Obasanjo Accuses Jonathan, Others of Destroying Power Sector

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former president has returned a damning indictment on his successors who he blamed for the rot in the power sector.

Obasanjo, after his second coming as a civilian president, handed over to the late former President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007 while President Goodluck Jonathan assumed office after the death of Yar’Adua in May, 2010 and later won the presidential elections of 2011.

The former president, said that his successors abandoned the  power sector which he claimed that he took steps to ensure stable power supply across the country when he was military Head of State and also when he returned to government in 1999 as elected civilian president but that his successors usually abandoned the sector as soon as he left office.

He said that the country needed to generate 2,000 megawatts every year for the citizens to enjoy stable electricity.

Obasanjo said this during a programme tagged, “First  Green Legacy Moment with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Leadership and Human Security in Africa,” held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Complex in Abeokuta.

Noting that lack of political will on the part of Nigerian leaders was part of the  problems facing the country, he warned that the nation’s power sector should not be handed over to friends under the guise of privatisation. According to him, “part of our problems is lack of political will on the part of the leaders. What does a leader understand about development? Any leader worth his salt should know that power is very important. It is the driver of all development – be it social, economic and even political.”

“When I was military Head of State, I developed the Jebba Dam, I developed Shirroro, I started Egbin. Shagari came and completed Egbin and commissioned Jebba and Shirroro. Between Shagari in 1983, and until I came back in 1999, there was no single dime invested in power generation. If anything, the ones that were there were allowed to go down.

“A country like Nigeria must be adding nothing less than 2000 mega watts if we are to be moving on the path of development. If you will remember,  when I came back in 1999, my first Minister of Power was late Bola Ige. I won’t say Bola didn’t know what he was doing and he said publicly that he would fix the power problems in six  months.

“After one year, Bola with his capacity couldn’t fathom what was wrong with power. It was riddled with corruption. Then we had no money, people have forgotten that in 1999/2000, the price of crude oil was $9 per barrel.

“When we started having money, we started the National Integrated Power Plant. When we said the money we had should be invested in power, my successor didn’t understand, he stopped it. If for almost 20 years we did not achieve anything in power generation, then we may not be able to get it again.

“Let me give you an example: the population of South Africa  is 55 million and they generate 45,000 megga watts. Our population today is about 180 million people and we could not generate 4,000 megga watts. And South Africa is an industrialising country and not an industrialised nation.

“For us to say we are an industrialising country, we must be generating much more than what South Africa is generating, say 100,000 megga watts. What year will Nigeria get there if we are adding 2,000 megga watts each year? For us to get to 100,000 megga watts, I leave the mathematics to you. It sounds very discouraging but that is the reality.

“I believe that what we have done in  the area of telecommunications can be achieved in the area of power but not by privatising the power sector to our friends and families,” he said.

On the problems facing African,  Obasanjo said the continent which was blessed with resources and human capital had failed to utilise them.

“What we want to know is that we have the capacity, the material resources, the military resources to achieve greatness in Africa.

“I will give you two or three illustrations: what we need to achieve is the political will. When I became president of Nigeria, strictly speaking by  what we are doing and what we have, we may be regarded as not deserving debt relief, but I believed we needed debt relief.

“I went all out for it as at that time. Nigeria was number six in oil production in the world but I knew what the world wanted.

“They wanted a reform that Nigeria is serious that the country will not be going in terms of business as usual and we went for it and we got it. The debt relief saved us over $20 billion. We paid only $12 billion and the rest was given as relief.

“What we are saying about African solutions to African problems is that let Africa spearhead its problems and others come to her rescue later. Let the solution be ours and they adopt it. That is what we did with NEPAD. NEPAD was a complete African homegrown and when we went to Canada, the G-8 said they supported it and said it was a good thing.

“What we need is first, the political will. Secondly, we need the resources that will make impact and we’ll ask the rest of the world to join us. We should be the architects of our own fortune and let others join us,” Obasanjo said.