From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Former Minister of Labour Barrister Emeka Wogu and the President of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, the two major personalities in the privatisation of the power sector, have engaged in an argument over the privatisation of the sector.
While Ajaero condemned the selling of the sector for N400 billion, Wogu insisted that successive governments should continue with the programme.
The NLC president who spoke at the breakfast meeting on the contributions of the power sector to the economic development of Nigeria, organised by New National Star Newspapers, in Abuja, flayed the wisdom in the privatisation of the power sector, saying that the Federal Government sold the sector for N400 billion and paid N400 billion entitlement to workers.
Ajaero said that despite the N2 trillion which the subsequent administrations have invested in the sector, generation has remained in its parlous state.
According to him, the generation has not moved from 4,000 kilowatts to where it was before privatisation. The president said that he almost engaged in fisticuffs with the former minister during the period of privatisation of the industry.
In his remarks, Wogu said that power is critical for the economic development of the country.
He said that the former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan gave N382 billion to the gas sector but the sector has not paid back the loan not to talk of the interest that has accrued on the money between 2012 and 2014.
He identified inconsistency by successive administrations as the problem of the sector while advising the incoming administration to revisit the privatisation process in the power sector reform.
“What is happening is a lack of continuity. The programme was broken between Yar’Adua and Obasanjo.
“For the governments to get it right, they should invest in that sector, harness all the potentials from both the private sector and the public sector to develop the sector. They should adopt the Jonathan model of Presidential Action on Power” he said
The Managing Director and Editor in Chief of New National Star Newspapers, Dr Obinna Nwachukwu regretted that since the era of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the nation has always produced 4000 megawatts of electricity.
“Yar’Adua, 4000, Jonathan, 4000, and now Buhari is about leaving with the same 4000 megawatts of electricity. This is at a time other developing nations have gone far ahead of us,” he said.