2023: Stop generating political megawatts – NCPN to presidential candidates
Story from Abah ADAH, Abuja
As electioneering towards the 2023 general elections in Nigeria begins to unfold, Frontline consumer advocacy platform, Nigeria Consumer Protection Network (NCPN), has appealed to the presidential candidates of the various parties to refrain from promising Nigerians megawatts of electricity on the pages of newspapers and social media just to get to power and fail like their predecessors.
In the count down to the elections, some contestants, knowing that the very critical power sector has performed abysmally over the years to the disappointment of all Nigerians,
have in their manifestos promised to fix the sector and increase generation in order to improve power supply.
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The President, NCPN, Kunle Olubiyan, who made the call in a statement said the presidential candidates have to tell Nigerians how they wil do it and how feasible their plan is, and stop making “bogus” promises that they will not realise.
“The Presidential candidates should speak straights to the fundamentals issues and tell Nigerians how they will address the root causes of energy crises in Nigeria and stop making bogus promises and claims as per the electricity sector.
“I will increase Power Generation from
5, 000 Megawatt – 30, 000 Megawatts is not enough. How do.you intend to do that. Please let us know,” he said.
He expressed regret that the country has had 7,500 megawatts generation capacity out of the about 14,000 installed capacity for years, but only an average of 3,600 megawatts gets to the end users.
He said even when power is said to have been put on the grid to be wheeled out, the electricity distribution companies (DisCos) are usually accused of rejecting load for reasons best known to them.
“Why is it that since December, 2021 ,
power supply situation in Nigeria has degenerated to this very embarrassing level, what are the issues that has brought us to this mess in spite , even as there available energy, why do we always have about 4,000 Megawatts of stranded electricity, while wheeling or distributing an average of 3, 500 Megawatts on daily Basis,” he queried.
