Ahead of the March 28 and April 11 elections, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  and All Progressives Congress (APC) have offered timelines during which they intend to bring about significant improvement in electricity supply to Nigerian homes.

While PDP said Nigerians should expected at least 10 hours stable electricity supply within next 10 weeks, APC on its part promised that the power sector it would record a significant improvement within six months if elected into office.
The representative of both parties faced each during a debate organised by the Center for Democratic and Development (CDD) and OSIWA in Abuja yesterday.

Speaking on behalf of the APC, the party's National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji  Lai Mohamned, said the opposition party intends to hold a roundtable meeting with all the stakeholders in the power sector, including the present private operators to see how address the immediate challenges facing the sector.

He also said the party would immediately undertake the execution of gas pipelines and the grid expansion projects with a view to putting the sector on the path of sustainable growth and stability.
"We will complete grid facilities and commence the construction of new ones.  He said government should not abandon its role as the facilitator of the development of the sector even after privatization. Within six months Nigeria will notice significant improvement in power supply. We are going to take steps to improve on the gas supply to generating stations," he said.

On the issue use of coal to produce cheap electricity, Mohammed said the party is in agreement with PDP that the initiative to explore coal for power generation should be encouraged.

He, however, restated the party's accusation that the PDP administration mismanaged the N12 billion gas infrastructure fund meant to build the gas pipeline facilities which has resulted in the gas supply shortfall.‎
"APC will work with the present  private operators in the power sector. We will sit down with them and discuss on the way forward."

APC queried the rationale for awarding N9billion contract to ethnic militias who lack the wherewithal to do the job rather than resorting to INVESTMENT in technology-driven methods of pipeline protection.

On its part, the PDP represented by the Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Sam Amadi and Dr. Okey Ikechukwu promised that Nigerians should expect 10 hours steady power supply in 10 weeks time.

While explaining federal government interventions in the sector, Amadi said the administration has thought it wise to privatise the power sector and hand over to the private sector to operate in order to bring in efficiency and rake in more INVESTMENT.

He said presently, the national grid had the capacity to evacuate only 5,000mega watts, adding that the government was currently working to expand the grid network capacity.

He also lamented the impact of vandalisation of gas pipeline facilities which to a great extent has been responsible for the disruptions witnessed in the sector.
He explained that an initiative is been pursued to partner with communities to help protect the pipeline facilities,
"Today we produce about 5,000 mega watts. But there is the need to explore more avenues for attracting more INVESTMENTS into the sector," he said.

Ikechukwu said a lot of progress had been made in the reform of the power sector since the present administration came into office, adding that there was every indication that within the timeline of 10 weeks from now, the sector would witness stable power supply which will ultimately drive importers of generators out of business.

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