THE Federal Government on Wednesday compared the present power supply crisis in the country to a war situation, but said it is taking all necessary measures to remain on top of it.
Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, who made the declaration while fielding questions at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, blamed the collapse of power on a combination of factors.
He said having realised the gravity of the situation, he summoned a meeting of stakeholders whom he told that the present condition could be likened to a war situation requiring emergency solutions.
According to the minister, the power grid that suffered a collapse has now been restored and efforts being made to put power into it.
He explained: “The reason we are facing the situation now is as a result of the shortage of gas and some of the generators have to go to maintenance. “It is a scheduled maintenance and it is supposed to be a scheduled outage, but we had not envisaged that we would have issues around vandalism of pipelines, which the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has addressed.
“It is a combination of many factor that compounded the problem we are having on the grid. “We have recovered the grid now. The grid is back and we are trying to get more mega-watts to push on the grid. We have set up small committees all geared towards getting more megawatts to put on the grid. Basically, the problem is around gas.”
The minister assured that the recent efforts of his ministry had started to yield results, but added that though the nation’s generation capacity is 13,000 megawatts, only 5,000 megawatts can be wheeled for transmission.
He disclosed that FEC had approved the sum of N5 billion for payment for right of way to expand transmission in Lagos and Ogun states.
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“And I also told you that we are encountering a lot of challenges of right of ways.
“For instance, this one is the issue of right of way. But we have gotten approval now of over N5 billion to open up and expand Lagos and Ogun, where presently they may not be enjoying quality electricity,” he said.
The minister also dismissed insinuation of disagreement with generating companies over money, saying that they have been paid N40 billion while consultants are working on the balance.
“We are trying to solve all the problems. For instance, just last time, I told you the debts owed by the government to DISCOs. I told you we are paying that. We are paying around N40 billion.
“The remaining balance is being reviewed by consultants to come out with exact figure. So, something is being done about that,” he added.
Also speaking, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments, Niyi Adebayo, revealed that FEC also approved the construction of a new corporate headquarters for the National Sugar Development Council in Abuja, in favour of Vita Construction Limited in the sum of N5,756,833,616 with a completion period of 24 months.
The Minister of State for Works and Housing, Muazu Sambo, said the council approved the implementation of four projects, including two road projects and two bridges in different parts of the country.
He said the projects are the realignment of the Kano State border, Birnin Kudu Bauchi State border road in favour of Triata Nigeria Limited in the total sum of N10,133,856,109; the reconstruction of a sub-standard breach at Pada road in Kogi State in favour of Messrs Rosli International Limited in the sum of N4,738,135,600 with a completion period of 18 months, the construction of the Kaiyama Kishi Road in Oyo/Kwara states in favour of Messrs Phipps infrastructure limited in the sum of N24,072,136,320 340 with a completion period of 36 months.
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