Some Nigerians have been making fun of Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, for saying that some States in the country enjoy almost 24-hour power supply.
Fashola, a former Governor of Lagos State and Senior Advocate Nigeria, stated this on Wednesday, March 27, 2019, while speaking on a Channels Television programme.
But without waiting for him to land, some Nigerians immediately took to their social media accounts to reply him: ‘The improved power supply must be in your dream…Fashola mouth too sweet…My area has been in darkness for like forever…We no see any light o…Dis man don turn to story teller…Haba…Fashola, fashi dis story…Yinmu for Fashola and his light tales…Tales by moonlight…Story, story…Story for the gods…’
Fashola, oblivious of the above, maintained that even as the transmission grew with about 8,100 watts as of December, the distribution networks had been the major challenge in making power available all the time.
He, however, added that the federal government is ready to invest N72 billion to install transformers and expand distribution.
Said him: “Sitting down here, I can tell you some states that have almost 24 hours – Kebbi, Yobe. Some have five, some have 10 and there are still outages.
“The generation capacity is also increasing. It is a value chain where the distribution is not matching up the available power and from time to time, there are slacks.
“The short term goals are incremental power and stable supply in some places.
“The government has decided that as 40 per cent holder of everything in the distribution of power, we have our programme to invest N72 billion which will involve installing transformers and all of that.”
Undone, he added that, “We created a metre access provider regulation. What it does is to create a new plan of investment programme. We manufacture, produce, supply and install metres and fill the gap the distribution companies cannot raise capital to fill. They cannot do so alone, they must do so under a procurement policy with the distribution company,” he explained.
“We are applying many solutions at the same time. So, when we were talking about how much megawatts is being used, we have created a new page which will bring solution.”