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| Governor Nasir El-Rufai |
Governor Nasir El - Rufai of Kaduna State , has said that the decision of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to reduce electricity tariff in March last year , just to help President Goodluck Jonathan win elections, has destroyed the commission ’ s independence and credibility .
El - Rufai , who spoke at the Second Edition of the National Council on Power, which held in Kaduna , yesterday, said there was need for the proper restructuring of NERC and credible people to be put charge .
According to him , the last administration ’s power reforms have failed and the country is back to where it was in 2001- 2002, where it is generating the same amount of electricity. The governor lamented that “ We did not attract any foreign investment into the sector because the regulatory frame work is not working and lacks credibility .’’
He noted that viable power supply would remain elusive in the country unless NERC was restructured to enable potential energy private investors to come into the power sector. The governor recalled that when he was the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), measures were taken to train people that would be the foundation staff of the NERC.
“ But unfortunately , those that came after us politicized the appointments and put people that lack the capacity , the knowledge or the com - petence to regulate the sector ,’’ El - Rufai further said .
The governor, who passed a vote of confidence on the Minister of Power, Works and Housing , Mr Babatunde Fashola , urged him to take drastic steps to address the policy plan of the ministry in order to ensure stable and uninterrupted power supply in the country . El - Rufai further appealed to Fashola to ensure that the people appointed to NERC are professionals without any political linkages .
“ That ’ s is the only way the sector will attract private investment , and we all know that we cannot solve electricity problems with government money alone . We need private investment ,’’ he pointed out. El - rufai noted that Kaduna State needs 1 , 000 mega watts but “ we get only 200 mega watts . Until , we learn to use what we have efficiently , this outages will continue to be a problem.
“ Any community that we find with sizable number of people, we are trying to deploy solar power to them , so that they are off grid and have reliable electricity, ’’ he said, adding that “ that is the strategy we are working on .
We cannot wait until this problem is solved .’’ According to him , Kaduna State is also working with the Ministry of Power to ensure that the two power plants in Kaduna , that of Gurara and Kuden Den , were completed and made available to the state of Kaduna particularly the industrial area .
