From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Former Minister of Labour, Emeka Wogu, and President of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, the two major personalities in the privatisation of the power sector, yesterday, engaged in an argument over the privatisation of the sector.
While Ajaero condemned the sale 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 economic development of Nigeria, organised by a newspaper outfit, 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, generation has not moved from 4,000 kilowatts 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 to date, talkless 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 its power sector reform.
“What is happening is lack continuity. The programme was broken between Obasanjo and Yar’Adua.
“For the governments to get it right, they should invest in that sector, harness all the potential from both the private sector and the public sector to develop the industry. 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.