4. By allowing each state to deal with power issues, state governments should encourage people to install solar and wind infrastructure to generate power, feed excess back to the grid and let their be a way of compensating people feeding back to the grid. . .a lot of people will gladly trade-in and give up petrol generators in the face of the incentives and long term cost-savings of renewable energy sources.
5. Last but not least, let private companies invest in power generation, transmission and distribution on a state by state basis not the whole country much like the phone companies.

Yara would have set a big precedence with some of these bold initiatives and should thereafter focus a lot of his energy on oversight at the Federal level, setting an example for state governors to follow. These ideas are non-exhaustive and could be interpreted in more than one way but a new approach would be a welcome development and will get results sooner than commissioning a Minister to do 'anything' to solve this problem.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by Jakumo(m): 7:10am On Apr 12, 2009
Now, finally, and in the fullness of time, we know the root cause of President Yar Adua's alarmingly jaundiced physical appearance. He has been subjecting himself to sleep deprivation over the absence of electricity in Nigeria, rather than actually doing anything at all to provide electricity to his subjects.

Now that a very reasonable and utterly satisfying explanation for Nigeria's 30-year total electrical blackout has been provided by her illustrious Maximum Leader, all expectations for the future restoration of electricity to Nigeria should be set aside immediately, so that the collective intelligence of all Nigerans can be devoted entirely towards the patriotic objective of seeking out MODALITIES that will enable Yar Adua to get a long overdue and well deserved night of uninterrupted sleep.

Praise the Lord !
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by otokx(m): 9:29am On Apr 12, 2009
For Nigeria to have power then there has to be a decentralization and deregulation. Each zone should be responsible for generating and distributing its power and if and when a zone has power that it can't consume then that left over shall it send to the national grid.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by blacksta(m): 9:33am On Apr 12, 2009
After almost two years of sleeping, I hope he has finally woken up
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by texazzpete(m): 9:40am On Apr 12, 2009
Dear Mr Yar'Adua
I can't sleep over the Power situation either. I've had no power in my house for over a week, even though all my bills and taxes are paid up with alacrity. As a result, the heat makes sleeping difficult.

Please fix this power problem ASAP and stop the cheap talk, k?


ktnxbai
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by oderemo(m): 9:40am On Apr 12, 2009
I hope he has finally woken up

wrong, wrong, this guy will never wake up, he is yar a - sleep. leopard cant change colour.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by otokx(m): 9:41am On Apr 12, 2009
Some people are hibernating.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by Horus(m): 10:05am On Apr 12, 2009
We have to found a way to produce more solar energy and more wind energy for electricity. Nigeria has substantial new and renewable energy resources, most of which are under-exploited
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by oderemo(m): 10:12am On Apr 12, 2009
We have to found a way to produce more solar energy


dont you think that is a big task for this present govt? this govt can not find its way to solving many problems even mundane problems we have at moment, clean water good roads etc, i think the guy that build the french tower started from foundations doesnt it, ? i think lets start from small achievements first then we move slowly up , dont get me wrong its doable if we have the mind.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by chidichris(m): 10:23am On Apr 12, 2009
If this man actually said that, then he is an idiot!

This is almost 24 months afterwards and this is what he gives those who hired him to get the job done?


Kobojunkie,
i am happy to see u again. my worry now is that you have joined the other complaining nigerians. talking about sleeping, many of us have been sleeping and are justing waking up like yar adua and many are still sleeping so waking up will be in God's hands.


You can't build new hydroelectric dams, etc in 24 months.  And the demand increases every day, so by the time they have enough power to supply current demand, the demand may have doubled.  Forget about NEPA, it's just not going to work.  Let's privatize it and let entrepreneurs have a go at the problem.

seun(m),
jeruselem was not buit in a day but no one has ever said how long it took to build jeruselem. as long as jeruslem was built, there must have been a time frame.
24 months not enough, then how long will be enough. remember obj past through this stage when many said 24 months was not enough and at the end of the day 24 X 4 was not enough hence the need for third term.
if you make population increase a case here, it will be good to believe that countries with steady power supply had operation stop production in their population while the work was on.


@topic,
yar adua sleeps comfortably. he has no interests in fixing our power supply so far because that has been the campeign topic of pdp since inception so fixing it now will be a minus to them. they have other areas of much interests like remaining in power for 1000 years, making sure they appoint the inec chairman, covering the criminal records of their top members.
i consider it very useless suggesting a solution to these criminals because they all know the solutions.
we are practically loosing all the international companies in nigeria bcs of power supply, security and bad roads yet yar adua is not sleeping.
if power supply is not possible in  24 months, what of our roads?
what happens to our security?
the pdp we know is another name for corruption and aso rock is playing host to nigeria's top criminals hence no hope for us.
if for real, yar adua has lost ideas in how to move the country forward as he promised in his campeign days, it will be a gentle thing doing to resign.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by Lagosboy: 10:07am On Apr 13, 2009
He should use valium or Nytol then silly man !!!!!!
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by Pataki: 10:29am On Apr 13, 2009
Is this part of the ''re-branding project''?

He should stop all these cheap publicity stunts, he is trying to pull-up. Until there is a change we can all see, whether he is sleeping or not, is not our headache!
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by MrCrackles(m): 10:34am On Apr 13, 2009
Bloody Lie

Ya'R'Dunce goes to sleep more than a dead battery!
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by proudly9ja(m): 10:41am On Apr 13, 2009
Painful thing is that electioneering starts from next year and we all know what that means, no work will be done till after elections in 2011.

So we have between now and 2010 to do as much as we can.

It's so sad that after hinging his election campaign on solving the Nation's power problem, he suddenly wakes up almost 2 years after to tell us he can't sleep! Has he bothered to know how many Nigerians can't sleep every night because there is no power to drive off the heat? or even cared to ask those who can afford generators but still can't sleep with both eyes closed because of the men of the underworld?

God save Nigeria
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by MaiSuya(m): 4:28pm On Apr 13, 2009
Poor YARD!  cry given all the challenges he is obviously passing thru(health and otherwise) ,PHCN now wants to compound the whole thing by denying him a peaceful night rest? haba e too much naaa
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by IFELEKE(m): 4:50pm On Apr 13, 2009
The Man is Tactless and visionless.
I mean what will you say of a President who regretted the country's absence from the G20 only to lead his gang of hawks to threaten Ekiti People on the Importance of Rigging NitWit Oni Back to Power.
For Shame!
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by bawomolo(m): 5:14pm On Apr 13, 2009
Aww poor guy. Life must be tough for a president living in Aso Villa.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by xterra2(m): 7:45pm On Apr 13, 2009
He is just not serious,He is lying if not he should have declared his Emergency on Power sector by now,and why cant he sleep?See this LIAR abeg we are tired of this LIES and other LIES,when he voted 2 billion for generator in the budget and is having uniterrupted power supply thanks to generators
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by arogbowei: 12:01am On Apr 14, 2009
Ha ha ha grin grin, the president cannot sleep because of power. I can't sleep either, the nuisance of power generating set won't let me. I've not had PHCN light in my neighborhood since October, save for a brief 2 weeks period in February.

Bravo! We have started throwing money at problems again, the same way we did with OBJ, this whole throwing of funds at problems without thinking them through will not work.

Hope they have done critical appraisal before throwing funds.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by Lady2(f): 12:45am On Apr 14, 2009
@ Seun

I agree, privatization of power would be best. The consumers can have a variety to choose from. The rest of the world are moving on to solar, wind energy. We need a variety and the consumers to choose which energy is best for them.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by flyuche(m): 1:11am On Apr 14, 2009
maybe the generator noise in aso rock no let am sleep grin
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by hbrednic: 3:01am On Apr 14, 2009
blank cheque,here we go again cheesy cheesy
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by hbrednic: 3:18am On Apr 14, 2009
flyuche:

maybe the generator noise in aso rock no let am sleep grin

maybe na de executive mosquitos grin
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by Naijex: 3:53am On Apr 14, 2009
Ha awon ode, If each L.G is able to generate ordinary 50 megawatt from our waste, blackout will be history.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by cabali(m): 4:24am On Apr 14, 2009
Well I agree with seun on the privatisation point.

I also agree with the fact that the issue cannot be resolved by December or even at all untill they find out how they can cut off Mikano and all other merchants of Generators and Mr Otedola.

The latter is the Diesel Mogul and he makes a fortune off of the electricity problems in the country. If Nepa stabilizes power supply, there will be little need for generators from mikano etc and further, Diesel from Otedola.

Handle those two and I know u are really serious wether u can sleep or not.
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by Strength10: 4:54am On Apr 14, 2009
Privatization is the way to go. Allowing individual states to generate thier own power will solve our power problem and Yaradua know this. But the probLem is that the Aboki Leaders will never allow that to happen in thier watch because they no the northern states cannot generate anything. They are parasites and always waiting for handouts. The north will be out of electricity if individual states are allowed to generate thier own power. In nigeria, any power that is generated goes to the national grid before it goes to the states b/f it is then re-distributed. So if lagos generates power themselves, it must share with Zamfara and Bornu the power it generates because these states have no means of generating anything. This idea was coined post biafra war to avoid some groups from getting too strong because the oji river power station powered Biafran states independent of Nigeria during the war until it was bombed by Nigeria and their British Counterparts. Till today, that power station is still rotting. But the point is that this policy is now affecting everyone. Lagos, Port Harcout, Enugu,Anambra and other states can easily contract with investors to generate thier own power but the power will first feed the national greed and then be used to power Abuja and the politicians before getting back to the people and the other parasites in the North that has nothing to contribute. So the whole process is frustrating and the north does not want other southern states to get too ahead of them since they are already 1 generation behind in a lot of things.
Yaradua knows what to do, but tribalism wil never allow nigeria to grow. We should put the interest of the people first and Nigeria should encourage competition. If the states compete, we will have anough power such that the extra will still be enough to power other states that cannot generate power. But Because our leaders are brain dead, bock heads, tribalist and resistant to change and vision, nigeria will continue to crawl in the 21st century,
Re: Yar'adua Confesses: 'I Can't Sleep Over Power Situation' by kazey(m): 6:02am On Apr 14, 2009
You guys are ridiculous !!

I find it quiet amazing that you think handing the power problem from federal to state would actually solve the problem !!, isn't that literally the same system? And how exactly is a state government's participation private? I don't get it?

If the Nigerian government really wants to fix this problem, they would allow private companies to run the power grids and distributions without regulation and tax them on their income.

If Nigerians really want the power problem fix, they would demonstrate in front of Aso rock for an entire month or more like the labor unions do, when it comes to salary increase.

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