Tunde Bakare
The Nigerian Senate, on Tuesday, debated the review or possible reversal of the privatisation of the power sector.
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, cautioned that unless the federal government considers the activities of generating and distribution companies in the country, the power situation in the country may never improve.
Lawan stated this while commenting on a motion moved by Benue North-east Senator, Gabriel Suswam, on “Power sector recovery plan and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.”
The Senate President expressed disappointment at electricity distribution companies in the country, saying they had demonstrated lack of capacity to supply power to Nigerians over the years.
“We gave them our common patrimony and they still come back as DisCos and GenCos to look for money from the public. The time has come to review and probably reverse this privatisation, if we leave them for the next 10 years there would be no power in Nigeria,” he said.
“We expected efficiency, effectiveness in power supplies but probably on both sides, maybe the purchase agreements were not adhered to on both sides. What is obvious is that the DisCos particularly have no capacity at the moment to supply us power. The GenCos have challenges too.
“If there are areas we must intervene as a government must be seriously justified. The way it is I think there is need to review this privatisation to see what has happened. Something is certainly not right,” said Lawan.